Photos via Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch and Iowa PBS livestream — Democratic state Rep. J.D. Scholten launched his campaign for U.S. Senate June 2, 2025 following U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst’s comments on Medicaid cuts.

Iowa Rep. J.D. Scholten, D-Sioux City, launched a run to challenge U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst Monday in the wake of her remarks at a town hall that garnered national backlash from Democrats and health care advocates.

Ernst made her controversial remark, “we are all going to die,” at a Parkersburg town hall Friday after a person in the crowd shouted “people will die” as she was discussing funding cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The cuts are included in the “big, beautiful” budget reconciliation bill passed by the U.S. House in May.

Though Ernst told the crowd there would likely be changes to the bill from the Senate, she supported the cuts that “make sure that those that are not eligible by the federal standard for Medicaid are not receiving Medicaid.”

Ernst posted an “apology” video Saturday after she drew national criticism for her response. Filmed in a cemetery, Ernst posted a video on Instagram where she sarcastically said she wanted to “sincerely apologize for a statement that I made yesterday at my town hall.”

“I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth,” Ernst said in the video. “So I apologize, and I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.”

She recommended “for those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

Scholten announces run

The comments prompted Scholten, a professional baseball pitcher for the Sioux City Explorers and state legislator, to launch his campaign for U.S. Senate. In a video posted Monday, Scholten said he “wasn’t planning on doing this right now, but I just can’t sit on the sidelines” following Ernst’s comments.

“Cutting vital services to give bigger tax breaks to billionaires isn’t just bad policy, it’s theft from people like you and me,” Scholten said. “Maybe it sounds crazy to run against an insider with enough arrogance to laugh at her constituents, but I’ve ran hard races before.”

Scholten ran twice for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District seat, in 2018 and 2020. Though he lost both elections, he was short by an unexpectedly tight margin — losing 47% to 50% to former U.S. Rep. Steve King in 2018 in the longtime conservative stronghold. In 2020, backlash against King for inflammatory comments made on issues like abortion exemptions and white nationalism led to his primary defeat by U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, who currently holds the seat.

The Democratic state lawmaker said he is running to tackle wealth inequality and improve America’s health care systems.

“I fundamentally believe that we deserve more than a GoFundMe broken healthcare system, a JBS food system and Dollar General economy,” Scholten said. “Ultimately, this race is not about Joni Ernst, and it’s not about me. It’s about the people in Iowa who deserve better: Better representatives who fight against the billionaire elites and special interests who hurt us.”

Nathan Sage, a Mason City Democrat, and Scholten are currently the only Democrats who have announced their bids for the seat. However, more Democratic challengers are expected to join the field, including Iowa Sen. Zach Wahls, D-Coralville. Wahls released a statement Friday criticizing Ernst’s comments, saying Iowa “need leaders who will fight for us, not gut health care funding that over 700,000 Iowans rely on.”

“It is of course true that we are all going to die, but our Senators shouldn’t be the ones killing us,” Wahls said.

National Democrats blast comments

National Democrats were quick to respond to Ernst’s comments, saying it further proved that Republicans are aware the Medicaid cuts will lead to preventable deaths. Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin made a statement denouncing Ernst’s video Saturday.

“Thoughts and prayers have a new meaning for the Republican Party with Joni Ernst doubling down on her cruel words,” Martin said. “It is immoral and un-Christian to do nothing to prevent people from dying but unfortunately, Trump, Ernst, and the Republican Party are hellbent on putting their own constituents at risk.”

Iowa’s junior U.S. senator is far from the only Republican facing backlash for their support of the budget reconciliation bill that includes substantial federal funding cuts to public assistance programs. GOP members of Congress nationwide have faced fiery crowds at public events for months, met by shouts and jeers from constituents upset about actions taken by Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service and potential cuts to public assistance programs including Medicaid as well as veterans’ benefits and Social Security.

Several Iowans who depend on Medicaid for themselves or their family also decried Ernst’s comments. Patrick Kearns, a registered nurse at the Iowa City VA Medical Center who has two adult children with disabilities on Medicaid, said he wished he was surprised by Ernst’s comments, but that he was not. Kearns said he believes Ernst’s comments reflect how many Republicans view people on Medicaid, pointing to Elon Musk, a former special government employee in the Trump administration, making social media posts referring to people on federal aid programs as a “parasite class.”

“She accidentally said the quiet part out loud … People are going to die, and why are we bothering to keep these folks alive?” Kearns said. “And I mean, (to say) that I’m horrified by it is pretty mild, but I guess the worst part of it is that I’m not surprised.”

Ernst and other Republicans have presented the changes to Medicaid as a means to stop waste, fraud and abuse in the system, and limit the public health coverage to people in need through restrictions like work requirements. At the Friday town hall, Ernst pointed to “illegals that are receiving Medicaid benefits” and unemployed adults who do not have disabilities as the people being removed from Medicaid through the GOP tax and spending bill.

“What we do need to do is make sure that those that are part of a vulnerable population have access to Medicaid and receive those full benefits,” Ernst said. “So what we’re trying to do is strengthen Medicaid by directing the dollars to the people that actually meet the requirements of the program.”

Kearns said he doesn’t believe the people Ernst says are abusing the Medicaid system exist, though he does think there is major fraud and misuse of Medicaid funds happening through large health provider and insurance companies. The Medicaid cuts will not target entities or individuals actually abusing the system, Kearns said, but instead push people in need to drop out of the system by adding new barriers in getting coverage.

Kearns said he and his wife are “relatively savvy” through education and years of working in the Medicaid system — but that “every time one of those quarter-inch thick envelopes arrives from from the state, we’re like, ‘oh my God.'”

Receiving Medicaid is already an arduous process for the people it is intended to serve — and adding new requirements will only make getting care more difficult for these populations, he said.

“The idea that somebody that’s able-bodied and able to work would put themselves through the process to enroll in Medicaid, I think it’s laughable,” Kearns said. “… Folks that have disabilities or that have severe medical problems that necessitate them going into long-term care or whatever else — they need social workers to help marshal them through that system. This is not something that you know the general person off the street can do.”