Joe Mitchell won the Republican nomination for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District in June by campaigning against the sway of insiders and lobbyists, but a new report laid bare that his own record tells a different story.
Mitchell, a 29-year-old former state representative and real estate developer, pitched himself as a champion for Iowans “left behind by a broken political system that works for insiders and lobbyists.” The message helped him beat state Sen. Charlie McClintock with about 61 percent of the vote and win President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
But Mitchell has both benefited from lobbying and worked alongside it, Salon reported Thursday.
“The catch is that Mitchell … has benefited from and hired lobbyists to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars in the past, and even worked at a lobbying firm,” the report noted.
His company, J. Mitchell Real Estate, was a founding member of the Iowa Real Estate Developers Association, an industry group created to help developers boost profits and limit their legal exposure. Mitchell served as its president, a role his own campaign biography confirms.
The association spent nearly $75,000 lobbying the Iowa legislature between 2023 and 2025, state disclosure reports show. Much of that pushed back a bill limiting how strictly local governments could regulate stormwater and topsoil runoff, a change that helps developers. Mitchell has voiced support for it on a real estate podcast. Lawmakers rejected the measure the first time over flooding concerns before it passed and was signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds.
Mitchell also interned at a lobbying firm early on, according to Radio Iowa and a biography from Future Caucus, a group that backs young politicians.
The seat opened up when Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson launched a Senate bid that has left her own party uneasy. Mitchell now faces Democratic state Rep. Lindsay James in a northeast Iowa district Democrats hope to flip in November.
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