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With less than three weeks to election day, Clarke County Democrats hosted a “Red Zone Blitz” event Sunday at Revelton Distilling Company that featured candidates for federal, local and state offices, with a surprise visit from former U.S. Senator Tom Harkin.
As most of the candidates have visited Osceola and Clarke County at least once this year, many touched on their running points while reminding everyone to get out and vote while also encouraging others to do the same.
Harkin and Turek
Harkin, Iowa’s longest serving Democrat in the U.S. Senate, served from 1985 to 2015 and represented Iowa’s 5th district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1975 to 1985.
Addressing the crowd, Harkin said he had several reasons for showing up to speak including thanking those running and those who showed up, and to speak about his support of Josh Turek.
Former U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)
“In terms of the seat that I held for all those years, which has been held for a couple of terms by somebody else… if you were to just draw up all of the things you wanted in a candidate, more than that, to represent you in the U.S. Senate and to represent you in a way that makes you feel proud and makes you feel good to be an American and a citizen and proud to be a Democrat. You couldn’t find a better candidate than Josh Turek,” Harkin said. “A lot of times it just takes grit to get out there and work hard and to do what he’s doing. So he has the grit, he has the intelligence, he has the motivations that you would want in a person to represent you in the United States Senate.”
Harkin said he first met Turek in 2022 in Council Bluffs where he went door-knocking with him. That election year, Turek won the Iowa House District 20 by six votes, which Harkin said showed the need for everyone to vote and how each vote matters. He also spoke about how Turek has ‘reached across’ the aisle to work with people from both parties.
Turek, who is running against current U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson-R for the U.S. Senate seat presently held by Joni Ernst-R, spoke to the importance of this election.
“We’re ready to change the state and change the country,” Turek said. “I know it’s hyperbole almost the point of this is the most important election in our lifetimes. This is the most important election in Iowa history.”
He spoke of the need for change not just in Iowa, but across the country, speaking of the rising costs of living from food to gas to healthcare and everything in between. Concerning Iowa, Turek touched on the state of healthcare, saying that over the past six years, 842 healthcare institutes have closed in the state and 160 rural independent pharmacies. He spoke about the cancer rates, water quality and public education in Iowa, and how tariffs due to the war in Iran have “hurt Iowa more than any other state,” with Iowa leading the nation in farm foreclosures.
“Iowans are uniquely hurting and they’re ready to have someone to go to the U.S. Senate, not to enrich themselves, not to look out for the billionaires in the large corporations, but to go up there and fight for Iowa and Iowans,” Turek said.
Turek said he will fight for livable wages for affordable housing, affordable healthcare, affordable and accessibility to pharmaceuticals, address the cancer and water quality crises, keep “public money in public schools” and work on campaign finance reform as just some of his campaign points. He said he is also in favor of term limits and banning members of Congress and the Supreme Court from owning and trading stock.
Turek ended by promoting his “six-vote initiative.”
“I won my first election by six votes. I’m asking each and every one that cares about this state, cares about this country, cares about democracy, do just a little bit more than what you’ve done before,” he said, saying talk to six families, friends or neighbors, register six people to vote, take six people to the polls.
“If we win this race here, this Senate race right here in Iowa, we will be able to flip the United States Senate. And if we flip the Senate, we’re going to change the country,” Turek said.
Trone Garriott
Sarah Trone Garriott is taking on Republican incumbent Zach Nunn for U.S. Senate District 3.
A pastor for nearly two decades, Trone Garriott said that work has taught her the importance of showing up.
“That’s how you serve a community well is you show up for them,” she said, speaking of her different leadership roles in her community. “In every role that I’ve ever had, I saw how politicians were making life harder for our neighbors and making our work to help them even more difficult.”
That prompted her to run for her first term in the Iowa Senate. She was elected in 2020, beating out then-incumbent Charles Schneider-R in Dist. 22. In 2022, re-districting saw her move residences to the west side of her old district to take on the incumbent Republican Jake Chapman, the Iowa Senate President in Dist. 14. She opted to sell her house and move to the new district rather than take on another Democratic female in the primaries
“We [moved] because it is really important that you stand up for what you believe in, you stand up for the people you care about, and that means standing up to bullies and sacrificing something to do it,” she said.
Trone Garriott spoke about the struggles her neighbors are going through, and how Nunn’s vote to cut Medicaid has had a negative impact on clinics closing in rural communities. Along the healthcare line, she spoke about Nunn wanting to do away with the Affordable Health Care Act, which provides protections for people with preexisting conditions and subsidies to keep insurance affordable. She touched on Nunn being the deciding vote twice for the Iran War, and the resulting impacts the war has had on fuel prices, which in turn are affecting everyone from families to farmers.
“I have farmers telling me they’re paying tens of thousands of dollars more just bringing that same harvest because diesel costs are so high,” she said. “This is destroying our farm economy and hurting our families and Zach Nunn has been an enthusiastic supporter of all of it.”
Trone Garriott spoke about Nunn not ‘showing up’ and working for the people of his district, but rather the large donors who support his campaign, stating he hasn’t held an open town hall in four years.
“Zach Nunn’s been doing a great job showing up for them. We need someone in Washington showing up for us, and that’s what I’ll do,” she said. “And if showing up means I’ve got to stand up to my party, I will do that because I’ve done that in the Iowa State Senate.”
She said in the Iowa Senate, she filed some bills – such as term limits and bans on stock trading – to the displeasure of some fellow Democrats.
When it comes to the race against Nunn, she said it is “close,” with supporting having shifted from some other campaigns to Nunn’s, including an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
Sonya Hicks
“Yesterday [Nunn] had the president attack me, attack my faith from the Oval Office by name. They are that scared,” she said.
In a video posted by Trump Saturday, he called Trone Garriott a “true extremist, a radical left disaster,” who is “not a believer in God. She doesn’t know what she believes in.”
She closed by reminding everyone to get out and vote, with every vote counting.
“Your vote is powerful. It is significant. It really, really matters in this time,” she said, encouraging people to stay positive that government can work for them. “Public service should be about serving the public, not serving yourself.”
Hicks
Sonya Hicks, of Osceola, is running for Iowa House District 24 against Republican incumbent Sam Wengryn.
Hicks, who ran against Wengryn in 2024, said she is running on many of the same issues she ran on last time, including public education, healthcare and water quality and accessibility. She has been outspoken about the school voucher system and the impact it has had on public schools and the impact of declining access to healthcare in rural Iowa.
“For rural areas, we have to vote,” Hicks said. “We have to vote for people who are running for our school system. We have to vote for people who care about public health… this really, really, really is a very important election.”
Hicks won the June primary over Paul Davis with 697 votes to 435. In 2024, Wengryn won the seat with 9,901 votes to Hicks’ 4,873. Hicks serves on the Osceola City Council and Clarke County Public Health Board.
Karen Varley
Varley
Karen Varley is running for Iowa House District 23 against Republican incumbent Ray “Bubba” Sorensen. Varley previously ran against Sorensen in 2024, when Sorensen won his re-election for his third term with 12,837 votes (72.2%) compared to Varley’s 4,939 (27.8%). District 23 is covers the western portion of Clarke County including Murray.
Varley touched briefly on her campaign platform of Iowa’s ‘crown jewels’ – public education and natural resources, as well as healthcare, rural economies and affordability, makings sure to protect and make the best of all by electing leadership with ‘fresh ideas.’ Along with her running points, Varley focused on not letting the momentum wane in the final stretch before Nov. 3.
She spoke of her father who had been a dairy farmer and didn’t take a vacation for 22 years, milking the cows twice a day every day.
“What I suggest is that we all channel that stamina. We get out there, we talk to our neighbors and our friends, our acquaintances, people down the street and encourage them to push through, to vote, to be informed, to be engaged, to make a difference this time around,” she said.
Wettach
Taylor Wettach seeks to carry on the work done by current Iowa Auditor Rob Sand, who is not seeking re-election as he runs for governor. The Republican candidate for Iowa auditor is Lt. Gov. Chris Cournoyer.
As state auditor, Wettach said he will carry on the work started by Sand to make sure Iowan’s tax dollars aren’t being “wasted, misspent or stolen by corrupt politicians.”
Taylor Wettach
“That is why the office of the state auditor exists – it’s supposed to be independent watchdog to look out for all of us,” Wettach said. “I’m excited to take my background dealing with multi-billion dollar financial issues and law, but most of all my experience speaking truth to power, standing up against corruption and not blinking to make sure we keep an independent watchdog in this office.”
Peterman
Ryan Peterman is running for secretary of state against Republican incumbent Paul D. Pate; Pate was elected to the office in 2014.
After moving away for his U.S. Navy career, Peterman came back in 2022 and saw what he called a “long list of challenges and problems we’ve been talking about here today.”
Those challenges and problems include the state of public education, access to healthcare, water quality, cancer rates and the economy. A lot of these issues, Peterman said, are due to people who have had long careers in office.
“They are not there to serve. They’re not there to solve problems. They’re not there to make life better for all of us. We need to hold them accountable,” he said.
Ryan Peterman
Peterman said Iowa needs a secretary of state who will take their obligation to protect voter information seriously, who understands their job and will work for Iowans and their right to vote.
Norwood
John Norwood is running for state treasurer against Republican incumbent Roby Smith. While not able to attend the event in person, he sent a video message that re-emphasized his top three goals if elected are affordability, protecting IPERS and transparency.
Norwood previously ran for Iowa secretary of agriculture in 2022.
Uhlenkamp
James Uhlenkamp is running for an open Iowa Senate seat in District 9, which does not include Clarke County (Adams, Cass, Montgomery, Page, Ringgold, Taylor and part of Union counties), but spoke at the event about building Iowa back up again.
“We can’t get back to where we were, but we built it once. We can build it again… I’m going to bring back balance to the Iowa Senate,” he said.
James Uhlenkamp
