The local reporter who took the government to court twice

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The local reporter who took the government to court twice

Laura Belin went from studying Russian politics to covering Iowa’s. Now, as local papers disappear, she’s making sure those stories get told.

Danya Issawi

Nov 02, 2026

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Welcome to Local Issue, a series of profiles on the local news writers keeping the tradition of regional reporting alive. First up is

Laura Belin

, a Des Moines–based reporter who’s part of the

Iowa Writers Collaborative

.

Photos by Greg Hauenstein

It’s Wednesday, the week before the midterm elections, and Laura Belin has just spent her morning at a briefing with Iowa’s Secretary of State and representatives from the state’s National Guard.

“We’ve had very close elections in the 3rd Congressional District,” Laura says. “So I wanted to hear from him about the scenario where, if the Democrat wins and it’s close, and President Trump says it was rigged, how would that be handled? And he said, ‘We’re not even raising that issue.’”

Laura, a reporter based in Des Moines, allows the foiled query to roll off her back. Her week has been packed. On Monday she wrote about Iowa’s early voting numbers for her

Substack

and recorded her weekly live radio show, KHOI’s

Capitol Week

. Tuesday was spent covering a speech by a candidate for secretary of agriculture, a state Medicaid fraud task force meeting and press conference, and two debates: one for the gubernatorial race and another between the candidates in the 3rd Congressional District.

Tonight, she’d hoped to get into a rally for the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Zach Lahn, where an appearance from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is on the docket. “I’m not able to get into any of [Lahn’s] events anymore. His campaign allowed me to cover several of his events before the primary, but after the primary, they cut me off,” Laura says. “They stopped answering my questions.”

Laura’s readers have come to know her for this: the dogged determination that might get her barred from campaign events or lead a

press secretary to slam a door in her face

, which also drives her in-depth reporting. It’s what makes stories about Trump’s big Iowa steel plant project, the financial and legal

woes of the GOP’s nominee

for lieutenant governor, and a

hot mic slip-up

by Senator Chuck Grassley (a scoop that was born from an all-nighter at the state capitol) all possible. Laura will go as far as it takes to get the information she needs, even

suing

the governor’s office over noncompliance with open records law during the pandemic and taking the Iowa House Chief Clerk to court after she was

denied press credentials

.

“When I sued the Iowa House Chief Clerk,” she says, “a bunch of people wanted to chip in and donate, even though I wasn’t paying for the legal fees,” which were covered by the Institute for Free Speech. “My readers are very supportive of me and very protective of me.”

Her subscribers, whom Laura describes as “politically plugged-in,” already have their fingers on the pulse of local news. What they really want, and what they come to her for, is niche, in-depth coverage and analysis of Iowa politics. “They don’t want to just hear my summary of what happened at the legislative subcommittee meeting. Every piece I write, I’m trying to give people either a story that they won’t find anywhere else, or the deeper dive on the story that other people might be covering,” she says.

To Laura, that looks like covering an election worker’s prosecution in southwest Iowa, or explaining why the 4th District of Iowa is “deep red,” or writing about Trump’s visit to Sioux City through the lens of local leaders’ reactions. “Everybody did the story about Trump in Sioux City,” she says. “But I wanted to go through and get the key points about: What did the candidate for governor say? What did the candidate for Senate say? What did the 2nd Congressional District candidate say? What did the attorney general say at the rally?”

This on-the-go lifestyle, let alone this profession, was never what Laura expected for herself. She studied Russian politics and got a job as a research analyst covering domestic politics at an institute in the Czech Republic out of school, eventually transitioning into a similar role at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. “I had every expectation that I would spend my entire career writing about Russian politics,” she says. But when Putin came to power, the areas she was most interested in covering—“campaigns and elections, parliamentary politics, Russian media issues”—were essentially shut down. “The Russian media was greatly diminished,” she says. “So I was like, ‘Wow, I need to figure out a different idea.’”

It was around that time she and her husband relocated back to Iowa. Her father had unexpectedly passed away, leaving the Des Moines family home in her name. At the time, Laura decided to temporarily step away from reporting to raise her two young children and filled the void of political analysis through reading, and regularly commenting on, the local political blog Bleeding Heartland. Eventually, Laura’s persistence landed her the role of the blog’s primary editor. She began applying the same analytical skills she’d used to make sense of the Russian parliament to the Iowa legislature instead, and what started as an “out-of-control hobby” grew over nearly two decades into a full-time job running the blog.

Then, in 2022, Julie Gammack reached out to Laura. Julie had been building the

Iowa Writers Collaborative on Substack

, a network of local journalists, critics, and essayists, feeding their individual work into a centralized newsletter. Laura decided to start publishing her work on Substack too, launching

Iowa politics with Laura Belin

. “My dad used to say, ‘When the pie is being passed around, that’s the time to take a slice,’” she says. “It’s definitely opened up new audiences for me who weren’t familiar with my work before I was on Substack. Many of us knew each other before, but I’ve met a lot of new people. It benefits all of us.” Laura’s work is free to read—she doesn’t want anyone to miss out on what she uncovers—but subscribers can pledge support. And they have: after decades of on-the-ground reporting, Laura was able to start paying herself a salary.

At a time when local newspapers across the country have shuttered, and many see regional reporting as a dying art, Laura and other reporters like her are leaning in. In the Iowa Writers Collaborative alone, there are nearly 70 standalone newsletters contributing to twice-weekly roundups. While she believes legacy publications still play a critical role in the media ecosystem, she’s seen firsthand what a diminished press corps looks like at the Iowa Statehouse, and in turn watched new models for local journalism emerge, allowing reporters like her to do what they do best: dive in.

“Every so often, someone will say to me, ‘Why are you writing about Iowa? You should be raising your profile and writing about national politics.’ And I think, Why would I want to be one of a thousand people writing about national politics, many of them already doing it very well, when in Iowa I can literally, every single week, find stories that nobody else is covering, or I can cover something in more depth than anybody else in Iowa?” Laura says. “I’ve broken a lot of news. I’ve done a lot of deep analytical writing that, if I weren’t here, nobody else would be doing. I add the most value with what I’m doing now.”

For more local and national election news, visit our

midterms hub

.

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A guest post by

Danya Issawi

Deputy Editor at Substack. A character but also sometimes real. I used to write for the Times and NYMag yadda yadda.

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