Summary
- 2026
Republican Senate candidate shares strong immigration views. - Emphasizes
strict policies on illegal immigrants in their state. - The
candidate aligns with the state’s Republican-leaning, conservative voters. - Immigration
stance central to their campaign messaging strategy.
In an inflammatory video posted to his TikTok account, Iowa
Democrat Nathan Sage, who is challenging incumbent Republican Joni Ernst,
blasted a ruling that mandated 20 Iowa National Guard members assist ICE
officers stationed in Iowa.
“Those ‘not here legally’ are ‘everyday Americans
literally trying to survive,'”
Sage said in his video.
“The only reason Iowa’s population isn’t declining is
because immigrants are coming,”
the Democrat from Iowa
added.
Earlier this month, Iowa Republican Governor Kim Reynolds
announced the National Guard’s participation, saying that by “providing
administrative and logistical support,” it would “free up local ICE
officials to continue their work outside the office to enforce the law and keep
[the] state safe.”
Ernst noted earlier this month that she supports Reynolds’
move.
‘They are not doing the law enforcement functions, but
they’re providing support to those agencies,’ Ernst said.
“Our nation has laws for a reason, and we can’t turn a
blind eye to the essential role they play in keeping Iowans safe,”
Ernst said
in a statement provided to the Daily Mail. Due to Biden’s lax enforcement of
the law, illegal immigrants and lethal fentanyl were able to flood our open
borders and into Iowan communities.
“Thankful President Trump and Gov. Reynolds continue to
lead the way in upholding the law to protect Americans,”
the senator continued.
Throughout his riff, Sage repeatedly mentioned the skin
color of migrants, claiming that Reynolds and Ernst are only attempting to
expel them from Iowa “because they’re brown.”
‘Maybe they want all the brown people gone, and they want
nothing but white people to fill their spots,’
Sage also said in his video.
Further defending the migrants in the Hawkeye State, Sage
noted, ‘these are our working class people, these are people in our families,
these are people in our communities, and they are us.’
When Mollie Tibbetts, a 20-year-old University of Iowa
student, vanished while jogging and was later discovered murdered, the state’s
immigration issue reached a breaking point in 2018. Cristhian Bahena Rivera, an
undocumented farmworker, was the person who killed her.
Several X users pointed to Tibbetts’ case as an illustration
of how illegal migrants hurt Iowans.
As Emilia Henderson said in a post on X under the name
@Emilia__writes, “Anyone who defends invaders has no business running for
Senate, and breaking the law is not citizenship.”
Sarah Root was another Iowan who fell prey to illegal
immigration in 2016. Ernst spent almost ten years advocating for Sarah’s Law,
which President Donald Trump signed into law in May.
Republicans have recently made significant inroads in Iowa,
a state known as a traditional swing state.
Three of the state’s four congressional seats were occupied
by Democrats following the 2018 midterm elections.
Before Trump’s second victory in the state, Republicans made
voter registration a primary focus in the 2020 presidential election and gained
statewide support in addition to swing seats.
In 2020, when she ran alongside Donald Trump, Ernst received
51.74 percent of the vote and was last elected. Cook Political Report has rated
the seat as ‘Likely Republican.’ She will be up next in the 2026 midterm
elections.
How have local Republican leaders reacted to the candidate’s
remark?
Local Republican figures have expressed support, viewing the
candidate’s position as necessary to address immigration policy concerns and
excite a party base focused on border security and the rule of law; others have
been more cautious or not publicly expressed an opinion, and would like to
avoid heightening a divisive issue that can alienate moderate voters or
complicate outreach efforts to diverse communities.
Certainly, Republican leadership generally tries to walk the
line between hardline positions on immigration with practical electoral
considerations, and observances usually reflect that distinction.
There certainly have been previous statements where
controversial comments on immigration policy prompted condemnation from some in
the party and celebration from grassroots activists.
