Secretary of Agriculture Candidate, Chris Jones
Candidate Website: Chris Jones for Iowa - Chris Jones for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture
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General Election: Tuesday, November 3, 2026
Chris Jones spent 40 years measuring what's actually in Iowa's water — and decided the only way to act on what he found was to run for the office responsible for it. Jones grew up in Ankeny and now lives near Lansing, in northeast Iowa's Driftless Area along the Mississippi River.
He holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry and biology from Simpson College and a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Montana State University. Jones spent eight years managing the testing laboratory at Des Moines Water Works — home to one of the world's largest nitrate-removal facilities, built to treat agricultural runoff — followed by four years as an environmental scientist for the Iowa Soybean Association. He then spent nearly a decade as a research engineer at the University of Iowa's IIHR–Hydroscience & Engineering, where he built and ran the Iowa Water Quality Information System, the state's first real-time public water-quality sensor network on Iowa's rivers and streams, before retiring in 2023.
Jones is the author of The Swine Republic: Struggles With the Truth About Agriculture and Water Quality, a collection of essays on agricultural pollution that the Library of Congress selected as Iowa's representative title for the 2024 National Book Festival. In 2024 he co-founded Driftless Water Defenders, a nonprofit protecting northeast Iowa's waterways.
Jones launched his campaign for Secretary of Agriculture on January 15, 2026, at Des Moines Water Works — the same facility where he once tested Iowa's water for the pollution he's now seeking to fix. “I don't see any other candidates in either party trying to tackle or embrace these issues that we have in Iowa, you know, with our water,” Jones has said.
Fun fact: Jones's book on Iowa's water and agriculture crisis was selected by the Library of Congress to represent Iowa at the 2024 National Book Festival.
Chris Jones is running to replace Iowa's voluntary approach to farm pollution with enforceable standards — and to help family farmers compete in an agricultural economy he says is increasingly built for the largest corporate players.
Real water quality standards. Jones calls Iowa's current voluntary, incentive-based Nutrient Reduction Strategy a “Band-Aid” fix that asks nothing of the industry actually causing the pollution. He wants enforceable regulations — not just voluntary incentives — for the largest agricultural polluters, including banning fall tillage and fall application of anhydrous ammonia and requiring 50-foot riparian buffers on Iowa's streams.
Local control over factory farms. Jones wants to give county governments zoning authority over CAFOS — authority currently preempted by the state's “Master Matrix” siting system — so that local communities have a real say over factory farm expansion in their own backyards.
Diversifying Iowa agriculture. With corn and soybeans covering roughly 70 to 75 percent of Iowa farmland, Jones wants to support a transition toward crops like oats, hay, barley, apples, and vegetables — reducing both input costs for farmers and the pollution load on Iowa's water.
Standing up to corporate agribusiness. Jones argues Iowa's current corn-soy-CAFO system primarily benefits large agribusiness and chemical companies, while burdening family farmers economically and every Iowan environmentally. He wants to reduce corporate influence over Iowa State University's agricultural research agenda.
Local food and public health. Jones has proposed requiring Iowa public schools to source 50 percent of meals locally within 10 years, backed by a $10 million investment in Iowa's local food and farm program fund, along with stricter pesticide enforcement. He regularly ties nitrate and pesticide exposure to Iowa's cancer rate — the second-highest, and still rising, in the nation.
Chris Jones's campaign is built on an issue that runs directly through Black Hawk County: the Cedar River, which flows through Waterloo and Cedar Falls, was flagged again by the EPA in 2024 as impaired for nitrates, with agricultural runoff identified as the primary driver.
The response so far has relied on exactly the kind of voluntary conservation approach Jones says isn't working: the Cedar River Source Water Partnership has directed roughly $18 million toward cover crops, bioreactors, and buffer projects upstream, with dozens of additional conservation practices specifically planned for Black Hawk and Grundy counties. Jones's campaign argues that the Cedar Valley's own water supply is a live example of why voluntary measures need to be paired with enforceable standards.
Jones's candidacy also reinforces the top of the Iowa Democratic ticket in 2026: gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand has made nitrate contamination and Iowa's rising cancer rate a central campaign issue as well, giving Black Hawk County Democrats a coordinated water-quality message that runs from the governor's race to Secretary of Agriculture.
Recent polling shows this race is genuinely competitive: an August 2026 survey found Jones essentially tied with, and in some scenarios leading, incumbent Mike Naig once voters heard both candidates' backgrounds — with 66 percent of likely voters saying cleaning up Iowa's rivers, lakes, and drinking water should be the Secretary of Agriculture's top priority.
Chris Jones's opponent for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture is two-term Republican incumbent Mike Naig, who is seeking a third full term in 2026.
Background. Jones spent 40 years as an independent water-quality scientist with no agribusiness industry ties. Naig grew up on a family farm near Cylinder, graduated from Buena Vista University, and spent roughly 13 years in agriculture trade and lobbying roles — including CropLife America, the Agribusiness Association of Iowa, the Iowa Biotechnology Association, and Monsanto — before becoming deputy secretary of agriculture in 2013 and then secretary in 2018.
Water quality approach. Naig has championed Iowa's voluntary Nutrient Reduction Strategy throughout his tenure. In 2026, amid a tightening race, his office rolled out a new $319 million, 12-year “Farm to Faucet” initiative aimed at expanding cover crop adoption — a notable shift after years of emphasizing the existing voluntary framework. Jones argues Iowa needs enforceable standards, not another voluntary incentive program, and has spent his career measuring the limited results the voluntary approach has produced.
CAFOs and local control. Naig has generally supported the existing regulatory framework and industry growth. Jones wants to give county governments zoning authority over CAFO siting.
Who they answer to. Naig's 2026 campaign has drawn roughly 75 percent of its fundraising from the Republican State Leadership Committee, a national GOP group — a sign, some observers say, of national Republican concern about the seat's competitiveness. Jones's campaign has been funded by more than 1,000 individual donors.
The bottom line: this is a race between a career agribusiness-and-lobbying insider who has spent eight years overseeing a voluntary approach to farm pollution, and an independent scientist who spent 40 years documenting why that approach hasn't been enough.