EXCLUSIVE: Nathan Sage Emerges As Only Democrat Beating Republican Senator Joni Ernst in Iowa Poll
Drop Site sat down with a popular contender for a U.S. Senate seat in Iowa, but will party elites embrace his outsider appeal?
Nathan Sage is the only Democratic hopeful able to beat the Republican Iowa Senator, Joni Ernst, in a head-to-head matchup, according to new polling from Data for Progress. Senator Ernst “initially leads each hypothetical Democratic challenger by 5 to 6 points.” But after likely voters read a short introduction to each potential challenger, Sage was the only candidate who beat Ernst, 47-45 percent.
An outsider candidate, 40-year-old Sage grew up in a trailer park in Mason City. He told Drop Site, “I think there's a lot of people that are just stuck right now that don't have representation,” adding that “98% of Washington, DC is generational wealth. They don't give a crap about us.” Sage’s populist, anti-corporate politics have informed his tenure as executive director of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, arguing that big companies are making it not just difficult for working people, but for small businesses, too. Even beyond Iowa, Sage is currently the only working-class candidate currently running for U.S. Senate in the country.
Sage is not the first breakthrough candidate with a populist message and working class roots. In Nebraska in the 2024 cycle, Republicans faced a challenge from independent Dan Osborn, a mechanic whose straight talk nearly knocked off incumbent Deb Fischer. Out of every Senate race expected to be won by a Republican, Dan Osborn had the tightest margin, outperforming every other Senate candidate nationwide, Democrats included.
In a forced effort to reconnect with the common man, Democrats in Washington have begun sprinkling profanity into their vocabulary. A longtime mechanic, first in an auto shop and then while serving in the Army, Sage’s first campaign video was blunt and animated by a few choice curse words—uncommon among more staid DC politicians. The colorful language caught the attention of National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesperson, Nick Puglia, who told The Hill that Democrats “seem obsessed with saying ‘f—ing’ and ‘a–’ as the strategy to win back the voters that rejected them in 2024.“ When asked about the NRSC’s observation, Sage simply told MSNBC in an April 20th interview, “I live in the real world. This is how we talk. This is who we are.”
Sage has a potential progressive challenger in the field, J.D. Scholten, a former minor league pitcher who returned home to Sioux City and nearly beat Iowa’s hard-right mainstay Steve King in a 2018 House race. Scholten turned his surprising overperformance into a state House seat, where he has sponsored bills safeguarding workers compensation benefits, protecting marriage equality, addressing housing and healthcare affordability, and appropriating funds to mental health care.
Another potential opponent, state Sen. Zach Wahls of Iowa City, rose to prominence in a different era with a mega-viral speech in the Iowa legislature at 19 years old, speaking on behalf of marriage equality and his two moms. Wahls is the author of My Two Moms and was a Hilary Clinton delegate at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. Wahls holds a master’s degree from Princeton. A third potential opponent, Jackie Norris, is President and Owner of Horizon Group, a management consulting firm in West Des Moines. Norris is most known for her time as chief of staff to First Lady Michelle Obama, 2009-2011.
“Make our lives better now, not five years from now, not ten years [from] now—but actually better now.” said Sage when he sat down for an interview with Drop Site. He discussed his background, decision to run, and the new brand of populist politics taking hold in the U.S. after his viral announcement video. Sage told Drop Site that the U.S. economy “might be going well for the upper 1%,” but “the money they're making is off the backs of us... They're doing everything they can to keep us down.” He continued, “they're not here for us. They're here for their own self-interest. But the question is: how do we get out of that?” According to Sage, the answer lies in electing candidates who come from the working class, and who will fight for policies like “raising wages, lowering cost of healthcare, lowering cost of childcare, which is outrageous.”
What is it about Nathan Sage that stands out? In the May 7-12 poll, Sage was described to respondents as “a lifelong independent… a different kind of Democrat, one who actually cares about working people.” His potential competitors in the primary, by contrast, are longtime Democrats.
Sage is unafraid to speak on the class divide within the potential Democratic primary field. He told Drop Site that “you get the same cookie cutter candidate that comes out there, doctor's kid with soft hands… they're going to check the box, say they talked to us, and that's it. And nothing's ever going to change.”
For Sage, this election is bigger than beating Ernst; it’s about working-class power in America. “The only way that we're ever going to get things changed—the only way we're ever going to get anything anywhere for the working class—is to actually have working class people there,” he told Drop Site.
As Democrats struggle to reshape their public image as a party led by coastal elites, Iowa has become tough political turf. Once considered a purple state, Trump won Iowa by 13 points in 2024. The state previously swung for Obama in 2008, when he won the state by 9 points. In recent years, the consistent thread in winning in Iowa has less to do with right or left, and more to do with embracing populist ideals.
The Sage brand of populism is already spreading. In his announcement video, Sage made clear that his political alliance is not to the party establishment, but to the American working class, saying “we built the damn table. We should have a seat at it.” A sentiment that was echoed hundreds of times in the comment section. He told Drop Site he believes this message resonates with so many people because “they’re just fed up with listening to rich-ass people say what they're saying. And nothing is helping us. Nothing is getting to us.”
As home to the Democrats’ first primary contest in the presidential nomination process, Iowa turns into an electoral capital every four years. Politicians on both sides of the aisle come to the hawkeye state hoping to perfect a folksy turn of phrase, hone their midwestern humor, and put together a stump-speech that’s formal enough to be taken seriously but laid-back enough to be neighborly. It takes a lot to impress an Iowa voter, who is regularly inundated with campaign fanfare more than anyone else in the country.
Sage ticks a lot of boxes for Iowans, according to how he was described to poll respondents:
Sage is a patriot, not a politician. He enlisted in the Marines, served two tours in Iraq, then re-enlisted in the Army and served a third tour in Iraq. Back home, he put himself through college with the GI Bill and worked as a mechanic, a sports radio host, and eventually became Director of the Knoxville chamber of commerce, working closely with local businesses as a voice for Iowa small businesses and working people.
Though Sage is popular among likely voters, Democrats have long been committed to quashing any anti-establishment movement within the party. From condemning DNC Vice Chair David Hogg’s strategy of primarying “asleep at the wheel” Democrats to catering to conservatives like Liz Cheney instead of the Uncommitted National Movement, the party elites are quick to cast outsiders aside—no matter their popularity.
This year in Iowa that same pattern could return: with a crowded Democratic primary, it’s possible this well-positioned candidate could be outspent by party elites who would then lose a U.S. senate seat for the minority party.
I no longer think Iowa is the first primary state for the dems. I wish him luck but the dems and the donors that run the party are so corrupt that I don’t think they would support him. I didn’t think that Drop Site had columns on democratic politics. Is there a national election in 2025? Dems are still all the way neoliberals in my opinion.
You describe him as a patriot due to his service in Iraq. That's a negative. Serving three times enforcing US neo-colonilism on a nation to exploit their resources indicates a militaristic mindset thats at the heart of domestic shortages affecting the ordinary citizen.
Get rid of the duopoly! 🇯🇴🇯🇴🇯🇴