A Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful in Iowa who brands himself as a champion of old Democratic values is courting voters at a venue steeped in some of the lefts most radical causes.
According to Fox News, state Sen. Zach Wahls, who is running for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, chose Dog-Eared Books in Ames as the site of a weekend campaign event, even as the store openly campaigns to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), promotes drag story hours for children, and markets sexually explicit books that have been removed from school libraries.
The event, billed as Reading and Running: A conversation with Zach Wahls and Chloe Angyal, featured Wahls alongside his novelist wife at a shop that has become a hub for far-left activism, from anti-ICE agitation to pro-Palestinian messaging that accuses Israel of committing a Genocide after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.
Wahls has been presenting himself as a moderate, kitchen-table Democrat focused on border security and traditional themes of work and family. His campaign website pledges that he will secure the border and fix our broken immigration system, and on social media he has insisted that the United States must have an immigration framework grounded in law and order.
I believe in the old Democratic values of hard work and family, not handouts for billionaires and insiders, Wahls declares in a campaign video pinned to the top of his X account. Yet his decision to hold a meet-and-greet at a venue that literally posts ICE IS NOT WELCOME HERE at its front door raises questions about whether his rhetoric matches the company he keeps.
Video obtained from outside Dog-Eared Books during the event showed at least one sign by the entrance emblazoned with that anti-ICE message in bold capital letters. The store has previously hosted events for Wahls wife and sells her romance novels, underscoring an ongoing relationship between the candidates household and the activist bookstore.
The shops opposition to federal immigration enforcement goes well beyond signage. In the wake of federal agent-involved shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Dog-Eared Books created a logo of a dog in sunglasses holding a protest placard that reads ABOLISH ICE, then turned it into a sticker for sale on its website.
Following those shootings, the bookstore also pledged to donate 25% of its sales to the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund, a network of largely anonymous philanthropic groups that includes openly anti-ICE organizations. Among those publicly linked to the fund is the George Soros-backed Headwaters Foundation for Justice, which says it believe[s] in a future without ICE, as well as the Black Collective Foundation Minnesota.
Do not retreat. Do not back down. Double Down, Lulete Mola, president and co-founder of the Black Collective Foundation Minnesota, said after the ICE-related shootings in Minneapolis, according to Inside Philanthropy. That militant posture stands in stark contrast to Wahls professed support for law and order in immigration policy, a contrast he has so far declined to explain.
Dog-Eared Books activism does not stop at immigration. The store has a record of supporting child gender transitions and has opposed Republican efforts in Iowa to protect womens spaces and opportunities by removing gender identity from the list of protected classes in the states civil rights code.
The bookstore also has a history of hosting drag story time events for children, including one featuring a 14-year-old teenage drag performer. It proudly markets banned titles that critics argue are inappropriate for minors due to explicit sexual content, including All Boys Arent Blue, by George Johnson, which the store notes on social media is one of the most frequently banned books in Iowa, and Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe, a graphic memoir widely removed from school libraries for its graphic sexual imagery.
On foreign policy and cultural issues, the stores messaging similarly tracks with the far-left. In a Facebook event post promoting a Tattoos For Palestine fundraiser, Dog-Eared Books accused Israel of committing a Genocide in its response to the Oct. 7 terror attacks, echoing rhetoric common among anti-Israel activists but rejected by many mainstream observers and U.S. allies.
The stores website further urges patrons to join a letter-writing campaign to lawmakers advancing a slate of progressive demands, including No human is illegal. All people deserve access to reproductive healthcare. Healthcare is a human right, and other positions aligned with the contemporary left. For Iowa voters who favor secure borders, support law enforcement, and oppose radical gender and cultural ideology in schools, Wahls embrace of such a venue may prove difficult to reconcile with his centrist branding.
Fox News Digital reached out to Wahls before the event to ask whether he was aware of Dog-Eared Books record and whether he regretted choosing it as a campaign stop, but he did not respond. The outlet also contacted Wahls and the bookstore after the event and again received no response from either party.
Wahls, a former Iowa Senate Minority Leader, is seeking the Democratic nomination in a June primary that includes state Rep. Josh Turek among his chief rivals. If successful in both the primary and general election, he would join longtime Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley in representing Iowa in the U.S. Senate, shifting one of the states seats from GOP to Democratic control.
Before entering elected office, Wahls gained national attention as a young man when a speech he delivered in the Iowa legislature about growing up with two mothers went viral amid efforts to amend the state constitution on same-sex marriage. He and his wife have credited that moment for bringing them together, a personal narrative he now pairs with a campaign message of old Democratic values even as he aligns himself with institutions that champion some of the most aggressive progressive causes in the culture wars.
For conservatives and moderates in Iowa, the contrast between Wahls rhetoric and his choice of allies may be the central question of his candidacy. As he seeks to flip a Republican-held Senate seat while promising law and order and border security, his partnership with a bookstore that wants to ABOLISH ICE, promotes drag events for children, and accuses Americas closest Middle Eastern ally of committing a Genocide will likely remain a focal point for voters weighing whether his stated values match his actions.
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