2026 race

IA — U.S. Senate

9 active candidates on file with the FEC. No incumbent on the FEC's 2026 roster — see note below.

Currently held by

Joni Ernst (R) — not seeking re-election in 2026. They've publicly announced their retirement; their committee is still on the FEC's 2026 roster for routine compliance, but this is effectively an open seat.

Election day

180days

Tuesday, November 3, 2026

Make sure you can vote

Total raised in race

FEC totals through last reporting period.

Candidates

Sorted by fundraising

Ashley Hinson Arenholz

ChallengerFEC S6IA00314

Raised this cycle—

Cash on hand: —

James Carlin

ChallengerFEC S6IA00249

Raised this cycle—

Cash on hand: —

Joni Ernst

ChallengerFEC S4IA00129

Raised this cycle—

Cash on hand: —

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Thomas Raymond Laehn

ChallengerFEC S6IA00181

Raised this cycle—

Cash on hand: —

Jackie Norris

ChallengerFEC S6IA00280

Raised this cycle—

Cash on hand: —

Nathan Sage

ChallengerFEC S6IA00256

Raised this cycle—

Cash on hand: —

James Scholten

ChallengerFEC S6IA00264

Raised this cycle—

Cash on hand: —

Joshua Turek

ChallengerFEC S6IA00298

Raised this cycle—

Cash on hand: —

Zach Wahls

ChallengerFEC S6IA00272

Raised this cycle—

Cash on hand: —

About this race page

Candidate roster is sourced from the FEC's active-candidate list for the 2026 cycle. Fundraising totals reflect committee filings through the last reporting period.

Alignment % compares the candidate's extracted policy positions against your quiz answers. Positions are pulled from the candidate's campaign issues page by AI; we save the source quote for each position so you can verify the extraction. Candidates without a campaign issues page show position data pending — we're working through the roster and re-checking stale extractions every 90 days.

News coverage is from the GDELT 2.0 global news feed, filtered to a curated list of national, political, and regional outlets.