Democrat Nate Boulton announces run for governor

Nate Boulton, the Democratic state senator who gained prominence this year by pushing back against Republicans’ agenda in the state legislature, is running for governor.  

Boulton, an attorney from Des Moines, rolled out his candidacy with a video early Thursday morning and a formal announcement in his hometown of Columbus Junction. He’s planned a six-day trip that will take him to 16 cities around the state.  

In an exclusive interview with the Des Moines Register, Boulton pitched himself as an advocate for working families who would prioritize support for education and worker training to make the state more economically competitive.

“We need to start doing the things that take care of the individual men and women who make our economy run and secure our long-term economic future by doing that,” he said. 

Boulton, a first-term senator elected last November, attracted publicity during the legislative session earlier this year by railing against GOP moves to curtail bargaining rights for government workers and rollback legal protections for injured workers. As an attorney specializing in labor and workers compensation law, Boulton had expertise on both issues. (The legislation passed over near-unified Democratic opposition, as Republicans currently hold both legislative chambers and the governor’s office.)  

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“I’ve been standing up for working Iowans one by one when they’ve needed someone to stand up for them, when they’ve suffered disabling injuries, when they’ve been wrongfully terminated,” Boulton said Wednesday. “Now, they need someone standing up for them in terms of our state’s long-term planning for our economic future.”

Boulton, 36, joins an expanding field of Democrats seeking Iowa’s highest office. Former party chairwoman Andy McGuire announced her candidacy last month and state Rep. Todd Prichard has formed a fundraising committee to explore a candidacy.

Polk County Conservation Director Rich Leopold and party activist Jon Neiderbach have declared candidacies as well. 

Boulton declined to draw any immediate contrasts between himself and those likely Democratic opponents, but described the 2018 race as a make-or-break moment for the state, in which the party must offer a meaningful alternative to the current Republican leadership.

“We’re going to determine the soul of the state in this election cycle,” he said. “When we look at the things that need to be done for Iowa’s long-term economic growth, this is the election to actually start turning things around.”

He also pushed back against the most obvious criticism of his candidacy: that at 36 years old and with four months of elective-office experience, he’s not ready to run for the highest office in the state. 

“It’s not like I was just born and went to the Legislature,” Boulton told the Register, noting a decade of legal experience that includes work on a 2012 case successfully challenging Branstad’s veto authority. 

The Democratic primary is taking shape as Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad nears confirmation as ambassador to China, a transition that will elevate Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds to the state’s chief executive and position her as the incumbent in the 2018 campaign. 

Boulton is expected to draw support from Democratic legislators and key labor organizations around the state. In a candidate announcement released early Thursday, he boasted of endorsements from state Sens. Pam Jochum and Joe Bolkcom, the head of Iowa's trial attorney's association, a former Iowa UAW political director and Des Moines businessman Mike Draper.