Iowa Talking Points--Joe Mitchell--Fri. Sep. 18, 2026

This is Iowa Talking Points, the candidates, produced by Studio 5 at Mud Advertising and totally Iowa Media, where you hear from candidates in the November 2026 general election.

Now, Iowa Talking Points, the candidates.

From Studio 5 at Mud and Cedar Falls, here is Jeff Stein.

Hello and welcome.

There will be a new member of Congress representing Northeast Iowa's second district in Washington.

Come January of 2027, it's an open seat.

The incumbent is seeking other office.

And there are no fewer than four candidates on the November General Election ballot.

One of them joins us at the Iowa Talking Points table here today.

He is Joe Mitchell.

Mr. Mitchell is a Republican again for Northeast Iowa, U.S.

House District 2, the website joemichael.com.

Mr. Mitchell, thank you for the time, sir.

Jeff, good to be here.

You were with us for the primary.

Congratulations on winning that.

So now there's a general election.

Give us a sense of priorities for you if you become a member of Congress in January.

Again, we had spoken before, but it's been six months and much

has

happened.

Well, Jeff, we started this campaign in September of last year.

You're just over a year ago, and we haven't changed our platform.

A lot of people do.

You know, they go into the primary and they have a different set of issues than they talk about in the general election.

But we've kept consistent with our platform with number one, we're not taking any corporate pack bunny.

And so that means no money from BlackRock or Pfizer or Amazon, these big giant corporations that are out there that give candidates money all the time will be the only Republican in Washington not taking corporate PAC money.

And so I think that's a very unique point that we've had on the campaign.

We've talked to Democrats, we've talked to independents, we've talked to Republicans all across the district, all 22 counties.

And that is a very popular point that they understand that

They know that we're not the run of the mill candidate because we're going against our party on that specific issue.

We think there needs to be campaign finance reform.

And then secondly, we believe in turn limits.

And so we've told people, you know, 12 years in the house, 12 years in the Senate, plenty of time to get your agenda done.

You know, I'm 29 years old.

I don't want to be there when I'm 80.

And so I'd like to get out of there at for a few years.

And so I want to make sure that we get the work done that I'm

going up there to do and that means make life easier and better for Iowans.

And then the third thing is you have to stop this insider trading that happens.

And so, you know, you have people like Nancy Pelosi, they go there and they're worth about $2 and they come out, they're worth about $200 million.

And so we think we need to stop the self-dealing that happens in Washington where these people are utilizing their time and resources to make money for themselves and

not enough time and resources to actually grow wages for Iowans.

And then the last thing is you have to stop this lobbyist or, sorry, lawmaker to lobbyist pipeline.

And, you know, this is something where people go up there for a few terms.

And, you know, what they do is they cash out at the end and they go to K Street and they work as a lobbyist to make seven figures.

And so

You know, in my opinion, and what I've observed, you know, directly from working in DC for the president last year and knowing members of Congress, is they are thinking about their career after Congress a lot of times.

And whether that's consciously or subconsciously, that's what they're doing.

And I do think that, you know, plays a part a lot of times when they're, you know, making decisions on, you know, certain, you know, bills that they're going to sponsor, co-sponsor or vote on.

And so that's where we think we need to clean up Washington.

And this has been happening for decades now.

And, you know, our platform, you know, and the policy issues that we're focused on are very bipartisan actually.

And so, you know, it's been that way since the beginning.

And, you know, we're willing to go up there and kind of, you know, buck the status quo.

And that comes with being a.

candidate from a new generation.

And we do think there needs to be some new blood in Washington and a new perspective on how Washington should work, you know, for people and not the other way around.

And so, you know, that's what we're going to be focused on.

And, you know, we think.

That's a winning platform that we have, and it certainly was a winning platform in the primary, and we believe it will be in the general election as well.

What are some of the skill sets or attributes that you developed as a state lawmaker that you think will help you in Washington?

Well, you have to have discernment.

You have to make sure you're taking in the correct information from the right avenues.

And a lot of times, these big

large corporations, they had the money to pay lobbyists to be able to come up there and, you know, give their point of view.

And, you know, what a lobbyist is, is a salesperson for the company.

And they're typically pretty good at their job and they're paid a lot of money to be a, you know, lawmakers, friends, but then also to give them, you know, perspective on, you know, bills.

And so my point of view on this, and I did this and tried to do this in the legislature, was to always go back home and ask the experts in that area back home.

So if we were going to vote on something involving our hospitals, I was going to go talk to my hospital CEOs.

I was going to go talk to doctors in our community about how that bill would affect them.

If we were dealing with education, I would always go back and talk to superintendents in the district, teachers that were employed in the district.

And for any bill that comes up in whatever area that may be, and you want to go talk to people that you actually represent back home that aren't paid to tell you something.

And so that's what I'm going to do in Congress as well.

And it was good to have that experience at the state level.

And I've done things even much differently this time running for Congress and the team I've put together.

How we're evaluating, you know, different issues, you know, that's changed to a certain extent and for the better because you have to make sure you're going up there and you have a clean slate and you're listening to the right people.

And there's a lot of not so great people in this business and I've worn that, you know, firsthand and I'm not the.

the favorite candidate when you go to DC, when I go to DC, people don't like that I'm not taking corporate-packed money and that I'm so strong on turn limits and, you know, banning insider trading and this lawmaker to lobbyist pipeline that even exposes stuff because, you know, most candidates won't even talk about these issues.

But, you know, that's where, you know, we learned a lot of that by serving in the state legislature.

And so we're going to be a changed candidate.

We're going to be somebody that, you know, is going to

go and work with people across the aisle regardless of what party they're with, but also we're going to make sure that we're working for Iowans first and foremost.

You're a Republican and I am asking all the candidates, whether they're Democrats or libertarians or even independents, about that label.

So in the fall of 2026, moving forward, if you are elected, what does it mean to be a Republican these days?

What it means to be a Republican is to really have common sense, in my opinion.

And that's a knock on candidates running as Democrats, not as voters.

You know, I have, you know, my grandma, for instance, she's a lifelong Democrat.

Both sides of my grandparents were lifelong Democrats.

And, you know, this is not a Democrat party.

I think that they really recognize.

And, you know, when I talk to, you know, my grandmother about the issues that, you know, my...

Democrat colleagues have voted on like in the legislature and they want my opponents running on.

She doesn't recognize that party.

You know, the Democrat party, you know, for a long time was seen as a party that was for the working class and was a party that, you know, also had common sense on very basic social issues and, you know, thought that we should have a secure border and we should protect and support law enforcement and they keep our communities safe.

And you have a Democrat party now.

the Democrat Socialists of America, and they called, you know, the DSA candidates.

And, you know, my opponent, Lindsay James, I think, you know, she could, she would run as a DSA candidate.

She's from Portland, Oregon.

She would fit in very well there, in my opinion.

You know, but this is somebody that voted on the most extreme and radical pieces of legislation.

in the legislature.

So, you know, I tell people she voted to give illegal immigrants benefits, state funded benefits like Medicaid, food stamps, housing assistance.

She was voting to allow prisoners to get taxpayer funded sex surgeries.

She was voting to allow children to have puberty blockers and to allow them to have sex changes.

And so, you know, this is the kind of stuff

that my opponents voted for.

This is the kind of stuff that most Democrats that are elected now, both in the state and out of the state, have stood up for and voted for things that were inconceivable just, you know, 15 or 20 years ago.

You know, if you look at the Democrats from 2006, or even when Obama ran 2008, they were talking about the debt, they were talking about endless wars, and they were talking about health care changes.

That's what they're talking about.

And now,

They're talking about all kinds of social issues.

They don't want to secure our border.

They call the president a racist for wanting to secure the border.

And they want to defundice.

I mean, they want to abolish ICE.

That's what these people run on.

And they don't protect our law enforcement officers.

I mean, just your basic city cops or your county sheriffs, they don't think these people should have a job.

You know, they think that we should abolish prisons and we should abolish, you know, the Senate as an institution, all kinds of stuff.

that is you know crazy and it is radical and it is anti-american and that's what the democrat party has turned into and i think that's where uh there you see democrats um voting for people like you know the president i think we'll have a fair share of democrats vote for people like myself because again we're talking about common sense issues and at the same time the republican party has shifted to a certain extent

you used to have this, you know, very country club, a pro big business, Republican party.

And the president has really shifted that and said, no, we have to stand it for the workers.

And, you know, we want business to work.

We know that being a, you know, pro capitalist, pro free market, you know, parties, how you grow jobs, but also there has to be garden rails.

And we had to make sure there's not monopolies either, because you can't have capitalism if you don't have competition.

And so that's where, you know, I, you know, the president, myself, we believe in a philosophy that, you know, you can't have monopolies.

You had to break up those monopolies if you don't have competition in certain areas.

And so, you know, that's what I've talked about on this campaign trail is that, you know, we have to make sure that there's competition because competition makes the environment better for workers as well.

You know, people get paid more, their working conditions are better.

And so we have stood side by side with workers in this campaign as well to make sure they know they're going to have a fight during Congress as well.

But it's just a very stark contrast between myself and my opponent and really the entire Democrat slate that's up this year because we say it's common sense versus crazy.

And that's what it's came down to.

And it's starting to stem into common sense versus communism is what we're dealing with.

And so this is...

Really, in America, in a choice that I don't think many people thought we would get this far ever in their lifetime, but here we are.

And I think we need to get to a place, and I've told voters this, that the Democrat Party, I think they need to get beat so badly this November, where they realize they have to moderate on a lot of these crazy issues that they've stood up for.

And they don't believe in meritocracy anymore.

You know, there's just a number of issues that, you know, I think the average person and certainly the average Iowan says that's way too crazy and radical for me.

And that's where you see Rob Sand and Josh Turk and these guys totally running away from, you know, Kamala Harris and any of these national Democrats coming to campaign because they know that they're so unpopular here.

The Democrat brand is so unpopular in this state.

And for a reason, and that's because

In Iowa, we're common sense people.

We're normal, ordinary, average state people that do extraordinary things, by the way.

But we know these things have been very bad for millions and millions of people all around the world.

Their lives have been destroyed.

People have been killed when communist regimes come in, and they promise the world they can never deliver.

Joe Mitchell is the Republican nominee for U.S.

Congress from Northeast Iowa's second district, JoeMitchell.com.

More with Mr. Mitchell when Iowa Talking Points, the candidates continues in a moment.

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You're watching Iowa Talking Points, the candidates.

Here again is Jeff Stein.

And we continue with Joe Mitchell.

Mr. Mitchell is the Republican in Northeast Iowa's second congressional district, U.S.

House.

There are four candidates on the ballot, Republican, Democrat, Independent and Libertarian.

He is the Republican.

JoeMitchell.com is the website.

And in the last segment, you were talking about your Democrat opponent and her votes in the legislature.

You also have state legislative experience.

Give us a sense of your background broadly.

And then I'll ask you about some of the things that you voted for.

by comparison in the Iowa House when you served there.

Right.

When I was in the Iowa House, I was always voting to cut taxes for Iowans.

We were voting to cut regulations and red tape for people here in Iowa to make it easier to start a business and to work and to live and to ultimately achieve your dream.

And so, that's what I focused on.

That's where I ran on.

Initially, when I ran in 2018, I was 20 years old.

I was a college student at Drake University.

you know, I had a four-way primary back then and you know, I ran a tough race and we'd not done a lot of doors and listened to supporters.

But even back then we were focused on how can we cut taxes, balance the budget and fund our schools and make sure we have, you know, the world-class, you know, education system that I had, you know, when I grew up, you know, 20, 25 years ago.

And so, you know, this is what

You know, a very similar message we're going to have when we go to DC, we want to make sure people can prosper and, you know, have a good life.

And that means getting government out of the way.

And I think a lot of times now you have people on both sides of the aisle, frankly, that think government's always the solution.

And they're always thinking about how can government intervene to be the solution to a lot of, you know, these problems that we have.

And, you know, I think we don't stop and think a lot of times about how this government may be the problem here.

And how can we limit government so we can have, again, like we talked about in the last segment, more competition, more prosperity, more people and startups and companies that could come up with innovative solutions to fix a lot of these problems that we have.

If you believe the national data, people of your age are not able to buy their first home, you actually own a company where you build homes.

Talk

a bit about your business background because you still are employed.

by your business.

That's your

daily work.

Just before this segment, I was out taking calls from contractors on job sites that we have all across eastern Iowa.

And so, you know, I've built nearly 100 homes in eastern Iowa, Dyersville, Clearlake, Grinnell, almost all exclusively in northeast Iowa.

By the way, we employed hundreds of people with good paying jobs.

We've made sure we've built homes for workforce families, for seniors, two bedroom, two bath, zero entry, due plexus, four plexus, six plexus.

And so what we've done is invested tens of millions of dollars into the communities here in northeast Iowa.

And if you watch the ads, they've attacked me on this, which is an interesting to attack me on that I've came and I've created jobs and opportunity and also built homes for

you know, workforce families and, you know, uh, you know, seniors and that sort of thing.

And the program that I've been able to utilize, uh, through the Iowa economic development authorities, the workforce housing tax credit, uh, which my opponent Lindsay voted for by the way, numerous times and has said she supports, but also is now attacking me, um, in the media and on ads everywhere saying that I utilize this program to build homes for Iowans.

And so, you know, this is where, you know, we're proud of our record.

And I'm proud that I'm a, I'm a business owner and that I've been able to create jobs, you know, in the private sector, but I'm even more proud that what I've built is stuff for ordinary Iowans.

And, you know, I don't build big, huge custom, you know, 5,000 square foot mansions, you know, for people.

What I build is stuff that, you know, like my neighbor, Dick, he's a Vietnam veteran and he's got a service dog and he loves his home.

He needed a zero entry, you know, home to live in.

And there wasn't.

really any homes to rent in Clear Lake, you know, where he lives, where I live.

And so he was able to get one of our units.

And so I have tons of stories like that of tenants that are fantastic people that, you know, have lived, you know, great lives and a lot of them have, you know, served this country and that rent from me or have bought homes from me.

And, you know, without, you know, the products that we've built, they would not have a home.

right now or certainly the home that they would like.

And so, again, I know about building codes, the energy codes more than I would like.

I certainly will know more about them than anybody else in Congress.

And we're facing a crisis right now where the average age of a first time home buyer is 40 years old, far too old to buy your first home and start a family.

I think we would all agree with that.

And when you look at data, because I'm a big data guy, and when you look at data from the 1970s,

you know, it was 27, 28 years old was the average age of a first time home buyer.

And what you looked at was, you know, median household income versus the median home price.

And so medium household incomes, it was $20,000 back in 1970.

Well, the medium home was $40,000.

Okay, so two times what that, you know, gross, you know, median family income was, you can afford a home with that.

And that's how you measure sort of the affordability of housing.

Well, now it's five times because the median household income in 2024 was $81,000.

And the median home price was $420,000.

So there's this massive gap now where housing costs and housing costs went up 30, 40% under Biden under 2021 to 2020.

four.

And so those four years, you know, with COVID and the Democrats in charge, out of control spending, home costs just soared.

And I saw that firsthand because I was building homes at the time.

And so you had these housing costs go up, you know, exponentially.

And, you know, you have now, you know, this terrible situation where young people can't afford homes at all.

And they're wondering, well, I ever be able to afford a home.

And so that's a sad place to be in.

And this is a place that

uh, you know, I've talked to many people, um, certainly older than me in the party about to say this is why young people see socialism as an attractive thing because they can't afford a home.

They have tens of thousands of dollars of student debt because they were told by their parents, their parents generation, go to college, go to a good degree, come out, you'll have a job waiting for you.

And none of that was true.

And they told them that you can go to college and get any major you want, by the way.

And that was also not true.

And so people feel like they've been cheated.

And this is where, if we're not coming up with solutions relatively soon on how to solve certainly the housing crisis, then you're going to have people vote for people like Soren Mondani that are promising them free healthcare, free housing, free education, everything's free.

And as we know, nothing's free, right?

It all comes from somebody comes from a hardworking, you know, taxpayer that pays into the system.

And as you spend more government dollars that causes inflation, that causes things to go up.

So, you know, this is where you have to have people like myself that have expertise, that have practical experience, that can go to Congress, that can provide solutions, that can incentivize states and local municipalities.

to take on a common sense building code and energy code that can get control of this reckless out of control spending that we have.

We're still spending at COVID era levels.

And so we said, we're going to spend trillions of dollars more than we did the year before back in 2020.

And they never cut the spending after that.

And so they just continued to spend since then.

They did the same thing in 2008.

You had the global financial crisis happen.

you spend a lot of money and then we never bring the budget back down to where it's supposed to be.

And so this is where you've had debt get out of control.

And when you have debt get out of control and you have the deficit skyrocket, then assets inflate.

And so the people that are wealthy, the wealthy people in this country, assets have been flated and they've gotten wealthier, but the people that have no assets in this country, they've gotten poorer because their dollar doesn't go as far.

And so

We are at a crucial time in this country.

So it's housing, it's healthcare, it's education, it's all these things.

And the government has gotten more involved and things have gotten more expensive.

And we have to have people that go to Washington and keep people accountable for the reckless spending of the dollars that they don't have.

We're midway through this Iowa Talking Points conversation with Joe Mitchell.

He is the Republican running for Congress from Northeast Iowa's second district.

JoeMitchell.com is the website.

More with Mr. Mitchell when Iowa Talking Points.

The candidates continues in a moment.

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Watch all the programs in the Iowa Talking Point series online at IowaTalkingPoints.com.

Iowa Talking Points, the candidates, continues with Jeff Stein.

And we continue with Joe Mitchell.

He is a Republican running for Congress from Northeast Iowa's second district.

JoeMitchell.com is his website.

In the last segment, we were talking about

politicians, elected officials who promise certain things and either don't deliver, etc.

And it seems to me that when a voter is evaluating such things.

First the promise that the candidate is making has to be something they can actually do right within their power And the other is you look at their track record to see if they've delivered alright So if you're making promises about what you want to do Give us a sense of what's attainable for a member of Congress and what's your track record that?

Supports the fact that you keep those promises

right well you have to build coalitions because that's what people did

you know, sometimes don't realize is you're one of 435 members in the house.

And so you have to build coalitions and teams that can come together and push certain pieces of legislation.

And so one thing that has been, you know, pushed through the house and is waiting in the Senate is the stock trading ban.

And so that's something that will be a priority of mine.

And that's a priority because it's something that has already passed through the house.

And hopefully they get it done before I go to Congress, but it looks like it's probably not going to happen.

And so you start looking at stuff, what is attainable right away?

And there's certain things like the stock trading ban.

There's certain things, possibly like the lawmaker to lobbyist pipeline.

Then you start looking at campaign finance reform.

You start looking at term limits.

And then you look at larger things to tackle.

I want to co-sponsor a balanced budget amendment.

And that's something that probably is not going to get done the first week that I get there.

But it's sort of a legacy play.

I've told people, if we can pass a balanced budget amendment where the government can't spend more than it takes in, and I lost my seat over that, so be it.

Because I think that's one of the most crucial things we have to tackle in my generation is to make sure that we get this out of control spending under control, which is driving up costs everywhere.

and has been for many years now.

But there's certain things like that where you have to start prioritizing.

That's where you have to have a good team around you as well.

And we want to get results done for the people of Iowa.

But that takes 218 votes to get results done for the people of Iowa.

I think what they did last year with the Working Families Tax Cut was fantastic, where they said no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on social security.

People are seeing the largest tax returns they've ever had come back to them.

And you know, that's a good thing.

You know, we want people to keep more of their own, you know, hard earned money.

And so we're going to be pushing for, you know, a tax code that is more simple and again, you know, gives harder money back to Iowans.

And so those are going to be the priorities when I go to Washington, along with, you know, the housing policy specifically that we talked about, you know, we've talked about being on the.

House Financial Services Committee or the Ways and Means Committee at some point to be able to help directly with those issues.

And so, again, I'm taking up direct experience from my time as a home builder and as a home developer to be able to help with this.

But also, I worked for the president last year as the chief of staff to the federal housing finance agency.

And so we were over $7 trillion worth of mortgages that are held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

that was a learning experience in itself.

But also, you know, I'm somebody that has a 30 year mortgage.

I have a Fannie Mae, you know, loan and, you know, it could be a little bit more simple, right?

And there's a lot of things that I think are unnecessary.

And we want to make sure that people that would do want to buy a home and that qualify and check all the boxes that, you know, it's not difficult for them to be able to, you know, fill out the paperwork and get a mortgage and

you know, really achieve the American dream because this is something we didn't talk about in the last segment.

But, you know, the American dream starts in my opinion with, you know, being able to afford a home and building that equity.

And that's sort of what people thought for the last hundred years was you start a family, you buy a home, and you start building equity and paying down principal on that property.

And then you had that property paid off when you're retirement age.

um, and you're able to live off of, you know, your retirement, you know, savings and, you know, your, uh, pension possibly or, you know, social security and all those things combined.

And, you know, that is, um, becoming out of reach for many, many people.

And so, you know, everything comes down to this idea that we have here in America, which is the American dream.

And, you know, I pe, I know people have said it before, but there's no such thing as, you know, the French dream or, you know, the British dream.

the Japan dream, but there's the American dream.

And that's this point where people in my generation and people in my kids' generation, they can do better than their parents.

And that's what we want to preserve for this country.

And what I've set out to do and really why I'm running for office, I've really enjoyed my life the last few years.

And I like building homes all around the state.

I like getting deals done.

I like

you know, putting up homes for, you know, people to live in and, you know, seeing the satisfaction of the products that we've built.

But I think we're in a dire circumstance right now with where the country is at.

And I see, you know, these people, you know, running for office that I just genuinely don't think have the best interest in mind, you know, for the American people.

And it leads me to the spot where I feel like I need to run for office and, you know, do my part.

And you really put my two cents in on what needs to be done and how we can best serve the people of Iowa.

And that starts with what we've decided to run on in our platform, but also the expertise that we bring to the table.

I'm asking all of the candidates a very similar question.

And that is, if you are elected as a Republican, speaking of 218, you need 218, a majority four speaker.

Is Mike Johnson your choice for Speaker or are you open to other nominees or folks who might put their hat in the ring?

No, I think Mike Johnson has done a fantastic job.

And, you know, I fully plan on supporting Speaker Johnson when we keep the majority.

And, you know, this is a guy that he's got to have the toughest job in the entire country, you know, to wrangle up the votes and to get the pieces of legislation they've passed over the last, you know, 18 months

It's historic.

I think it's, I was just told the other day they've passed more pieces of legislation through the house than any time in the last 75 years with the smallest majority ever.

And so, you know, I think Speaker Johnson's done a fantastic job.

You know, he was thrown into this, you know, just a few years ago.

And it wasn't something that was necessarily on his bingo card or anybody else's that he would be speaker of the house, at least this early.

And I think he's done a phenomenal job dealing with the circumstances.

And of course, keeping the majority in 2024, and I think he fully plans on, I fully plan on keeping it again here in 2026.

We

have a final segment with Joe Mitchell.

He is a Republican running for Congress from Northeast Iowa's second district.

JoeMitchell.com is the website, and we'll bring you that final segment in a moment as Iowa Talking Points, the candidates, continues.

Iowa has a wonderful heritage, and each day I'll share these stories of historic people and events with you.

I'm Jeff Stein.

Join me for the Iowa Almanac program and learn more about this great place we call home.

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You're watching Iowa Talking Points, the candidates.

Here again is Jeff Stein.

And a few more minutes with Joe Mitchell.

He is the Republican running for Congress from Northeast Iowa's Second Congressional District.

JoeMitchell.com is the website.

What led you to get involved in college student?

What took you down that road?

Well my parents were small business owners and you know they were people that started a business out of their garage when I was you know six years old and we were living in you know Washington County at the time and my dad started making orthopedic braces for babies with club feet and took a huge risk and it paid off and you know both

My mom and dad, neither one of them had went to college, could afford to go to college.

And so my first generation college student, but I saw them build that business.

And my dad always told me, I can do more with the money that we bring in to the business than the government can.

And he employed a lot of people in our community, you know, gave them really great jobs.

You know, they had the best healthcare benefits and, you know, they had a 401k match and a four day work week.

And so.

You know, what I learned from that is that, you know, small business drives the economy and gives people the best jobs that they can, you know, possibly get in any community around the state.

And also, I want to be a page at the state capitol when I was 17 years old, got immersed into state politics and saw how, you know, the sausage is made.

And, you know, that was intriguing.

Went to Drake University, served as an intern in the state Senate, served as an intern for Senator Joni Ernst and...

Governor Kim Reynolds.

And so for me, I just saw after each and every one of those experiences, how important state politics and state policy was to everybody's everyday life.

And, you know, then I met Charlie Kirk, of course, in 2019, actually met Charlie September 10th of 2019.

So six years ago to the date that he was, you know, brutally, you know, assassinated in Utah.

We just, you know, had that one year anniversary last week, which was hard.

and but it's a good reminder of what we're fighting for and that each and every day you know we have to fight for our freedoms and that you know he got killed he got assassinated by this far-left lunatic this um Tyler Robinson uh kid who was radicalized and you know we have to stop the political violence in this country we almost had our president assassinated multiple times you know during the campaign year

We did have Charlie assassinated last year.

I was with Leader Steve Scalise just about a month ago.

He was shot, almost killed on the baseball field a number of years ago.

And people are being radicalized in this country to really target political figures, specifically on the right.

And we have to be very careful with that.

And this is what drives me.

I have people tell me all the time, why would you want to be in that business?

You asked me that earlier.

you know, off the record.

And I think sometimes, you know, it is a little insane, but somebody has to do it.

And somebody has to stand up for our freedoms.

And, you know, it could be lost at any time.

You know, this is not a guaranteed republic.

This is not a guaranteed country that we live in.

And so you have to have people that stand up and fight for all the things that we believe in.

And, you know, that's what I'm going to do when I go to Washington.

And so I think that's what drives me.

to come back to public service and continue to serve.

And I love the people of the state.

I love Iowa.

You know, I was, you know, born and raised, you know, to believe that these are the best people in the entire country.

I'm a sixth generation of Iowa and so, you know, I plan to, you know, raise my kids here and, you know, I plan to have many more generations of Iowans for, you know, the foreseeable future.

We've got about five minutes and I want to give you a chance to address the voters directly.

But before we do that, this is a popular race for people on the ballot.

Right.

Yeah.

Distinguish yourself from the other three, the Democrat, the independent and the libertarian.

Right.

Well, it's funny.

I've actually met with Rick and Dave and they're both good guys.

They have different policy views than I do in a lot of things, but they're both good people.

And I did serve with Lindsay, you know, in the state legislature.

I think the biggest thing is I'm a lifelong Iowan.

And so I've been here all 29 years of my life.

I've lived in Iowa, particularly in Eastern Iowa.

And, you know, this is a state that, you know, I've served before and I deeply care about and I don't plan to be on.

to go anywhere else the rest of my life I love this state this is where I plan to be and you know many friends from college and high school have went out and they've went to different places and lived different places but this is where I've always been this is where I've built my business and chose to do so you know my opponent's from Portland Oregon she's served in the legislature for last eight years almost immediately ran for office you know when she came here

As I talked about earlier, she's voted to put illegal immigrants over American citizens.

She's voted to allow taxpayer dollars to get prisoners for sex changes.

She's voted for a very radical left, crazy agenda.

And that's not me making up lies or throwing personal tax her way, which seems to be her strategy towards me, but it's all about her record.

And so that's what I go off of.

I go off of, you know, what is your record?

How do you feel about policy?

And we can see that directly from what she's voted on in the state legislature.

And so I think that's what differentiates us.

And the fact that I've been a job creator, you know, I've created jobs and she can't say that, you know, I've created jobs all over the state, you know, for good working, you know, and hardworking Iowans.

And so, you know, this is where, you know, I'm bringing expertise straight to the table on what I've done, what I've been able to create.

And I've been blessed with a great life and I've been blessed with a lot of different experiences that a lot of people haven't had at the age of 29.

And I'm grateful for that, but I'm willing to take those experiences to Congress and be able to work hard for the people of Iowa to make sure that their lives improve and get better and that government gets out of their way.

If you were in Congress right now,

And we are having this conversation in mid-September and the House is going to meet for a few days before we take time off for campaigning prior to the election.

If you were able to grab the speaker in the hallway and whisper an encouragement into his ear as to what should happen, what kind of advice do you give as a member of Congress?

What should they be doing right now before Election Day, whether it has to do with the economy or farm policy or the war?

What sort of advice might you whisper in his ear?

I think the advice would be let's message to the American people what you guys have done because they've had a historic general assembly the last, you know, 18 months in Congress.

You know, again, the working family's tax cut was an incredible bill that they passed.

And it not only focused on the tax cuts, it focused on energy independence as well, which is so important.

And it's a long-term strategy.

It's not just a short-term fix.

It's a long-term strategy, but it focused on border security.

making sure that we have the correct funding for DHS and for ICE to be able to secure our border.

And so there's all these things that the president and the Congress has done.

And we need to get that message out to the American people that, you know, you are safe.

You have

you know, the largest tax attorney you've ever seen before, you know, for people in the service industry, you have no tax on tips for people that are retired.

You have no tax on your social security because of Republicans and Democrats voted against every single one of those measures.

And so that's why I would tell the speaker is we need to get out there on the campaign trail.

We need to let the people know why we deserve to have control of Congress in 2026 and after that.

And I think we have a good story to tell, and we just need to go out there and tell it.

That dovetails nicely into me saying we've got just a couple of minutes, and you're asking Iowa voters in the second district to elect you to Congress, and I'll let you make the case directly to them in our final couple of minutes.

Right.

Well, I'm a lifelong Iowan.

And like I told Jeff earlier, I plan to be here for a very long time and I care about the state deeply.

That's why I've started a business to build homes all across Eastern Iowa for working families and for seniors.

And I'm proud of that record.

I'm proud of my record in the legislature.

I'm proud of my record of being the cheapest staff to the federal housing finance agency.

And I've had a lot of experience in the last 29 years.

I've been very, very blessed.

And ultimately, I want to go to Washington because I want to fight corruption.

I want to make sure you can have a better life for your family.

We want to grow wages.

We want to take down regulations and red tape.

There's a lot of things that need to be done still.

And so there's a lot of work to be done.

But ultimately, we want to go to Washington to fight for you and your family.

Joe Mitchell, thank you so much for taking the time.

Best of luck in the election.

Thank

you,

Jeff.

Joe Mitchell, Republican, running for Congress from Northeast Iowa's second district.

And again, the website is joemichill.com.

And that brings us to the close of this edition of the program.

Iowa Talking Points, the candidates, thanks so much for watching.

This has been Iowa Talking Points, the candidates, produced by Studio Five at Mud Advertising and totally Iowa Media.

For more information on this series, go to iowatalkingpoints.com.