How cancer has scrambled Iowa’s midterm politics - CNN

“What are the immediate and specific steps that you would take to combat Iowa’s cancer crisis?” the moderator asked the Democrat Rob Sand and Republican Zach Lahn, who both said it was a foundational issue for their campaigns — before each accusing the other of not doing enough.

Two weeks later, Iowa’s elevated cancer rates and their potential links to farm pollution came up again, at a debate in the competitive race for Senate.

The subject would have been unimaginable just a few years ago in Iowa, the country’s biggest corn and hog-producing state.

But the role of “Big Ag” has become a political lightning rod amid what is being described as a public health crisis. Iowa suffers from the second-highest cancer rate in the US and is one of only three states where the rate is rising.

For the first time, tackling the environmental causes of cancer has been included in Iowa campaign platforms for both parties. Republicans and Democrats up and down the ticket have staked out positions vowing to take on the issue.

In the governor’s race, Lahn, a farmer-turned-candidate backed by the “Make America Healthy Again” wing of the GOP, and Democrat Sand, a moderate lawyer, have made campaign trail promises to clean up water and regulate chemicals.

In the tight Senate race, Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson and Democratic State Representative Josh Turek have wrestled with the question too, both calling this month for more funding to ensure safe drinking water.

This year, nearly $30 million has been spent airing more than 100 campaign ads in Iowa that mention cancer, according to AdImpact data. In the last midterms in 2022, there was just one, backed by a little under $200,000.

“Nine months ago, there was no candidate talking about this except me, and now literally every candidate is featuring it in their campaign,” said Chris Jones, a long-time water quality advocate and now Democratic candidate for state agriculture secretary.

Yet both parties face the awkward challenge of balancing criticism of “Big Ag” practices with Iowa’s economic reliance on the sector. On the left, Jones argues Democrats have not been bold enough to take on “Big Ag,” ceding ground to Republicans energized by MAHA. He has gone further than any of the other candidates on the ballot in calling for more regulation and a move away from dependence on corn and soybean production.

“You’ve got an issue here that should be a natural issue for Democrats: Clean environment,” he told CNN. But the party was “too chicken to take this issue up,” he said.

But divisions within the Republican Party dent its credibility, argues Sara Schreiber of the League of Conservation Voters, with some MAHA voters disillusioned by Trump’s unkept promises for their movement.

“They want elected officials to be responsive” to their cause – health and the environment chief among them – “and they’re not just going to be partisan,” she said.

A health crisis with political implications

Iowa’s Health Department attributes much of its soaring cancer rates to several lifestyle factors: Obesity, alcohol and smoking chief among them. But it acknowledged that environmental exposures could play a role, inflaming Iowans who see cancer in their community.

Environmental advocates and some farmers highlight the concentration of nitrate from thousands of tons of livestock manure that leaks into the state’s waters as a key culprit.

A state cancer report showing Iowa’s sobering rates –– the fastest-rising in the country — “was really the game changer,” for average Iowans, said Zach Smith, a farmer and founding member of the Lobe Rangers, an advocacy group that campaigns for stronger government action on environmental toxins.

“This wave of momentum and energy came in. But we need to actually turn it into something meaningful with real legislation,” said Smith, an independent voter. “That’s what we’re interested in — getting the public wound up enough where they’re willing to vote.”

That the state’s Republican Party has emphasized environmental issues this election speaks both to the perceived scale of the problem and the shifting political coalitions.

“It used to be a kind of liberal, tree-hugger type thing,” said James Hepp, another Lobe Rangers founder and a Republican. “It had that stigma where if you talked to any environment, you were a tree hugger, but now I think you’re just an informed citizen trying to do what’s best.”