Joe Mitchell

Joe Mitchell grew up in southeast Iowa with parents who ran a small manufacturing business.¹ While studying business at Drake University, he worked at the state Capitol as a page and clerk and interned in the governor's office.¹ He ran for the Iowa House at 20 and entered the legislature at 21.² His volunteer work has included mission trips to Guatemala and Haiti.¹

Mitchell served in the Iowa House from 2019 to 2023 and founded Run GenZ, a nonprofit recruiting young people to run for office.³ His work outside politics has included rental properties and developing multifamily housing through J. Mitchell Real Estate.⁴ His campaign points to housing projects in Dyersville, Grinnell, Mount Pleasant and Clear Lake as examples of that experience.²

In 2019, Mitchell helped establish the bipartisan Iowa Future Caucus alongside Lindsay James, now his Democratic opponent.⁵⁶ He later worked on Donald Trump's presidential transition and became HUD's Great Plains regional administrator in July 2025, overseeing field operations in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska.³ At HUD, he held housing roundtables with developers, lenders and local officials to discuss barriers to homebuilding.⁷

Mitchell proposes lower taxes, reduced federal spending and fewer homebuilding regulations to address household costs.⁸ He supports twelve year limits in each chamber of Congress and a ban on members trading stocks or prediction markets.⁸ On immigration, he advocates stronger enforcement and a temporary pause in H-1B visas, while his healthcare plan stresses price transparency, consumer choice and retaining key Affordable Care Act protections.⁸