(Radio Iowa) – A third Democrat has just announced he’s running for the U-S Senate seat currently Republican Joni Ernst. Thirty-three year old Zach Wahls of Coralville has been a state senator since 2019. If elected in 2026, he’d become the youngest member of the U-S Senate. “I’ll tell you this,” Wahls said during an interview with Radio Iowa. “We’re going to bring generational change to Washington, D.C. whether they’re ready for it or not.” Wahls says as a U-S Senator, he’d have a new perspective on the challenges young families face. “Paid family leave is an issue that affects so many people and the lack of it for so many families is incredibly challenging,” Wahls says. “I believe that in Iowa how many kids you have, not how many kids you can afford.” Wahls and his wife are the parents of a boy born in March of last year.

“There was a lot of conversation with my wife Chloe about what we can do in this moment and I decided to run because Iowans are working hard, but aren’t getting ahead,” Wahls says. “And I want to do something to help solve the problems that hardworking families are facing.” In 2023, Wahls was leader of Democrats in the Iowa Senate. Fellow Democrats replaced him after he fired to long-time senate staffers. Wahls said he made the moves because the status quo wasn’t been working for Democrats, but there was obviously resistance to change. Now, Wahls told Radio Iowa his track record of standing up to leaders of both parties when they’re not delivering for Iowans.”We’re 48th in income, 49th in GDP and there was a report out last week that had us dead last in terms of the overall economy of our state,” Wahls said. “That’s unacceptable and it’s time for leadership in Washington that’s ready to do the job.”

State Senator Zach Wahls of Coralville is running for the Iowa Democratic Party’s 2026 U.S. Senate nomination. (Photo provided by Wahls campaign)

Ernst has hired a manager for her 2026 reelection bid, a move Wahls says violates her 2014 campaign pledge to serve only two terms in the U-S Senate.  “It’s clear that she’s lost the courage to stand up for her convictions,” Wahls says. “We saw that on full display when she decided to support Pete Hegseth against what were clear reservations that she had that were borne out in spectacular display when Signalgate blew up earlier this year.” The Defense Secretary used the commercial messaging app Signal to share details of an upcoming military attack in Yemen.

Yesterday (Tuesday), the New York Times reported that when Wahls was a college student, he’d discussed his pornography preferences in an online forum. Wahls told the paper he was talking about Playboy and porn like a normal guy and Democratic operatives who’d raised the issue won’t scare him off from running. Democrats J.D. Scholten of Sioux City and Nathan Sage of Indianola have previously announced they’re running for the U-S Senate.