Labor groups rally for Iowa Democrats in weekend push before Election Day

ANKENY — Iowa labor leaders and union members urged voters at a “get out the vote” event Saturday to elect Democratic candidates in the midterms Tuesday to protect workers’ rights and Social Security.

U.S. Senate candidate Josh Turek, governor candidate Rob Sand and Sarah Trone Garriott, running for the 3rd Congressional District, rallied with Iowa and national AFL-CIO leaders, union workers and volunteers at the IBEW Local 347 in Ankeny for a Halloween canvass launch.

Charlie Wishman, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor, urged the crowd to vote, knock doors and phone bank for the candidates who will support labor unions if elected.

“Let’s be clear, this is not a Democrat rally,” Wishman said. “May look like one, and that’s because it seems like maybe one of them’s on our side … and one of them hasn’t been so much lately.”

The rally was held in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, where Trone Garriott, a state senator, is set to face incumbent U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, a Republican. While Nunn has emphasized his bipartisan voting record and spoken about meeting with unions and working on legislation to tackle issues like nursing workforce shortages, Wishman said his voting record as a state lawmaker and in Congress shows he does not support union labor.

“He is not — just not — for us,” Wishman said. “He’s engaged in the biggest union-busting operation that’s ever happened in the state, which was the gutting and destroying of our public sector collective bargaining law. And then he took that playbook and he went to Washington and participated in DOGE, which was the biggest union-busting endeavor in the history of our entire country. So that bar is really, really low. But it’s not just that — Sarah Trone Garriott is with us all the time.”

Trone Garriott highlighted her support for the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act — a federal proposal to expand some workers’ rights to unionization and bargaining — and to support working families by lowering fuel costs by ending the Iran war and lower healthcare costs by reversing Medicaid cuts.

“If you want things to stay the same — if you like your clinics closing and your healthcare costs going up, if you like having to pay more for everything your family needs, if you like paying over $4 a gallon for gas, over $6 a gallon for diesel, if you like the union-busting that’s happening in Washington — vote for Zach Nunn,” she said. “But if you want change, vote for me. I am so excited to get to Washington and take on the corruption that’s the heart of what is costing us so much.”

Wishman also said he did not “remember” Nunn meeting with “AFL-CIO nurses” or doing “tours of (union) halls.” Letters reviewed by Iowa Capital Dispatch showed Nunn held an Aug. 4 roundtable with Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling, nurses and healthcare workers in coordination with the United Nurses of Iowa — the group organizing to form a union with Teamsters Local 90 at UnityPoint hospitals. The event was not open to press, but Nunn sent a letter to Sonderling after the meeting to discuss ways the Department of Labor was working to address concerns on high turnover rates, workplace violence and pay brought up at the event.

A Nunn campaign spokesperson emphasized Nunn’s track record in Congress, which included introducing measures like the Train More Nurses Act. The Republican also voted in support of measures like the Protect America’s Workforce Act, opposed by other House Republicans, to collective bargaining rights to federal workers.

“Zach Nunn is the third most bipartisan member of Congress because he’s one of the few Republicans willing to not only walk into a union hall for a listening session, but buck his own party to defend Iowa workers,” the spokesperson said. “He also delivers: no tax on overtime for nurses, and legislation signed into law under two presidents to defend benefits for working Iowans and their families.”

Harkin, Turek emphasize support for labor issues

Other surrogates, including national AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, also rallied for Democrats at the event. Harkin said he was given a lifetime score of 100% by the AFL-CIO for his support of legislation to support unions and labor during his time representing Iowa in Washington, D.C., telling the crowd, “so don’t anybody tell me that a senator from a so-called ‘right-to-work’ state can’t support organized labor.”

He said Turek would continue his work in support of Iowa labor in Congress if elected, and would “work to make sure that Social Security is there for your kids and your grandkids” in the future. Harkin also said it was important for union members and activists to reach out to their friends, families and coworkers in the final days before Nov. 3 to encourage them to vote.

“If all I did was was rely on Democrats to vote for me, I never would have made it,” Harkin said. “But I needed you as my base. I needed you as my army out there. I needed you to be out on the front lines for me, and talking about me with your friends and your neighbors. … That’s how we win. We win because you’ve taken what you believe in and the support that you want for organized labor, and you’ve reached out to friends and neighbors that probably aren’t union members to bring them across. That’s what it takes, and that’s what it’s going to take to win these races this year.”

Turek brought up his Republican opponent Ashley Hinson’s AFL-CIO voting record — which was 0% in 2025 with a lifetime score of 8% — to contrast with Harkin. The audience laughed as he said, “you would have thought at some point she would have accidentally voted on something to actually help working people.” In contrast, he criticized measures Hinson did support during her time representing Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District.

“What has she done? She has voted in a state with a healthcare crisis and a cancer crisis for 110,000 Iowans to be pulled off their healthcare, for 119,000 Iowans to see their healthcare premiums double or triple, voted for thousands of working families to lose basic food assistance, for cuts to the Social Security Administration, just to give tax breaks to billionaires,” Turek said. “It’s disgusting. All the while, five times voted in favor of these tariffs. These tariffs that have led to grocery prices going up, decimating small businesses, killing small communities, and killing our farmers.”

Voter Guide: 2026 Iowa general election

Billy Fuerst, campaign communications director for Hinson, said the Republican candidate “has a strong record of delivering for Iowa workers, including passing no tax on tips and overtime, leading legislation to expand access to affordable childcare, and making the dream of homeownership more attainable for working families.”

“But she knows there is more work to do to lower costs for Iowans and make paychecks go farther,” Fuerst said. “Josh Turek would make life harder for Iowa workers by repealing no tax on tips and overtime and raising taxes on working Iowans. Josh Turek is too liberal for Iowa.”

Turek has said he supports reversing Medicaid cuts made through the 2025 “One, Big Beautiful Bill” Act, but that he supports the law’s move to repeal taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security.

Sand cites need to raise minimum wage

Sand, the current state auditor, criticized his opponent, Republican Zach Lahn, for not committing to a simple answer on raising the minimum wage in the state during gubernatorial debates.

During the third gubernatorial debate, Lahn said, “I think the easy political answer to a question like this would be for somebody to say yes. But I also understand that I drove by McDonald’s just the other day that was hiring at $14 an hour.”

“I think what we need to prioritize, rather than looking at this specifically, we need to prioritize the ability for companies — that are Iowa-based companies — to expand,” Lahn said. In addition to providing more incentives to Iowa-based businesses, Lahn said he would work with the Iowa Economic Development Authority as governor to create an entrepreneurial fund.

Sand reflected on the debate, joking that as he listened to Lahn’s answer, his mind wandered and he was “starting to wonder what the weather’s going to be like on Wednesday morning after the election, because I’m going to be in a tree stand hunting.”

“I tune back in and he’s still answering the question — and he doesn’t have a number for where we should put the minimum wage,” Sand said. “And so that’s when I decided, when it’s my turn to answer, I’m just going to say, ‘Yeah, 12 bucks an hour.’ Sometimes, being a real human being is not demonstrating that you can give a long answer, but that you can give a short one, so that people know you actually think something.”