Joe Mitchell

Running for Representative - District 2 in Iowa

Downloadable Report Card

Supported Health Care Cuts for Iowans
Backed Policies That Cut Medicare and Hobbled Social Security
Supported the Largest SNAP Cuts in History
Backs Tariffs That Hurt Iowa Farmers
Runs Against Lobbyists While Lobbyists Fund His Campaign
Spends More Time at Mar-a-Lago Than in the District He Never Lived In
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Supported Health Care Cuts for Iowans

Joe Mitchell backed Trump's Big Beautiful Bill that cut health care for millions of Americans — including tens of thousands of Iowans in the 2nd district.

Mitchell supported the "Big Beautiful Bill," which was projected to strip health coverage from at least 17 million Americans. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill alone would leave 11.8 million more people uninsured by 2034, mostly because of its Medicaid cuts. More than 25,000 Iowans in the 2nd district were at risk of losing their coverage.

Joe Mitchell backed legislation that cut health care for Iowans. We deserve better.

Supported the Largest SNAP Cuts in History

More than 25,000 households in Iowa's 2nd district rely on SNAP to afford groceries. Mitchell backed the largest cut to that program in history.

Mitchell supported the "Big Beautiful Bill," which cut federal SNAP funding by $187 billion through 2034 — about 20 percent of the program, and the largest cut to SNAP in history. In 2024, an estimated 25,709 households in Iowa's 2nd district relied on SNAP benefits to afford groceries.

Joe Mitchell backed cutting food assistance for Iowans. We deserve better.

Backs Tariffs That Hurt Iowa Farmers

Trump's tariffs devastated Iowa farmers and businesses. Joe Mitchell defended them anyway — even as Iowans watched their livelihoods erode.

Asked about agricultural trade policy days before the primary, Mitchell defended Trump's tariff strategy, arguing farmers support the president because they believe existing trade relationships have disadvantaged American agriculture for decades. An Iowa State University economist's verdict on those same policies: "We're all going to be poorer."
Trump's trade war cost American farmers billions of dollars in soybean sales to China — Chinese buyers booked South American beans instead and had not booked a single U.S. cargo for the new crop year. On a call organized by the Iowa Democratic Party, Ryan Marquardt — vice president of the Iowa Farmers Union and a Madison County cattle producer — said of Iowa producers: "We're tired of being a pawn… and we're tired of being sacrificed."

Joe Mitchell was eager to back an agenda that devastated Iowa farmers. We deserve better.

Runs Against Lobbyists While Lobbyists Fund His Campaign

Our elected officials should work for us, the people.

Joe Mitchell's whole pitch is that he is not one of the insiders. His issues page puts it in his own words: "As your representative, I will fight for you - not corporations. That's why I don't take a dime of corporate PAC money. When elected officials are funded by special interests, it's the public who gets left behind."

Read that last sentence, then look at where his money comes from. Of the $1,938,593 he has raised, $407,850 - 21% - came from PACs. He is right that none of them are technically corporate PACs. They are trade association PACs, which the Federal Election Commission classifies as lobbyist/registrant committees - the political arms of the very lobbying operations he campaigns against.

Iowans are not the ones paying for this campaign either. Only 31% of his itemized individual money came from Iowa; more came from Florida and Texas combined. He also loaned himself $100,000.

And there is one contribution worth more than all the rest put together, because of what happened eight days after it arrived:

Bruce Rastetter - $10,000, March 2022. Rastetter founded Summit Carbon Solutions, the company that wanted to run a CO2 pipeline roughly 700 miles through 30 Iowa counties and told landowners who refused that it would take their farmland by eminent domain anyway. It was Mitchell's largest contribution of the reporting period. Eight days later, an Iowa House committee voted on a one-year pause on eminent domain for private pipeline companies. Every Republican voted for it except one. Mitchell was the one. Two of the counties Summit planned to cut through are in the district he is now running to represent.
The lobbying organizations he says he is running against. The American Bankers Association, the National Association of Home Builders, Associated Builders and Contractors, the National Apartment Association, the National Electrical Contractors Association and the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America each gave his campaign $5,000 through their PACs - every one of them registered with the FEC as a lobbyist/registrant committee.
The housing industry, whose deregulation he has made his platform. Home builders, apartment owners, electrical contractors and building contractors are all among his PAC donors, and his employer-level giving is thick with developers and realty firms - Zeman Homes, Accurate Development, Rypma Realty, Cumberland Development. His housing plan is deregulation.
The Anti-Woke Fund - $10,000, his joint-largest PAC contribution.
Washington's Republican leadership. Tom Emmer's EMMER PAC gave $10,000, Steve Scalise's Eye of the Tiger PAC gave $5,000, and the National Republican Congressional Committee gave $5,000 - to the candidate who says he "doesn't seek the approval of the political establishment."
He also ran a lobbying operation himself. Mitchell founded and presides over an Iowa real estate trade group that spent nearly $75,000 lobbying the Iowa Legislature.

Joe Mitchell says the public gets left behind when officials are funded by special interests. He should know. We deserve better.

Spends More Time at Mar-a-Lago Than in the District He Never Lived In

Joe Mitchell never lived in Iowa's 2nd congressional district. Since announcing his run, he spent more time — and more campaign money — at Trump's Florida club than getting to know the people he wants to represent.

Mitchell's campaign spent $77,390.18 at Mar-a-Lago — more, entering April, than any other Republican running for Congress this cycle. The only entity that reported spending more at Trump's Palm Beach club since January 2025 was the Republican National Committee. Mitchell posted photos from the club with Rudy Giuliani, Ben Carson and Jim Jordan, attended a Turning Point USA event there in December, and hosted his own fundraiser there in March.
Mitchell had never lived in the 2nd congressional district. He grew up in southeast Iowa, represented the Mount Pleasant area in the Legislature, and then lived in Des Moines for several years — changing his voter registration to a Clear Lake rental shortly before launching his congressional campaign.

Joe Mitchell was more interested in climbing the social ladder than representing Iowans. We deserve better.