Iowa U.S. Senate hopeful says America needs real talk and real working

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CEDAR RAPIDS — Nathan Sage, an Indianola Democrat running for U.S. Senate in 2026, told a crowd of about 50 at Lion Bridge Brewery on Sunday that his campaign is built on “higher wages, lower health care costs, lower child care costs and real opportunities for working-class people,” drawing on his own path growing up in poverty to military service and community leadership.

Sage, a Marine Corps and Army veteran, served three tours in Iraq and later worked as a mechanic, radio news and sports director, and most recently as executive director of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce. He framed his candidacy as a contrast to what he called a political system beholden to corporations and donors and not