Winning Candidates in Iowa Pledge to Address Water Quality and Cancer Concerns
A fascinating election cycle just wrapped up in Iowa—where concerns about water quality and cancer broke through in an undeniable way.
Over the past couple of years, Iowa has become a focal point for concerns about water quality and environmental links to cancer. It is one of only three states where the cancer rates are rising, and the state now has the second highest rate in the nation. Reports such as Environmental Risk Factors and Iowa’s Cancer Crisis, from the Iowa Environmental Council and the Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement, explore the links between contaminated water and rising cancer rates in Iowa. Significant news coverage has also focused on the issue, including a POLITICO Magazine article that referred to water quality concerns' "increasingly undeniable tie to the state's signature industry: agriculture." (The article was written by CLF senior research associate Tom Philpott and a collaborating journalist, Nina Elkadi.)
Throughout the campaign, candidates in Iowa on both sides of the aisle spoke of the need to address the impact of fertilizers and pesticides on the state’s water supply. As Ellie Borst of Politico put it, talking about these issues was “an approach once unimaginable for a candidate running in one of the country’s top agriculture-producing states.” According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service, farmland (largely growing corn and soy) comprises about 85% of Iowa. Iowa, whose population is 3.2 million, is also home to 10,830 industrial livestock production sites housing about 126 million farm animals, according to a new map published by Sentient Media.
Our recent survey of Iowa voters ahead of the election found that regardless of political affiliation, a majority are concerned about the quality of their tap water at home. Sixty percent of likely Iowa voters said that “drinking water quality and the environment” was one of their top issues, just behind cost of living, health care, and Social Security/Medicare. Another 2026 survey from Food and Water Action found that 79% of Iowa voters support new regulations for industrial agriculture to reduce pollution.
Ultimately, Iowa Democrats flipped a number of important seats, including wins for Governor (Rob Sand), Senate (Josh Turek), and three seats in the House of Representatives. Now that the election is over, voters will expect their elected officials to deliver on their campaign promises—including addressing Iowa’s water quality and cancer rates. In election night speeches, Turek and Sand both indicated they were not going to ignore this issue.
Senator-elect Turek pledged, “I am going to fight and address the cancer crisis, because it is wrong that Iowa leads the nation in cancer, and I’m going to fight to address the root cause of that cancer crisis, which is our water quality crisis. Every Iowan deserves, when they turn on the tap, to ensure that their water is not giving them cancer.”
Governor-elect Sand also highlighted these issues in his victory speech when he acknowledged his opponent Zach Lahn, whose campaign was boosted by $1.5 million in donations from Make America Healthy Again aligned groups: “I appreciated the places where we agreed. I’m glad to see someone win a Republican nomination talking about water quality and talking about cancer. So, let’s use that bipartisan support from Iowa voters to actually get our water cleaned up and our cancer rates under control.”
Another interesting race was for the Secretary of Agriculture, which pitted Republican incumbent Mike Naig against water quality scientist Chris Jones, a Democrat who spoke plainly about the need to reform the agriculture industry. While Jones ultimately lost, he ran a competitive race and called on his supporters to continue demanding change at the grassroots level.
We’ll be following how Sand, Turek, Naig, and other elected officials act on Iowans’ concerns about their water and health.