R-Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst faces her first Democratic challenger in the 2026 election. On Tuesday, a Marine and Army veteran jump into the race and vows to fight “for the Democrats who people like me want to participate.”
Nathan Sage, now executive director of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, announced his candidacy through a campaign video featuring himself as a father, mechanic, sports radio host and child at a trailer park in Mason City, Iowa.
He said he is fighting for a country “not a billionaire class, but rather a ruler by those who maintain it.”
“I want to kick Corporate Republican Joni Ernst’s a. Next November,” Sage said.
Sen. Ernst praises Trump’s administrators for handing over immigrants to us: “Absolutely delighted.”
Sen. Joni Ernst of R-Iowa will introduce National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard at a confirmation hearing of the Senate Intelligence Email Committee held in Washington, DC on Thursday, January 30, 2025. (Daniel Hoyer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“The economy is integrated, and the people in power don’t mind. They are the people who do it. Only 2% of Congress comes from the working class. We made a damn table. It was sitting in our seats,” Sage said in the first campaign video she shared with X.
“I’m fighting for the Democrats who really want to be part of people like me. People like my father, me, my kids, all of us,” Sage said. “D.C. elite, the ruling class, they don’t want me. But I think maybe you’ll do.”
With his father being a factory worker and his mother being a daycare teacher, Sage used the X that Musk owned to swing with Elon Musk, the high-tech billionaire and government efficiency adviser to President Donald Trump.
“I oppose all the money Elon Musk can throw at us. Please consider supporting this transformational campaign,” Sage wrote, sharing the donation link for his campaign on ActBlue, the leading Democrat fundraising platform.
In particular, Ernst has made Doge’s major efforts in the Senate.
Sage’s campaign video (including sprinkles of blasphemy) begins by categorizing Ernst as “scandal-filled” and “corporate funding.” It also highlights his working class background and military service.
“I didn’t think someone like me could run for the Senate,” Sage said.
When he was five years old, Sage said his father was “arrested on a check that bouncing off – $50.”
Sen. Joni Ernst R-Iowa during a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Aldrago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“He was trying to pay for my sister and me for new school clothes,” Sage said. “We grew up poor, but I still believed in this country. So I enlisted again and again. Eight years. We were attacked by countless mortars and rockets. And by God’s grace, I made it home. Now I am the executive director of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce.
Sen. Joni Ernst condemns USAID “disturbance” in allegations of “waste and abuse” spending
“There’s a war at home, we’re losing. Unions under attack. “People who work non-stop just to survive. They’re too busy to enjoy life. People like my father spend their lives enslaved in factories, just to die from cancer caused by the same company.”
In the interview On the hill, Sage said he decided to use up concerns about women’s health care compensation after the November election, and would focus on his wife’s miscarriage last year.
“It reportedly goes, as people in general – we should not live that way, to the point where we should not become the working class.”
R-Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst will speak at a press conference following a luncheon with Senators in Washington, D.C. on May 2, 2023. (Anna Money Maker/Getty Images)
Ernst, running for a third Senate term in 2026, retired as a colonel in the Iowa Army National Guard after 23 years of military service, but Sage claimed that Republican senators “leave the working class and leave many Iowans behind.”
Cook’s Political Report – a major nonpartisan handicapper – classifies Ernst’s seat as “solid Republicans” in the 2026 race. She faces several GOP major challengers, but is considered a front runner.
Iowa has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 2008, when Sen. Tom Haken secured another term. Hawkeye state last voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in 2012 when former President Barack Obama was re-elected.
Trump has since won Iowa in every consecutive presidential contest. Marion County, Sage’s hometown, swept 38 points and voted for Trump.
Click here to get the Fox News app
“Marion County is a manufacturing county, and most of those people are trying to interact with each other every day of their lives. They tried to find a way to put food on the table. “No one feels very confident in casting their votes. And for me, I’m one of them, I’m one of these people, it’s in the middle and it’s going to stand up for everyone.”
