Some politicians have a signature issue. Lindsay James has a signature reflex: any time Iowans get to keep more of their own money, she reaches for the off switch.
The Democrat running in IA-02 has a record on taxes, and it’s remarkably consistent. Consistently against you.
The Statehouse Record
In 2022, when the Iowa Legislature passed the largest tax cut in state history, James voted against it. The bill moved Iowa to a flat 3.9% income tax, exempted 401(k)s, pensions, and IRAs from state taxes, cut corporate taxes, and overhauled Iowa’s corporate tax credits. Workers, retirees, employers. Something for everybody.
Everybody except Lindsay James, apparently.
Then came property taxes, the bill that keeps Iowa homeowners and farmers up at night. When the House voted to lower them this year, James didn’t bother to vote. Iowans spend all year dreading that property tax statement. She couldn’t spend thirty seconds pressing a button.
Washington Gets the Same Treatment
James has also gone after the Working Families Tax Cuts, billed as the largest tax cut since World War II. Her review? Not just bad policy. Sin.
“And I will tell you that these bills that are coming out of Washington, DC right now, these policies that are coming out, they are not just policy failures, they are moral failures,” James said in a campaign video.
Moral failures. So let’s look at what she’s calling immoral. According to the America First Policy Institute, the Working Families Tax Cuts:
- Prevented a $2,493 tax increase on the average family of four, nearly seven weeks of groceries
- Ended taxes on tips
- Ended taxes on overtime
- Doubled the death tax exemption, protecting more than 23,000 family-owned farms in IA-02
If letting a waitress in Davenport keep her tips is a moral failure, she’d love to hear the sermon. Preferably before her shift.
Now She’s Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud
On the campaign trail, James has graduated from complaining about tax cuts to promising to take them away.
In May, she said we have to “undo the OBBB.”
In September, she doubled down, calling for the Working Families Tax Cuts to be repealed and assuring everyone she isn’t “mincing” words.
I don’t mince my words. The Big Beautiful Bill needs to be repealed. https://t.co/QlaDA8vR4d
— Lindsay James (@Lindsay4Iowa) September 4, 2026
Credit where it’s due. She isn’t mincing words. So we won’t either: repealing these tax cuts is a tax hike. On families, on tipped workers, on anyone who picks up overtime, and on the farm families trying to pass their land to the next generation.
Lindsay James has had three shots at standing with Iowa taxpayers. The state income tax cut, property tax relief, and the federal tax cuts. She’s 0 for 3.
At least she’s honest about the fourth. She’s telling you exactly what she’ll do in Congress. Believe her.
