[KAY HENDERSON] Voters in Iowa's second congressional district will soon have someone new representing them in Washington.

We'll question two candidates for that job.

Democrat Lindsay James and Republican Joe Mitchell.

In this special live Iowa Press debate.

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♪♪ [ANNOUNCER] For decades, Iowa Press has brought you political leaders and newsmakers from across Iowa and beyond.

Live from Iowa PBS Studios in Johnston, this is a special Iowa Press Debate featuring candidates for Congress from Iowa's second district.

Here is moderator Kay Henderson.

[HENDERSON] For the next hour, we will explore the views of two Iowans who are running in Iowa's Second Congressional District.

There are no time limits for this debate, but there are a lot of issues we want to get to.

And we will move the conversation along when needed.

But first, let's take a look at the Second Congressional District.

The second district encompasses 22 counties in east, central and northeast Iowa.

Republican Ashley Hinson currently represents the district.

She's running for the U.S.

Senate.

The district includes the cities of Mason City, Decorah, Iowa Falls, Waterloo, Dubuque, Grinnell, and Cedar Rapids.

Now let's meet the candidates.

They are Lindsay James.

She is a Democrat from Dubuque.

She's a chaplain and is in her fourth term in the Iowa House of R epresentatives.

Joe Mitchell is a Republican from Clear Lake.

He served two terms in the Iowa House and is a housing developer.

Candidates, thanks for being here this evening.

[MITCHELL] Kay good to be here.

[JAMES] Glad to be here.

[HENDERSON] Joining the conversation, Skylar Tallal statehouse reporter for Iowa's News Now, the Sinclair Broadcast Group, and Erin Murphy, Des Moines bureau chief of the Gazette in Cedar Rapids.

[ERIN MURPHY] Candidates, this past week, the Iowa Legislature passed a nearly $1.4 billion state incentive package for a proposed steel plant in southeast Iowa.

Lindsay James, to get into this a little bit, but first, you voted for that.

Tell us why.

[JAMES] Yes.

So, Erin, I'm hearing across the district that folks are making impossible choices because of the cost of living crisis that we are facing right now.

This crisis is because of policies directly related to what's coming from Washington right now, the one big, beautiful bill, which I would argue is only beautiful for billionaires, the war in Iran and tariffs, to name a few.

These are driving up costs.

And folks are really, really struggling.

So, when it comes to thinking about this district in particular, and this state, I'm all about lowering costs for hard working families here in the state, but also making sure that they have economic opportunities.

This is one of those economic opportunities for good paying jobs.

Iowa is 50th in the economy right now.

We are 48th in the country in terms of personal income growth.

Our wages are stagnant.

So having good paying jobs available to the hard working Iowans that are my neighbors is something that I'm excited to support.

[MURPHY] And Republicans have said that this steel plant deal was possible due to some of those federal policies from the Trump administration, including his tariff policies.

Do you agree with that?

And what would happen if those steel tariffs were to change?

[JAMES] Yeah, I'm going to argue with you on that, Erin, because we're the Republicans who are pointing that we're seeing that tariffs are actually doing the opposite.

They're hitting our manufacturing communities and driving jobs overseas.

John Deere has sent jobs overseas to Mexico.

Whirlpool.

I stood with those workers on the picket line as they watched their jobs disappear to Mexico.

All because of these impulsive and chaotic tariffs that are driving up costs and causing folks to make these impossible choices.

I would argue that these are the very policies that my opponent supports, not only just wholeheartedly.

He has championed these policies, and these are the ones that are driving up costs for hardworking families in this district.

[MURPHY] Joe Mitchell you are a former member of the Iowa House.

Had you been in the chamber when that bill came across your desk, would you have voted for that?

[MITCHELL] Yeah, absolutely.

And I think it's hypocritical that my opponent, Lindsay here voted for that package, says she supports the project when in reality, we know that the president's trade policies directly impacted bringing that project to Iowa.

Specifically, this will be the largest economic development project in the state's history.

$15 billion invested right into eastern Iowa, thousands of construction jobs, thousands of permanent jobs, paying over $100,000, and also John Deere right now is adding jobs back in our district because of the president's fair trade policies.

And so, this is something I do champion, because we want to bring American jobs back to Americans.

We want to reassure manufacturing jobs.

We want to grow domestic manufacturing.

And you can see right here what a great example of the president bringing the steel mill right here to Iowa.

[MURPHY] The company that plans to build this plant went through bankruptcy in the past and had some other legal issues.

You're running to be a member of Congress.

Should the federal government have a role in ensuring the state is protected and that foreign adversaries are not involved in the financing of this project?

Is there an oversight role here?

[MITCHELL] My understanding is the legislation that was passed and what the governor said and what Debbie Durham has said is there is claw back language in the legislation for those incentives, and that they have to build the plant, and they have to supply those jobs to get those incentives.

And so, again, of course, we support oversight on any project like that, getting any huge kind of incentive package like we've seen this last week.

You know, ultimately we want to welcome business.

And when the president talks about the $20 trillion of investment that's been promised to come here to the United States, a lot of that is foreign companies building here, like Toyota.

And so, he said, we're going to make deals with countries and companies to come back here and supply jobs for Americans.

I think that's a smart move.

Just like the steel plant.

[TALLAL] And Republican Presidents Reagan and H.W.

Bush, past Republican presidents oversaw negotiations that led to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Joe Mitchell, you have said President Trump has the right tariff policies.

Why has the Republican Party shifted its position on this?

[MITCHELL] Well, so NAFTA was passed by Bill Clinton, of course.

And, you know, you've seen Democrats for a long time, they did support tariffs.

You know, Chuck Schumer most notably was a huge champion of tariffs.

And even said when President Trump first got elected that he still supported tariffs.

And that's because my grandparents were Democrats their entire lives.

They believed in a working class.

You know, my grandpa worked at the Case plant in Burlington, once upon a time, and he believed in having protectionist policies that protected American workers, protected workers here in Iowa.

And we know tariffs as part of that.

And, you know, we had, I think, the wrong philosophy for a long time in the Republican Party about something called free trade, where it actually wasn't free.

And it certainly wasn't fair.

And I think the president has had a combination of unique ideas that he's brought to the party, saying we can have tariffs to bring back jobs and reshore manufacturing, but at the same time have a competitive tax environment for businesses to want to come back and grow their businesses here, right here in America.

[TALLAL] And Lindsay James, you've criticized Whirlpool cutting jobs in the second district and shifting jobs out of the country.

What are you proposing Congress do to prevent these kinds of moves from happening in the future?

[JAMES] Yeah, we absolutely need to roll back the tariffs.

This is an example of how deeply out of touch Joe Mitchell is when it comes to the realities of hardworking families in this state.

The costs are being driven up for everyday families, and they're making impossible choices because of these costs.

The tariffs are a part of that.

Talk to our farmers.

They have unstable markets as a result of that.

They, because of the war in Iran, they are seeing skyrocketing costs of fertilizer and diesel.

They're making hard choices in terms of their own farming operations.

I talked to a farmer recently who shared with me that they couldn't make the margins work any longer because of the skyrocketing costs of health care.

And so, they made the choice to send his wife into town to get a second job, just so that they could afford insurance for their kids.

Our farmers are operating on, you know, very, very small margins.

And our manufacturers are sending jobs as a result of these tariffs to out of, you know, out of this country.

And it's brutal to stand on a picket line with Whirlpool workers and hear about the fact that they might not be able to give their kid a new pair of shoes before school starts.

It's brutal when you're talking to a dad who's making a choice, do I put food on the table for my kids or do I, you know, pay rent and keep a safe place for their home?

Folks are really hurting right now, and it's just so very clear that, you know, Joe is deeply out of touch with folks in this district.

While I was holding 54 public town halls, listening to my constituents, Joe was spending his time partying at Mar-a-Lago, spending upwards of $90,000 and writing it off as a campaign expense.

$90,000 is more than the average Iowa household makes in an entire year.

This is someone who has the wrong priorities and is deeply out of touch with the challenges that our families are facing.

[HENDERSON] Joe Mitchell would you like to respond?

[MITCHELL] There was a lot there.

There was quite a bit of a word salad.

So, when you talk about agriculture, which she brought up first, so when Joe Biden was leaving office in October of 2024, just two years ago, these people were in charge not 20 years ago, but two years ago, the price of corn was $4.

The price of soybeans was $9.20.

And so, the price of soybeans now $12.50 a bushel, the price of corn $4.60 a bushel.

That needs to come up more.

But it's because President Trump struck a trade deal, a historic trade deal with China, to sell 25 million metric tons of soybeans to China, which they're fulfilling that right now.

And so, if you talk to any farmer, they understand that they're not being fooled by this.

And so again, tariffs have been in place.

But corn and soybeans have went up.

That's a fact.

And so, I've talked to dozens of farmers around the district and it wasn't my first time because I grew up in small town Iowa, I've been in small town Iowa my entire life, and every one of them that I talked to says they understand what the president's doing on tariffs.

They understand what he's doing on trade because they see things like this historic soybean deal that he made with China.

They want to reset the table.

And sell our farmers out and do it on the basis of this thing called free trade, when it wasn't free for anybody besides the foreign companies ripping us off.

And so, the president believes in fair trade.

I believe in fair trade.

You know, I ran a campaign talking to dozens and dozens of farmers around the district.

We've talked to thousands of people around the district, people that are making hard choices, but people that were making far harder choices under Joe Biden.

So, when Joe Biden was in office for four years, Democrats didn't say a peep about inflation.

You had inflation was three times higher under Joe Biden and the Democrats than under the president right now.

And that's because of out-of-control spending.

That's because they wanted to tax everyone more.

That's because of the policies directly from the president, President Biden and his administration.

And it drove up the cost of living for everybody.

[HENDERSON] One final quick question on tariffs.

[TALLAL] Yeah.

Lindsay James can you just describe your comfort level with the trade war with Canada right now?

[JAMES] Oh, sure.

I mean, it is all of the policy and trade policies that are happening right now under this administration are chaotic and impulsive, and they're driving up costs, in particular housing costs.

I've been a champion for housing in the state legislature.

In fact, I'm known by folks in the state legislature for fighting against private equity firms who are coming in and buying up housing, but also nursing homes, assisted living facilities, storage units even.

They're coming in and buying up mobile home parks, and they're price gouging folks out of their very homes.

I've stood up and I've fought against these folks, and I will continue to fight against the special interests and the large corporations that are really informing this impulsive and chaotic policy.

I would argue that a lot of what we're seeing in terms of policies that are driving up costs are directly related to the corruption in Washington, D.C.

I'm someone committed to fighting against that corruption.

I don't take a dime of corporate PAC dollars in this campaign.

I am going to work to ban stock trading amongst members of Congress, work to ensure term limits and age limits, work to make sure that we ban the legislator to lobbyist pipeline and Citizens United.

My opponent has spent his career in state office enriching himself and his business developer interests to the tune of $3 million.

This is someone who is in this for himself and rigging the system, just like we've seen corrupt policies in Washington and how they've driven up costs here for our families.

[HENDERSON] Joe Mitchell what is your comfort level with the tariffs in Canada?

[MITCHELL] So first of all, it's funny, my opponent, she talks about how all these tariff policies are chaotic and impulsive.

When she voted for the very legislation that brought a steel mill, again $15 billion of investment to this state.

Because of these exact policies that she just admitted.

And then she goes off on these attacks on me talking about how as a lobbyist at the Capitol which is untrue.

Everyone can fact check that.

She says that I've enriched myself.

I've invested tens of millions of dollars into Rural Iowa building housing.

And by the way, using a tax credit that she voted for every single year at the Statehouse.

And you know, that, Lindsay.

And so, I say we need more builders, we need more developers in Rural Iowa.

Because I know about rural Iowa, I grew up in rural Iowa.

She did not grow up there.

She grew up in Portland, Oregon.

And so again, we don't judge Lindsay for being from Portland, Oregon.

We judge her for bringing her values to Iowa.

She's voted like that every single step of the way.

And so again, I don't know if you're done with all your talking points about me and all your attacks, but back to the tariff question.

So ultimately, for me, I want fair trade, whether that's with adversaries or allies.

And we have been ripped off for a long time, whether that was Canada, Mexico, the European Union, Brazil, China.

And we're resetting the table for years to come.

I'm glad the president is doing it.

We're going to have fair trade.

Our children and grandchildren will thank him for that.

[HENDERSON] Let's move on to the next topic.

[JAMES] I would love, Kay, to just address the Portland piece, because I do think that that is just an absurd point that Joe is making.

I didn't get to choose where I was born as a child.

What I chose as an adult was building my life here in northeast Iowa in Iowa's Second Congressional District.

And I did that because I believe that Iowa is the best place to work and raise a family.

For me, Iowa's Second Congressional District is home.

What Joe is conveniently omitting is the fact that he's actually moved to Iowa's Second Congressional District a week before he announced his campaign for Congress.

For me, Iowa's Second Congressional District is home.

For Joe, it's an opportunity to get wealthier and advance a political career.

[MITCHELL] Oh, really?

So, this is before she made her home, LA in San Francisco and Massachusetts, before she conveniently moved to Iowa just ten years ago, immediately ran for office.

She gets into office.

She missed over half her votes this last legislative session.

And when she was there, which was probably worse, she was voting to give illegal immigrants state funded Medicaid, food stamps, housing assistance, sex changes for kids.

She hasn't seen a tax raise she didn't like.

She was letting criminals off, violent criminals that we were trying to penalize and give it the three strike law to.

So again, we don't judge her for being from Portland, Oregon.

When she brings her Portland, Oregon - [JAMES] Those are absolutely absurd claims and that is absolutely misleading.

[MITCHELL] It is not.

[JAMES] You know that is not correct.

[MITCHELL] No.

You know -- okay.

All right.

Well, we'll have everything on our page after this.

Every single bill that she voted on that we just listed off.

[HENDERSON] If we could move on to the Iran war.

You both have said you do not support endless wars.

Lindsay James, you've said you would vote for a War Powers resolution in the US House to bring the war to end.

What does the end of the war look like?

Does that mean that troops and material withdraw from the Middle East?

Does U.S.

support of Israel decrease?

[JAMES] So, the war in Iran, just like the tariffs, have been impulsive and chaotic, there has been no plan when it comes to war in the Middle East.

I'm someone who does not believe that Iran should have a nuclear weapon.

But what we have seen happen there is we have seen billions of dollars, upwards of $47 billion go to an endless and chaotic war in Iran that has driven up costs for Iowa, hardworking families, and it's resulted in the loss of Iowans lives.

It is time to end the war immediately, bring our troops home, bring all of those financial resources back to our own country.

I'm interested in investing in rural health care.

I'm interested in investing our schools for our schools.

As a mom, I've got two teenagers.

Yes, prayers and thoughts are welcome as I parent teenagers.

Those kids and our kids, our schools give them their best chance at life.

And I want to make sure that families can be able to afford to buy into the housing market, can afford child care, can afford building the life we know that they deserve here.

And we can do things with those kinds of resources and invest in our community here.

It's time to end the war.

[HENDERSON] Joe Mitchell when should the war end?

And you've suggested that every president in this century basically has sort of abused the war powers privilege.

What's the resolution?

[MITCHELL] So, I've said the war should end as soon as we can end it.

Two things can be true at once, and I think me and Lindsay both agree on this, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

I hope we can agree on that.

And number two, costs must come down.

And again, costs have been high, I would argue, because of Joe Biden, the Democrats, in four years of control that they had and the policies that they passed.

When you look at the Strait of Hormuz right now, you're having more oil tankers run through the strait than there was prewar.

And that's a fact.

You have 22 million barrels a day running through the Strait of Hormuz.

The problem is, is that you have refineries both domestically and globally that have been shut down.

You've had Ukraine bombing Ukrainian or Ukrainian bombing Russian refineries, which has shortened the world's oil supply.

And so, you have crude oil, you do not have crude oil that's being refined.

And that needs to happen.

And so, there's a multitude of reasons of why oil prices and gas prices are high right now.

We need to get those down.

I support suspending the gas tax both on the state and federal level.

That is something that I would be supportive of and have been supportive of for the last, you know, six months.

And so, again, I would like to see this conflict come to an end.

We want to do it in the most strategic way possible.

We want to bring our men and women in uniform back here to the States.

And I have said that I think the resolutions that have been put up, most recently by Democrats have been a knee jerk and partisan action to defy the president.

And I think we need to have a broader, more bipartisan conversation with Democrats and Republicans, because I do think the Bush administration, the Obama administration, the Biden administration and the current administration have overstepped on, you know, what they can do from an executive standpoint.

And I think we need to have a serious conversation about that in Congress.

I just believe that the current resolutions that have been brought up have been partisan actions by the Democrats.

[MURPHY] You mentioned in there diesel and fuel prices, pardon me, Congresswoman Hinson, who currently represents the second district, has also proposed temporarily suspending the federal fuel taxes and also a diesel relief fund for farmers and truckers.

Joe Mitchell can that be done without underfunding infrastructure?

[MITCHELL] Yeah, if it's temporary.

Again, this isn't a long term thing that we're proposing, you know, necessary.

But the other thing is, too, is that we're dealing with the Democrat Party that has been for the Green New Deal for the last ten years, including my opponent, who has voted on legislation in the Capitol to tell counties that they can ban propane and natural gas if they want to do that and go to a net carbon solution.

And so, you know, this is a group of people, this is a group of candidates that's running right now, that's acting like they care about the price of gas and price of diesel when they actually hate fossil fuels.

They haven't done anything in the last ten years to build more refineries, to incentivize that, to extract more oil.

They've actually done the exact opposite.

She's been endorsed by the Sierra Club, who openly says on their website that they don't believe in fossil fuels.

And so, this is a it can't be more of a contrast black and white, on who supports American made energy and fossil fuels and who doesn't.

[MURPHY] Lindsay James, same question, how do you address high fuel prices without impacting road and bridge construction projects in Iowa?

[JAMES] Yeah.

Thank you.

So, I do want to respond what I think is happening and what we see very clearly is that Joe is going to say and do anything he possibly can to win this seat.

He has actually said on the media, on the air, that he believes that costs, that it's debatable that costs are going up.

And now he's finally saying, okay, costs are going up.

He is finding excuses like, you know, this is, you know, from an administration long before his party has been in power over the last two years in a trifecta and have not taken seriously the realities of everyday, hardworking families in this state.

We are 50th in the economy.

We're 48th in terms of personal income growth.

Our rural hospital systems are under incredible financial strain because of the policies coming from Washington, D.C.

The policies that either Joe conveniently supports when it benefits him.

And this campaign, or he can conveniently dismisses and denies when it benefits him for this campaign.

What you see here is someone who is talking out of both sides of his mouth when it comes to lowering the costs for Iowans, we do need to take seriously our dependance on fossil fuels and oil.

We do need to make sure that we're investing in renewable energies.

Iowa has led on this, you know, for a number of years and investing in renewable energies and removing our dependance on foreign oil will actually create more economic opportunities for our young people to build their life here and actually help with costs.

[MURPHY] So, is there a temporary -- do you support the temporary suspension of the gas tax?

[JAMES] I absolutely on the table for sure.

That is something that I would wholeheartedly support in a moment like this, because it costs at the pump are so significant.

And we need to make sure that we are giving immediate relief to hard working families in Iowa and immediate relief to our farmers.

[TALLAL] Artificial intelligence is rapidly developing, and tech leaders have started calling for guardrails over safety and oversight concerns.

Lindsay James, President Trump has said he doesn't want to regulate it, and recently announced a new task force to ensure America leads the world in artificial intelligence.

Do you agree with his stance or do you support regulation?

And if so, what does that look like?

[JAMES] I'm a mom with kids, and so I feel deeply concerned about the advancement of technology.

We need guardrails.

We need to protect our kids.

We need to protect our jobs.

We need to make sure that we are protecting consumers from rising energy costs.

We need to make sure that we hold accountable companies that are benefiting trillions of dollars off the backs of hard working families in this district.

As someone who has fought against private equity, fought against big insurance companies, predatory landlords, I'm someone who has a track record of fighting for hard working families in this state, and I'm going to take that fight to Washington when it comes to making sure that there are guardrails around the development of AI technology.

[TALLAL] Are there any specific guardrails that you would look at?

[JAMES] Oh, absolutely.

In fact, I have an entire plan on my on my website as well.

But we need things like the stop endless scrolling and parameters for social media for our kids.

We need to continue to have hard conversations with those who are developing and make sure that there is safe, secure systems in place to make sure that we are keeping our communities and our kids safe.

[TALLAL] And Joe Mitchell, same question for you.

Do you support the president's stance, or do you want to see some guardrails?

[MITCHELL] So, a number of things, because there's AI and there's data centers.

And so specifically in the data center part, specifically, I don't think any community should be forced to have a data center.

I think the community must make that decision to have a data center if they want to have it or not.

And if they decide to have it, that data center has to pay for their infrastructure.

We have to make sure that rates don't go up for ratepayers electricity rates.

We have to make sure it's a net benefit to that community.

And I have said I will sponsor legislation in Congress to make sure that no tax incentives or tax credits go towards data centers.

This is something that Senator Bernie Moreno has introduced from Ohio, and I would co-sponsor that and mirror that legislation on the House side.

And so, I think we have to make sure, again, that these data centers that are coming in communities wants them.

They're paying for the infrastructure.

They have a closed loop system.

Electricity rates are not going up for ratepayers.

And then specifically on the safety side for AI, you know, I'm somebody that thinks we should discuss having a ban on social media for people under 16.

I grew up in that era.

I'm only 29 years old.

And so, Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, all those things were around when I was growing up.

I don't think it's healthy a lot of times for people under the age of 16 to be scrolling endlessly and really not have community outside of what's on their phone.

And so, I think there can be a lot of danger to that.

So, I think it's something we should have a discussion on, because you can't have a driver's license before you're 16 years old.

You can't rent a rated-R movie before you're 18 years old.

You can't buy alcohol before you're 21.

And so, you know, this is something I think, you know, is a, you know, health crisis, that we have a mental health crisis and I think we should most definitely talk about parameters we can put on specifically to keep children safe.

[HENDERSON] Lindsay James, do you think teenagers should be on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok?

[JAMES] So I will tell you that as a parent myself, raising teenagers, we have limited our kids' use.

They don't use social media and we have limited it until the age of 16.

Now, my daughter just turned 16 and we actually decided to wait until after the election for her to receive, you know, social media privileges.

And I feel really grateful for that because I want folks to know that my opponent has used my 16 year old daughter in an attack ad against me, used images of her and, and put that on social media when.

And so -- [MITCHELL] That is not true.

[JAMES] I had to sit down with my 16 year old daughter and say to her that she was included in an attack ad, and I had to show her this attack ad where she was pictured and her face was blurred, but she was clearly identifiable and she felt used.

[MITCHELL] My entire family - you used a family photo of mine too, so don't throw my family in here too.

[JAMES] I did not use any family photos -- [MITCHELL] Yes you have.

That is a lie.

[JAMES] I am deeply concerned about protecting kids and I am deeply alarmed by what Joe Mitchell will do to win this seat and become, you know, the next member of Congress.

We cannot allow someone who rigs the system for himself, who will jeopardize our kids, who will do or say anything to win this seat.

I am someone as a chaplain with a moral compass and courage of conviction when it comes to my faith, caring for my neighbor is not optional.

This is serious stuff that we are facing right now in our country.

I believe that in the next 2 to 4 years, we're going to take some of the most consequential votes.

We need someone who understands the realities of hard working families, and who is going to go to bat for them, to make sure that they have the life that they can build here in this state.

[HENDERSON] Let's talk about energy.

Forecasters are predicting Iowans maybe paying hundreds more dollars per month by 2035 for electricity.

Joe Mitchell, you've said it's time to unleash domestic energy production.

What are you talking about?

Because the U.S.

already exports energy.

[MITCHELL] So, what I'm talking about is we need more nuclear plants.

We need more natural gas plants, clean coal.

You know, we need all kinds of energy to be able to produce what we need to make sure that people's electricity rates don't go up.

And the only way to do that is to produce more energy.

And so again, we can't just do it with wind and solar.

And I know that's what Lindsay believes in with the Green New Deal.

But we have to have all of the above approach, and we have to have things that have worked for a long time.

And it's not just going to be wind turbines and solar panels.

It's going to be coal.

It's going to be nuclear.

It's going to be natural gas plants.

So, we need all of those resources at our disposal to make sure that electricity rates don't go up for ratepayers.

[HENDERSON] Lindsay James, your website says American energy should be unleashed and new sources of energy need to be fast tracked.

What needs to be fast tracked?

And people who are familiar with your district may know that there's a nuclear plant there that's being recommissioned.

[JAMES] Yeah, all of those kinds of approaches, I think, will reduce our dependance on oil and fossil fuels, wind, solar, hydro, biofuels.

These are all things that we've let in as Iowans and that we can continue to lead in.

[MURPHY] Lindsay James, as a state lawmaker, talk about health care.

Now, you have seen how Medicaid spending has become an increasingly larger share of states budgets.

How, as a federal lawmaker, would you attempt to help states by keeping those costs from continuing to rise?

[JAMES] So, one of the things that I have heard over and over again are that people are one health care emergency away from, you know, not being able to pay their mortgage and facing losing their home.

One health care emergency away from not being able to put food on the table for their kids, the health care costs because of policies like the one big beautiful bill, are skyrocketing for families across this district.

That one big, beautiful bill jeopardizes 25,000 Iowans health care.

It has resulted, as I've said earlier, in job losses, 134 health care provider job losses in this district, a clinic close in Traer.

Folks are seeing skyrocketing premium costs, skyrocketing costs when it comes to their prescription medication.

And so, what we need to do in order to offer financial relief immediately for folks when it comes to their health care costs, is to roll back the cuts to Medicaid and Medicare and to roll back the cuts to the ACA, which will then infuse resources back into Iowa's rural hospital systems, which they so desperately need right now.

And so, working toward policies to lower those costs for everyday, hardworking families is what I'm going to do.

[MURPHY] So that addresses families at the state level, though, like, like I said, state Iowa's spending on Medicaid continues to be a larger and larger percentage of the state's budget.

How do you avoid that so the state isn't having to make difficult decisions that impact on its Medicaid?

[JAMES] Yeah, I appreciate that question because in the Iowa State legislature, we have to balance the budget.

But we've seen in the last ten years with that Republican control of the Iowa Legislature, the first time our state facing a budget deficit.

I am someone who believes in fiscal responsibility.

I believe in balancing a budget.

I want to balance that budget.

For the last eight years, but under the control of the Republicans, we're seeing a budget deficit.

And that was because of tax policies that disproportionately help those who are ultra-wealthy in our state and don't actually address the tax burden of everyday, hardworking families and middle class Iowans.

It's the result of private school vouchers that are a blank check to those private entities that don't play by the same set of rules as our public schools.

The result has meant that we are in a fiscal death spiral in the state legislature.

I'm someone who is going to apply principles of fiscal responsibility.

As a mom, you know, we have to make sure that we can pay the utility bill, pay the mortgage, make sure that we've got enough for gasoline and groceries.

This is something my opponent has never had to do.

He's never had to worry about.

As someone who makes millions of dollars off of us as taxpayers, he's never had to worry about saving for a down payment on a house, he's never had to worry about putting food on the table for kids, he's never had to worry about the cost of child care.

[MURPHY] So, and forgive me, I'm still not sure I heard anything that addresses specifically the growth of Medicaid spending by the states.

[JAMES] We need to make sure that we have fiscal responsibility when it comes to our state budgets, and make sure that Iowans receive health care.

There's ways that we can address health care to lower costs immediately.

I talk a lot about putting parameters on our pharmaceutical companies or PBMs for accountability and transparency, for price gouging folks at the point of sale.

I also talk about lowering the age of Medicare, which would offset some costs, as well as making sure that we are investing in folks' health care in a preventative way, as opposed to a reactionary way, which so often our health care systems respond to.

So, there's ways in which we can actually put forward legislation that will address the skyrocketing costs.

And of course, I, as a pastor, you know, as a chaplain, I believe that health care is a human right and that, you know, we need to do everything that we can to make sure that people can have accessible and affordable health care, which is why I support a public option.

[MURPHY] Joe Mitchell you have called the Affordable Care Act a disaster.

Would you vote to repeal it?

And if so, what would take its place?

[MITCHELL] Yeah, I would vote to repeal it.

And I've said that we have to keep in preexisting conditions.

You know, I'm somebody that was born in a critical access hospital in Washington, Iowa.

I'm somebody that was on Hawkeye State funded insurance when I was younger.

Contrary to what my opponent says, I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth.

I was born with a plastic spoon.

As my mom says, we were Aldi shoppers, we were Goodwill shoppers.

I'm a first generation college student.

I was blessed to see my parents build a successful business throughout my childhood and become successful and bless a lot of people and create a lot of good jobs in our community.

But when I was born, they were not successful and we were very working class family.

And so, I lived that through my childhood.

And, you know, so ultimately, I understand why rural health care is so important.

This is why in the working families tax cut, we appropriated $200 million to the Rural Health Care Fund for Iowa critical access hospitals, specifically.

Now, when my opponent talks about the Medicaid cuts is what she calls it, they're not Medicaid cuts at all.

They've said that if you're an able bodied person on Medicaid, there's going to be work requirements, which is something that 80, 90% of Iowans agree with.

And then the other thing is to if you're an illegal immigrant, you can't have Medicaid.

So, we're going to kick you off the rolls if you're an illegal immigrant, which again, is something that 90, 95% of Iowans agree with.

So, these are not cuts to Medicaid, like she says and like the Democrat Party says.

This is common sense legislation to make sure that people that are receiving Medicaid benefits from taxpayers, they're going to have a work requirement.

And then if you're an illegal immigrant, you are not welcome to take taxpayer money and get your health care paid for.

[MURPHY] But it is a reduction in future Medicaid spending and for some of the reasons that you've noted, but -- [MITCHELL] Mainly for the reasons I've stated.

[MURPHY] But hospital leaders, it's not just Democrats., hospital leaders are also expressing concerns about that and what it will mean to them because they rely so much on Medicaid patients.

And even with the, you mentioned the rural health transformation, and again, hospital leaders say that they appreciate that, but it doesn't necessarily make them whole because of those changes that are coming down the pipeline.

What would you say to those?

Again, I'm not asking you to convince Democrats to write hospital leaders who are -- [MITCHELL] No, I mean, I take those concerns seriously.

And this is, you know, I was supported by the Iowa Hospital Association when I was in the legislature.

I worked very closely with my critical access hospitals in eastern Iowa.

And I'll do the same in Congress.

[JAMES] I do want to point out, just for the sake of this conversation, is that we've lost because of the one big, beautiful bill, which, again, I would argue is only beautiful for the ultra-wealthy and billionaires.

We've lost $1 billion of resources to our rural health care system here in Iowa, $200 million is a drop in the bucket in comparison to that cost.

So again, this is just another way of Joe saying whatever he can to cover up for an administration who is denying health care to hard working families in this state, 25,000 people are at risk of losing their health care because of this bill.

They're making impossible choices.

One of my neighbor is making the impossible choice do I pay for my rent and keep my house, or do I pay for insulin medication and keep my foot?

Folks are hurting and they need someone who will go and fight for them.

[HENDERSON] We're going to move on to Social Security next.

But just a really quick question.

Some Iowans are getting $500 checks from the federal government because the Trump administration says they were overcharged on insurance premiums, on the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

Why is the federal government paying this, Joe?

And instead of the insurance companies?

[MITCHELL] Well, I think we need to give relief to Iowans.

And so, whether it's the insurance companies or the federal government, I think that's a good thing that we're giving money back to hardworking Iowans and something I'm supportive of and something that, you know, I know many Iowans are supportive of as well.

[HENDERSON] So, should the, if you're elected, would you ask insurance companies to foot the bill for those checks?

[JAMES] Absolutely.

So, one of the things that I am known for in the Iowa Legislature, and I love telling this story because people really appreciate it.

But in my first year at the Iowa Legislature, I learned that my neighbor lost health care services when Medicaid was privatized.

And so, I told his story on the floor of the Iowa Legislature.

And I called out the company Amerigroup, for denying him those health care services.

And you know what happened immediately after that, Kay?

I got a request to speak with someone in the lobby, and you can guess who that was.

It was, of course, the Amerigroup lobbyist.

And he said to me, Representative James, I know that you're new here.

We just don't do that.

We just don't call out a company by name.

My response?

I don't care what the norms of the Iowa Legislature are.

I care that my constituent gets the health care that he needs.

Iowans know me to fight against big corporations, private equity firms, the special interests that have a disproportionately loud voice at our legislative policy, decision making tables.

And I am going to fight every single day to hold insurance companies accountable and make sure that Iowans have the health care that they need, [HENDERSON] Skylar, Social Security.

[TALLAL] Yeah.

Social Security is projected to face a funding shortfall by 2032.

If action isn't taken.

Joe Mitchell, Second District Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, has said an independent commission should be created to consider all options and make recommendations.

What do you recommend?

[MITCHELL] I think the biggest thing we can look at right now is waste, fraud and abuse.

We've had waste, fraud and abuse in our government up to $1 trillion total.

But this also includes Social Security.

So, we have people that are defrauding Social Security of people that are illegal on Social Security.

And this is something that the administration has looked at.

We should continue to make sure that people receiving Social Security benefits are the ones that have paid in that are seniors that are receiving those benefits.

So, I think there's plenty of work to still do on the waste, fraud and abuse front.

[TALLAL] Is that enough, though, to cover the shortfall?

[MITCHELL] I mean, I'm not sure I would.

I would like to honestly see this, you know, commission that's been put together that she suggested.

That doesn't sound like a bad idea to me by any means, you know, but I think the first thing you can do is look at the waste, fraud and abuse in that program, like many others.

[TALLAL] Lindsay James, you have proposed removing the cap on taxable income so higher wage Americans pay more into the program.

Is this enough to fix the solvency problem?

[JAMES] Yes, absolutely.

I don't believe that Elon Musk should be paying the same amount into Social Security as a teacher in Cedar Rapids, or Waterloo or Dubuque.

And yet that's what's happening.

What Joe is doing by not talking about removing the caps is, again, he is favoring the ultra-wealthy and the billionaires.

He is someone who is going to protect their interests.

I'm interested in making sure that our seniors have the ability to live with human dignity in, you know, the most glorious years of their lives.

I'm a mom who's parenting teenagers, also caring for parents who are aging and have, you know, more increased health care demands and needs.

And as someone who's living in that generation, caring for both kids and our seniors, I will do everything that I can to fight for Social Security and make sure that our seniors can retire with security and live in independence as long as they're able.

[HENDERSON] The federal deficit for the last fiscal year was $2 trillion.

Lindsay James, a recent Pew Research Center survey found a vast majority of your fellow Democrats are very concerned about that.

What will you do if you're elected to Congress to erase the deficit and the debt?

[JAMES] Yeah.

So again, we need the ultra-wealthy to pay their fair share.

This is something that is a result of the increase in the federal deficit is a result of the one big, beautiful bill that gave huge tax breaks to ultra-wealthy and big corporations, millions of dollars and that trillions of dollars of increase into our federal deficit is now strapped on the backs of my kids and, you know, your kids and our grandkids and that is unfair.

We need fairness and we need to have those who are ultra-wealthy pay their fair share into this.

[HENDERSON] Joe Mitchell, you've said it's time to rein in what you call the crazy deficit.

How do you do that?

[MITCHELL] Well, so first of all, Lindsay James has not seen a tax hike she does not like.

She's voted every single time in the legislature to raise your income taxes.

[JAMES] No, I absolutely disagree.

[MITCHELL] You voted against the property tax bill last year.

You voted against income tax.

[JAMES] That's absolutely misleading.

[MITCHELL] Did you not vote against every single tax cut the Republicans proposed the last ten years?

[JAMES] That is absolutely misleading.

My North Star is tax relief for hard working families.

[MITCHELL] She's voted against every single tax cut, we know that.

[JAMES] Middle class Iowans, that will always be - [MITCHELL] -- against the Working Families tax cut, which said no tax on Social Security, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime.

[JAMES] I support, no tax on Social Security.

I support no tax on tips.

You are being.

misleading and mischaracterizing tax cut.

[MITCHELL] You are against the working families tax cut.

[JAMES] I am against putting billions and trillions of dollars of tax relief to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations.

That is very clear.

[MITCHELL] I would support a balanced budget constitutional amendment.

That's the first thing I want to support when I get in Congress, because this is a problem.

We can't tax our way out of it.

And also, if you confiscated every single billionaire in America's assets, you would still not fix the deficit problem.

She doesn't know that.

I do know that most Iowans know that you can't tax away this problem.

You can't confiscate people's assets to make this work, you have to get control of spending.

You have to pass a constitutional amendment to make sure we have a balanced budget.

We almost did at one time 20 years ago.

We need to bring that back.

We need to have a bipartisan coalition that's going to push that.

[HENDERSON] Would you support a balanced budget amendment?

[JAMES] I we've been balancing the budget in Iowa as many years as we possibly can, and I'd support balancing the budget.

Common sense.

[MURPHY] And got a question for you here on taxes.

Joe Mitchell, we'll start with you.

We've been talking about the one big, beautiful bill here.

And you mentioned the repeal of taxes on tips and overtimes, but it does also include tax cuts all the way up to the wealthiest Americans.

My question to you is, why was that specific tax reduction needed at a time when the national deficit and debt are both trillions of dollars?

Why not a more targeted -- [MITCHELL] Well, I tell people, you know, my philosophy on this.

I don't agree with raising anybody's taxes until we get the waste, fraud and abuse under control.

And so, you have $1 trillion projected of waste, fraud and abuse.

And we saw this because of people like Nick Shirley, who is an independent journalist who went up to Minnesota.

He went to Ohio, he went to California, and he exposed the waste, fraud and abuse of people defrauding our taxpayers, our viewers right now of their government dollars.

And so, this is where we have to get waste, fraud and abuse under control, or else we're just wasting more money, depending no matter who it is, by the way.

And so, this is where I want to get that under control before you talk about any tax hikes for anybody, because clearly we're not managing your money well right now.

[MURPHY] Lindsay James, I think we know how you feel about the tax cuts in the one big beautiful bill.

There are many other provisions, some of them that have been talked about here.

If elected, are there any that you would vote to maintain and which some of them expire at the end of 2028?

Sorry.

So, are there any of those provisions you would vote to maintain?

[JAMES] Absolutely.

So, I'd support no tax on tips.

I support no tax on Social Security.

Joe's talking a lot about waste, fraud and abuse.

What he's not talking about is the tax loopholes that the ultra-wealthy receive.

This system has been rigged for folks who are ultra-wealthy and big corporations.

And Joe Mitchell has shown us who he is exactly.

He has rigged the system for himself and actually benefited $3 million off of our own taxpayer dollars.

In fact, he even used $1 million of taxpayer dollars to build a housing development that included his own home.

So, folks like, you know, Joe, see that the system is rigged and he's rigging it for folks who are ultra-wealthy and big corporations.

[MITCHELL] I've invested that money into places like Clear Lake, into Dyersville and Grinnell places in our district where I've given people jobs, I've given people housing.

You've lied about this.

I bought my house.

[JAMES] You have benefited $3 million dollars off of taxpayer dollars, taxpayer dollars, including your own home.

[MITCHELL] So, my home.

Can I talk about this?

My home.

[JAMES] This is absolutely absurd.

[MITCHELL] I do buy from fair market value from my partners in the deal.

I didn't get a subsidized home.

I bought it for fair market value from my partners in the deal.

So, I did not utilize the tax credit to build my home.

That's ridiculous.

And you know that.

And you're a liar.

[JAMES] Joe, people are so exhausted by politicians who will say anything to get elected.

[MITCHELL] Which is you, you're talking about yourself.

Look in the mirror.

[JAMES] I am a person who has deeply held faith commitments, who is going to go and fight for my neighbors.

You are someone who is fighting for the ultra-wealthy and rigging the system for yourself every step of the way.

You're spending $90,000 partying at Mar-a-Lago.

[MITCHELL] Look at your campaign -- look at your campaign finances.

[HENDERSON] Let's move on to the next topic.

[TALLAL] Yeah, we're going to talk a little bit about education now.

Lindsay James, your campaign website says teachers deserve better pay.

Are you saying the federal government should provide money to help raise teacher pay?

[JAMES] I think teachers are really struggling right now and our school system is really struggling.

And in order to give kids our best chance at life, we need to have every option in terms of financing our public schools on the table.

And so absolutely support that.

I think that though, with the federal government, one of the things that we have failed to do is fully fund our kids with disabilities.

There are too many families who are experiencing a lot of struggle and a lot of challenge with kids who have disabilities, and we can do more there at the federal government level.

But all of these things are on the table.

Let's give our kids their best chance at life.

[TALLAL] And Joe Mitchell, your campaign website says colleges should be held accountable for how they spend tax dollars.

What sort of accountability are you looking for?

[MITCHELL] I think we need oversight.

The state's done a good job at this, by the way.

You know, from the federal government's standpoint, I agree with the president.

I don't think that the Department of Education should be as large as it is.

I think the other problem we have is we're giving a lot of students, we're giving them financial aid, and they're going to school and they're getting degrees, which we know they cannot get jobs in.

And there's been this lie told to people, my generation, that if you go to college and you get a four year degree and you get that piece of paper, you will get a job after you graduate.

And that's just not true.

And that's what we need more people going into blue collar work.

We need people to being HVAC technicians, electricians.

We need people to be welders.

We need people to be skilled manufacturing roles.

We need people going to jobs which cannot be taken by AI, by the way, or won't be for a very long time.

And so, this is where I have a lot of empathy for a lot of people my age that have crippling debt.

And we're told by people in their life at a very young age to go to college, get this degree, pile on this debt.

When you get out, you're going to get a job.

And that's just not true.

And we have to work to help those people out.

[HENDERSON] Erin?

[MURPHY] We want to get to another issue or two in our last few minutes.

Lindsay James, you have said Congress has failed to fix federal immigration laws.

Your fellow Democrat, Josh Turek, who is running for the US Senate, has pledged to work with President Trump on this issue.

Would you also be willing to work with congressional Republicans and the Trump administration?

And what policies do you believe are necessary to keep our border secure, as you have said, needs to be done?

[JAMES] Absolutely.

I'll work with anyone who will work with me on the biggest challenges that our country faces, and I've shown that in the Iowa Legislature.

I've worked in a bipartisan fashion every single year to, you know, put forward protections for folks living in mobile home communities and other kinds of protections for Iowans and my neighbors.

When it comes to the border, I think we need we need to make sure that we have security at the border, secure our border, and work on a comprehensive immigration reform.

I believe that both Democrats and Republicans have gotten this wrong.

They've used it as political footballs, and we need to be serious about creating meaningful reform so that we can keep communities safe, and that people who want to come here legally and pay their taxes and contribute to their communities can do so.

[HENDERSON] Erin?

[MURPHY] Joe Mitchell, under a Republican trifecta, there hasn't been any legislative action on immigration laws.

Seems like it's been a deference to the president's administration.

Are you comfortable with that?

In which case, what happens under the next Democratic president, or do you think Congress does need to take action on?

[MITCHELL] Immigration under Joe Biden, the Democrats control you had tens of millions of illegal immigrants pouring over the border, including tens of thousands of convicted criminals that were rapists, that were murderers, some of whom are probably still in this country right now, thanks to Joe Biden and the Democrats.

Now, I would want everyone to go to the Dubuque Chamber website, where we have Lindsay's profile there, and it says she ran for office in 2018 because of the president's border wall.

She's against the president's border wall.

She's against his border security policies and the working families tax cut.

They had record funding for ICE and DHS to make sure that the border is secure, even after the president's out of there.

[JAMES] You should go read, because that's incredibly misleading.

[MITCHELL] No, please go - please go read it.

[HENDERSON] Skylar.

[TALLAL] Yeah.

Both of you guys have supported limiting service in the U.S.

House to 12 years.

We'll start with you, Joe Mitchell.

Would you limit yourself voluntarily or are you recommending legislation to do that?

[MITCHELL] We're going to recommend legislation -- I hope I'm not there when I'm 40.

That's my game plan.

I've said 12 years in the House, 12 years in the Senate.

Plenty of time to get your agenda done.

[HENDERSON] Lindsay James.

Same question.

[JAMES] Yes, I support term limits and even age limits.

[HENDERSON] You both served in the Iowa House of Representatives when the state law was changed for sports betting being allowed.

It's ubiquitous everywhere when you turn on a sporting event.

Joe Mitchell, should it continue or should Congress step in and ban sports gambling?

[MITCHELL] I don't think they should ban it.

I think there should be more oversight.

I think we have seen an epidemic of young men in particular, who have got into some pretty tight situations and crippling debt because of sports betting.

And so, I do think that is the role of the government to have some oversight on that.

And I am, you know, worried about that.

I probably won't be very popular with some of my buddies back home that do sports bet.

But I do think I've seen a number of people that have gotten into issues with that.

And I think the government does have a hand to play to make sure that just like in casinos, right?

You know, like any other gambling, we should have guardrails there to make sure that people aren't ruining their lives and they can use it for fun and do it for leisure.

But we should make sure there's guardrails there.

[HENDERSON] One minute.

[JAMES] Yeah, absolutely.

Guardrails.

When it comes to sports betting guardrails, when it comes to prediction markets, I've got some more information on my website that's talking about prediction markets and some of the things that I would do in that regard.

But these are important issues that we need to take seriously in this moment so that we can protect our kids, protect our young people, and make sure that there's accountability and transparency for corporations that are making a large profit.

[HENDERSON] What do you want to do with prediction markets?

[JAMES] Sure.

So, one of the one of the things that I think we should do straight out of the gate with prediction markets is to ban those who are in the government from predicting on government, You know, outcomes, whether that's a war or an election outcome.

And so those who are in the government should not be who may have insider information, should not be involved in betting on those markets, particularly.

[MURPHY] Is that a nod of agreement?

[HENDERSON] You're nodding in agreement?

[MITCHELL] Yeah, I agree with that.

[HENDERSON] You may not agree with this, but we are at the end of our time together.

[MITCHELL] This was fun.

Let's do it next week.

[JAMES] Thank you.

[HENDERSON] Thank you both for coming here and sharing your views with voters in your district, the second district.

We have, by the way, two more Iowa Press Debates this month.

Next Wednesday, October 14th, we'll question U.S.

House candidates from the fourth district.

Then on Wednesday, October 21st, a debate between the two candidates for governor.

Both debates are live at 7 p.m.

on statewide Iowa PBS and streaming online.

If you missed last night's U.S.

Senate debate, you can watch it anytime at iowapbs.org.

And we have candidates for statewide executive office scheduled to appear on our weekly Iowa Press shows until Election Day.

Friday, tomorrow, the candidates for Attorney General.

For everyone here at Iowa PBS, thanks for watching tonight.

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