What I Heard This Week at Our Town Hall in Iowa

A shared sense of outrage, fear, and frustration - but also a feeling of determination, energy, and even hope.

I’m writing this from back home in Traverse City after a memorable visit to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, earlier this week. It was a meaningful trip, renewing my conviction that our political process and leaders need to pay much more attention to how their decisions affect everyday life in America–and be more prepared to explain their work in terms of those effects.

When I stepped off the plane at Eastern Iowa Airport on Monday, I walked into a gleaming new terminal, built with help from $20 million in federal funds that I was proud to help deliver through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. I remember visiting the same airport almost exactly two years ago, as Secretary, to see the construction progress, and it was a good feeling to walk through the upgraded facility and see the results, knowing it was just one out of tens of thousands of projects we funded across the country.

This time, my purpose in visiting was to participate in a town hall, organized by VoteVets, joining veterans and other Iowans to talk about what is happening in our country and what we can do about it. All day - first at a roundtable with veterans and people who are involved in caring for them, then over lunch with local Democratic leaders, and then at the town hall itself - I heard story after story of how the cruelty and chaos of this administration is affecting people on the ground.

One VA worker talked about his experience scheduling patients for care - and his fears about what is happening to wait times and medical outcomes as the Trump administration pursues plans to cut 80,000 Veterans Affairs staff. Another described how hiring for doctors and other professionals has already been disrupted by DOGE cuts, harming rather than improving efficiency. It was especially troubling to hear about the Trump Administration firing employees who staff the suicide crisis hotline. We lose nearly twenty veterans a day to suicide, and it is shameful to see this lifesaving resource damaged by the administration.

Others at the town hall talked about their concern for public education, the rule of law, and the strength of our elections. An extraordinary young woman who is currently fighting cancer asked what we can do to stand up to reverse the administration’s cuts to medical research that has delivered advancements like the cancer therapy that is saving her life.

Nearly two thousand people filled the room, and we could all feel the shared sense of outrage, fear, and frustration. But something else was clearly in the air - a feeling of determination, energy, and even hope. People were there on a busy weeknight because they were looking for action, ready to make sure that things change - and quickly. We talked about that too - how the Democratic Party can do a better job of fighting these abuses and earning voters’ trust, and how we could have a better future with more accountable leaders.

America can, and will, do so much better than what the people in charge of our government today are offering. We do not have to choose between today’s abusive corruption and yesterday’s inadequate status quo. By the time I stepped out of the venue and back outside into the warm Iowa dusk after the event, I was more sure than ever that Americans are prepared to work together and build a better future for the nation that the veterans I had met put their lives on the line to defend.