Nathan Willems

Those are things to take on scammers and robocalls, things like that, that a lot of people could get behind.

How about for the challenger, Nate Willems?

I think he has a very simple message.

He said he's been a labor lawyer.

And he said that's not happening now because Brennan Byrd is looking out for political insiders and corporate polluters, and he wants to refocus on regular Iowans.

I also thought he was able to push back on her talking point.

Brenna Byrd has said that Nate Willems has never been a prosecutor and therefore he wouldn't be qualified to do the job.

And he said that the office is full of professional prosecutors and he's worked with police.

I just want to talk about what we're seeing down ballot.

Obviously, with Ryan Peterman, Nate Willems, Taylor Wettick.

Any of those candidates, any of those races do you think are standing out to you that are maybe a little bit closer or maybe in general just standing out to the point where we need to speak on those? The one that I keep talking about and thinking about a lot is the Brenna Bird-Nate Willems race, mainly because...

Brianna Bird kind of reminds me of Joe Mitchell, where she's just like, you've got to do this because this is the way we're doing it, and not really necessarily campaigning.

And I think Nate is doing an amazing job of speaking truth to power in his ads and putting things out there and talking about things.

I've been around Nate a lot, and he is always calm, cool, collected, knows where he stands, knows how he feels, and doesn't shy away from it.

And it honestly makes me feel like it's like an old fence post where you can lean on him.

That's what I like about seeing Nate Willems.

From the Jethro's Barbecue Studio, I'm Justin Brady, and this is the Iowa Podcast.

AG Brenna Byrd has some competition, and Representative Nate Willems is that competition.

He, of course, joins us today.

He's running for your Attorney General here in the state of Iowa, and we appreciate you being here.

call i mean again

i think it's you know you're limited you're limited in any single attorney general's office to to have the expertise and in in such a in a field that is dynamic and changing so quickly it's a real challenge for any attorney general's office to have the in-house expertise to to to be able to put together uh the right legal theory even if they wanted to which is is why this is probably a situation where it does make sense for AG offices across the country to collaborate, to try to envision potential threats or risks and pull their resources to act in a manner to protect the people of the state of Iowa and elsewhere.

Nate Willems is running for state attorney general here in Iowa.

Obviously, we really appreciate you being on the show.

Last week, the Iowa Farmers Union endorsed Jones.

And the Iowa Farmers Union also endorsed Rob Sand, the Democratic candidate for Attorney General Nate Willems, and the full slate of Democrats running for federal offices.

They endorsed mostly Democrats running for state legislature, but they did endorse a couple of Republican incumbents who are farmers, Chad Ingalls and Norlin Mumsen.

In early September, Chris Jones paddled more than 100 miles down the Des Moines River to highlight pollution and an important source of drinking water in the state.

The federal candidates endorsed by the IFU include Josh Turek for U.S. Senate, Lindsey James for Iowa's Second Congressional District, and Christina Bohannon for District 1.

Notable state candidates to win the organization's stamp of approval include Rod Sand for Governor, Chris Jones for Secretary of Agriculture, Nate Willems for Attorney General, Mike Zimmer for the 35th Senate District, and Norlin Momsen for the 70th House District.

The union endorsements come in stark contrast to those made by other Iowa agricultural organizations, notably the Iowa Corn Growers Association and the Iowa Farm Bureau, who have both openly supported a very Republican ticket in this year's election.

The Dubuque Area Land and Water Legacy has endorsed Jones for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture.

And so I think that's boosting his numbers in this poll.

Also, according to Signal, Democrat Nate Willems has a small lead in the attorney general's race with 40 percent support to 39 and a half percent for the Republican incumbent Brenna Byrd.

And that's not statistically significant.

Right.

But in the last poll that Signal did of Iowa, which was in June, Brenna Byrd had about a four and a half point lead.

So I was very stunned to see.

Again, this is a poll with a Republican leaning sample to see Nate Willems just a shade ahead.

And the favorable numbers for Brenna Byrd for an incumbent were.