Iowa State Senator Zach Wahls (D), whose 2011 speech to the Iowa legislature about growing up with two moms went viral (twice!) during the state’s marriage equality battles, has announced he is running for the U.S. Senate, challenging incumbent Joni Ernst (R).
In a video on his campaign site, Wahls called himself “a sixth-generation Iowan and a new generation of Democrat.” He touted the values he learned as an Eagle Scout, particularly bravery. “I learned to stand up for what’s right, especially when it’s hard,” he said, adding that this is something he has done as a state senator and hopes to do in the U.S. Senate. “I’ll stand up to leaders of both parties because they’re not delivering for us.” He noted, too, “When I was 19 I defended the freedom to marry for all Iowans, including families like mine with two moms.” He even played a clip from his 2011 speech, in which he said that Iowans don’t expect others to solve their problems, but just hope for equal and fair treatment from the government. “That’s not what we’re getting right now,” he asserted.
He then held up Ernst as an example of that failure, showing her response to a constituent who was concerned that Medicaid cuts in the Republicans’ proposed budget would cause people to die. “Well, we all are going to die,” Ernst said—a remark whose callousness has made headlines.
In a statement announcing his campaign yesterday, Wahls elaborated, “While Joni Ernst is busy trying to cut Medicaid, I’ll do everything I can to protect the benefits that Iowans’ have earned. I will stand up to the special interests to lower our cost-of-living, protect and expand Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and fearlessly defend our freedoms and rights.” He’s the only candidate in the race who has a 100% lifetime voting record with the Iowa Federation of Labor, the statement said.
Wahls, a state debate champion in high school, was a 19-year-old University of Iowa student when he gave his famed speech in support of marriage equality. He’s been busy since then. He co-founded Scouts for Equality, an organization that helped overturn the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on gay scouts. He authored an inspiring memoir in 2013 about his family and the lessons his moms have taught him, My Two Moms: Lessons of Love, Strength, and What Makes a Family, which I highly recommend. In 2014, he co-founded The Rainbow Letters, a now-inactive project that collected and shared the stories of people with LGBTQ parents. And in 2017, he joined with his sister Zebby Wahls to launch “The Woman Card(s),” a deck of cards featuring strong and accomplished women, in response to Donald Trump’s dismissive comments about Hillary Clinton. Along the way, he graduated from the University of Iowa and obtained a Master’s degree in public policy from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
He was first elected to the Iowa Senate in 2018, and is now in his second term there. Until recently, he also worked as vice president of community investment at GreenState Credit Union, Iowa’s largest independent financial cooperative. He’s an active member of his Unitarian Universalist congregation, and he and his wife, Chloe Angyal, welcomed their first son last year.
As the links above show, I’ve followed Wahls’s doings since he was younger than my son is now. I don’t know him personally (although I had the pleasure of participating in an online forum with him once back in 2012), but if his record is anything to go by, he’ll be a formidable candidate and a hardworking, brave U.S. senator.