Interview Only w/ Rita Hart - Is Iowa The KEY To Democrats Winning Back Rural America
The Chuck ToddCast
iHeartPodcasts
4.0 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 22 October 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Chuck Todd sits down with Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart to talk farming, politics, and the fight to keep Iowa relevant on the national stage. From corn and soybeans to caucuses and campaigns, Hart shares what it’s really like for farmers caught in the middle of tariffs, trade wars, and shrinking rural economies — and how Washington’s decisions have reshaped Iowa’s way of life. They discuss the state’s economic struggles, rural healthcare crisis, and the outsized impact of right-wing media, as well as the challenge of rebuilding trust in the Democratic brand across small towns that once went from Obama to Trump.
Hart also dives into the future of Iowa’s political identity — why she thinks a rural state must remain among the first in the presidential primary calendar, how Democrats can connect urban and rural voters around shared values, and what success will look like for Iowa Democrats heading into 2026. It’s a candid, grounded look at where agriculture meets democracy, and how one state’s renewal could hold lessons for the entire country.
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Timeline:
(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)
00:00 Rita Hart joins the Chuck ToddCast
01:00 Experience of working as farmers in Iowa
02:00 How much of your corn is for human consumption?
03:45 What can farmers do with soybeans if they can’t find a buyer?
04:45 Tariffs & trade war can have dire consequences for farmers
06:15 What did government intervention look like last time & how does it work?
07:15 The trade war allowed foreign markets to take US ag customers
09:00 Targeted tariffs work for manufacturing but not for agriculture
10:45 Iowa’s place in rebuilding the Democratic party in the midwest
11:40 The national brand has stained the Iowa brand
12:45 Iowa is nearly last in the nation for economic and income growth
13:30 Iowa’s healthcare & childcare are increasingly unaffordable
14:30 Rural healthcare access is extremely limited in rural Iowa
15:30 Iowa has the most Obama to Trump voting counties in America
16:45 Iowa’s local news has diminished, voters focused on national news
18:00 FOX News & right wing media have huge influence in Iowa
20:15 The national Democratic Party is in a state of transition
22:00 Iowa Democrats have been activated and engaged
23:00 Iowa has good primary candidates, DSCC should stay out of it
24:45 Rob Sand emphasized party credentials rather than go independent
26:45 What issues should Iowa Dems lean in, and lean out on?
29:00 Can’t divide issues that affect everyone into “us vs. them”
31:30 How should Democrats talk about immigration
33:30 Need a sensible way for hard-working immigrants to get citizenship
35:30 Why has the DNC moved away from Iowa as first in the nation status
36:45 Iowa is a great testing ground for Democratic campaigns
38:45 Balancing targeting the urban centers vs the rural vote in campaigns
39:30 Why rural Iowa matters to a future presidential candidate
41:00 A rural state needs to be in the first four primary states
42:30 Will Iowa GOP work with Iowa Dems to keep first in nation status?
43:45 Iowa Democrats should get to choose between a caucus or a primary
46:30 Improving the caucus process to increase participation
47:45 What does success look like for Iowa Democrats in 2026?
49:45 There’s a reason both Kim Reynolds and Joni Ernst dropped out
50:30 What is the job of a state party chair?
54:00 Avoiding burnout during the constant state of fundraising
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:08.2 | Well, joining me now is the chair of the Iowa Democratic Party. |
| 0:12.9 | It's Rita Hart. |
| 0:14.9 | Some of you may remember that name because she is, I think at this point, the participant in what may have been the closest |
| 0:24.6 | house race in American history. And if not the closest, it's certainly going to be the top five, |
| 0:29.7 | a house race that was decided by six votes a few years back. She said, this is arguably politics is her second chapter. She spent the first |
| 0:41.9 | chapter of her professional life teaching in the public school system, a longtime Iowa, |
| 0:46.7 | Native Iowa, and I appreciate her coming on. Read a heart. Welcome to the podcast. Happy to be here. |
| 0:51.8 | Thanks so much. Did I get the highlights all right? You know, it's not a great claim to fame that I was looking for, you know, but, but it is certainly, was certainly an experience. I should also mention that my husband and I are farmers here in Iowa. I've been on the farm. |
| 1:08.0 | Well, that's what, tell me what you grow. So we're typical Iowa farmers. |
| 1:12.7 | We grow corn and soybeans. |
| 1:14.8 | We used to raise cattle and hogs, but now are strictly green. |
| 1:20.2 | A little bit of hay ground. |
| 1:22.2 | Any reason why you don't do hogs and cattle anymore? |
| 1:25.2 | Is it just the room, the space, or is it financial, or what is it? |
| 1:30.7 | Well, I would tell you that, you know, there was a time when a secretary of ag said, go big or go home, |
| 1:38.1 | particularly for us when it was when we were raising hogs. And that wasn't a possibility for us at that time. |
| 1:45.4 | So that's when we got out of hogs. |
| 1:47.9 | And then, you know, cattle, we had cattle until I went to the state legislature. |
| 1:53.9 | And my father-in-law was going to be home raising those cattle. |
| 2:00.5 | And there was some unsafe situations there that caused us |
| 2:04.0 | to make a decision to make that our last year with cattle. So, you know, it's a, it's a ebb and flow, |
... |
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