DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz stood before hundreds of Iowans on Friday and admitted he doesn't have all the answers about issues facing the country.
“If I did, we wouldn't be in this goddamn mess,” Walz said.
Walz is back on the road to talk to voters, but he’s no longer a vice presidential candidate. He isn’t any kind of candidate, at least not for now.
Walz is reemerging after last year’s election loss, granting interviews to national media and speaking to hundreds attending the Montana Democratic Party’s annual dinner earlier this month.
Now, he’s kicking off a tour of town halls in competitive congressional districts represented by Republicans, launched by a post on social media in response to guidance from House Speaker Mike Johnson that GOP representatives skip out on town halls, saying demonstrations outside of them were the work of “professional protesters.”
“There’s a responsibility in this time of chaos where elected officials need to hear what people are irritated about,” Walz said. “And I would argue that Democratic officials should hear the primal scream that’s coming from America and do something.”
Walz said he wasn't there to personally attack U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, whose district includes the high school auditorium that nearly 1,000 people filled on Friday. But Walz called on Nunn to answer questions in public. Nunn won reelection in Iowa’s 3rd congressional district by about 4 percentage points in 2024, a margin of just under 16,000 voters.
The Iowa Democratic Party got Walz's call Monday evening and got to work planning the event Tuesday, said Paige Godden, the state party's communications director.
The crowd gave Walz a standing ovation. Many were wearing shirts with messages of political activism. A schoolteacher, a high school senior and a VA medical center worker asked Walz questions about health care, financial aid and funding for veterans.
Mike Suggett of Pleasant Hill, just east of Des Moines, is a retired schoolteacher who said he taught Nunn in junior high school. He’s written to the lawmaker but said he gets “canned form letters” in return. Suggett said Nunn is “too much of a coward” to show up.
“We’d much prefer to hear from the people who represent us,” Suggett said.
In an emailed statement to The Associated Press, Nunn said he’s held “hundreds of listening sessions” to hear directly from Iowans and is delivering on the change “Iowans voted for in November.”
“While out-of-state Democrats hold fundraisers disguised as forums, we’re focused on real results,” he said.
Other Republican leaders in Iowa and Minnesota, including Gov. Kim Reynolds, criticized the visit and said Walz should focus on his own state. Emily Tuttle, spokesperson for the National Republican Campaign Committee, called it a “manufactured production.”
Walz stopped in Iowa several times in 2023 as a surrogate for then-President Joe Biden, floating around the state fair, fundraising for local Democrats and holding media availabilities to contrast Biden with the Republican candidates campaigning in the run-up to Iowa’s GOP caucuses.
He goes Saturday to Nebraska, where he grew up, with tentative stops to follow in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ohio. The focus on Midwest neighbors and states in the Rust Belt isn’t a coincidence — many of them are places Walz didn’t visit during last year’s shortened campaign after Biden dropped out and made way for Vice President Kamala Harris atop the Democratic ticket.
Walz passed on running for Senate next year but could be a contender for the 2028 presidential nomination.
On 2024’s outcome, Walz said Democrats “need to acknowledge” that some voters didn’t see a difference between the Republican and Democratic presidential tickets and that the Democrats' message on issues like immigration and Social Security didn't resonate. He said he's listening to learn why.
Andrea Smith, a veteran, and her 19-year-old daughter, Liberty, said they were already going to be in Des Moines — about 120 miles from home in West Branch — to rally for veteran’s rights, and they decided to stay to see Walz.
“We related a lot to him,” Liberty Smith said. “He felt real during the election season.”
Showing up to the Walz event was May Dehaan's way of trying to get Nunn to notice that his constituents are frustrated. She wore a shirt that read: “This is not normal."
“Obviously, he’s not listening to his constituents. He’s following the GOP talking points.” said Dehaan, a retired interior designer from suburban Clive, who has herself written to Nunn. “We’re getting tired of being ignored.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a town hall event at Roosevelt High School, Friday, March 14, 2025, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Matthew Putney)
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, left, is introduced onstage by Rita Hart, chair of the Iowa Democratic speak at a town hall event at Roosevelt High School, Friday, March 14, 2025, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Matthew Putney)
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a town hall event at Roosevelt High School, Friday, March 14, 2025, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Matthew Putney)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.
Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.
Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”
Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.
“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”
He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”
Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.
More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.
Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.
In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.
Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”
Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.
“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.
The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.
The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.
Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.
In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)
