Nathan Sage is a Marine veteran who says he grew up in a trailer park and skipped the three most recent contested Democratic presidential caucuses in Iowa despite being a native of the state.
He’s also now a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in the Republican state.
Sage, a 40-year-old executive director of a local Chamber of Commerce in Iowa, launched a bid Wednesday for a seat held by Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, saying he’d be the kind of working-class candidate that Democrats have failed to run in recent years but desperately need to connect with blue-collar voters.
“I’m able to actually speak about issues in a way most politicians don’t because most politicians don’t understand the issues we’re actually going through,” Sage said in an interview before his announcement. “Two percent of Washington, D.C., is working class, the rest is generational wealth. So of course you see why the policies and laws and things don’t seem to benefit the working classes as much as they possibly should.”
Sage’s candidacy will test the Democratic Party’s interest in unconventional candidates who say their nontraditional background means they can better connect with the blue-collar electorate of most red states. Sage said his campaign was inspired in part by Dan Osborn, an industrial mechanic who made headlines last year with a surprisingly competitive Senate run in Nebraska.
Democrats are staring down a challenging 2026 Senate map, making unlikely victories in Republican-dominant states like Iowa vital for their chances at taking the majority.
The Iowa Democrat also joins a growing list of Democratic Senate candidates who have declined to commit to backing Sen. Chuck Schumer for caucus leader, saying during an interview that he would need to get to know Schumer better before opting to support him.
In an interview, Sage — who says he’s always been a Democratic voter but was either out of state or unable to participate in the 2008, 2016 and 2020 causes in Iowa because he was working as a journalist — said he understands President Donald Trump’s appeal to many working-class voters in Iowa. Trump’s focus on lowering daily costs, Sage said, was a clear draw.
But Trump’s presidency so far hasn’t lived up to that promise, he said.
“I don’t think they’re fighting for what they said they were gonna fight for,” Sage said. “I don’t think they’re lowering costs in the way they said they were going to. It seems like they’re continuing on with what they planned on doing, and making the rich get richer and the poor poorer.”
Sage is unlikely to have the Democratic field to himself: State Sen. Zach Wahls and state Reps. J.D. Scholten and Josh Turek are also considering campaigns, according to The Des Moines Register.
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Alex Roarty is a reporter at NOTUS.