Clay Masters

Democratic presidential contenders will visit a small Iowa town this weekend. They're there in part because of the town's newspaper editor, who's drawn attention to rural issues with his editorials.

His album Benton County Relic was nominated for a Grammy this year in the Best Traditional Blues category and features lyrics about his poor upbringing in Mississippi.

Many Democrats with presidential ambitions in 2020 are already making trips to Iowa. And some of them are trying hard to win over rural supporters the party lost in 2016.

GOP Rep. Steve King of Iowa was removed from two House panels as a punishment for his recent comments in a New York Times interview where he questioned whether "white supremacy" was an offensive term.

The tight governor races in Kansas and Georgia, where the Republican candidate is also overseeing the election, have motivated Democrats to elect secretaries of states in other places.

So far, there are more than 10 very competitive races for governor across the country. One of them is in Iowa, where the incumbent Republican can't seem to pull ahead of her Democratic challenger.

President Trump is set to end ethanol regulations — to the praise of farmers and criticism of environmentalists. E15 is banned during summer months because of smog concerns.

In Iowa, neighboring congressional districts are a test of how voters will weigh in this November on their representative's relationship with President Trump.

Iowa Democrats choose their candidate for governor Tuesday. Stakes are high for a party that has only won three of the last 14 gubernatorial races.

A federal judge recently ruled the Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage along the Missouri River because of its flood plain management.