Clay Masters
Clay Masters is Iowa Public Radio’s Morning Edition host and lead political reporter. He was part of a team of member station political reporters who covered the 2016 presidential race for NPR. He also covers environmental issues.
Clay joined the Iowa Public Radio newsroom as a statehouse correspondent in 2012 and started hosting Morning Edition in 2014. Clay is an award-winning multi-media journalist whose radio stories have been heard on various NPR and American Public Media programs.
He was one of the founding reporters of Harvest Public Media, the regional journalism consortium covering agriculture and food production in the Midwest. He was based in Lincoln, Nebraska where he worked for Nebraska’s statewide public radio and television network.
He’s also an occasional music contributor to NPR’s arts desk.
Clay’s favorite NPR program is All Things Considered.
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With a series of high profile Republicans visiting Iowa, it's clear that the 2024 campaign season is underway. But this time around the race looks a little different for the Hawkeye State.
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As the DNC publicly debates the future of its presidential primary cycle, Republicans settle into the status quo, leading with the Iowa Caucuses.
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Many Iowans cannot remember a time when Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley did not represent them in Washington. But as he seeks an eighth term, he faces his toughest race yet.
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The carbon capture pipelines have been proposed through five Midwest states, but activists say proponents' claims of helping the ethanol industry and curbing climate change are wrong.
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On Feb. 3, 2020, an app meant to streamline the process for Iowa Democrats' presidential contest failed. That added to longstanding criticisms of the caucuses and Iowa's place on the calendar.
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The largest water utility in Iowa is sounding alarms that it won't be able to keep up with cleaning the water for more than 600,000 customers as extreme weather swings become more common.
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Iowa's decades-long lock on the nominating process has been under threat since last year's disastrous caucus, when results were delayed for days in part because of a faulty smartphone app.
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The race for Joni Ernst's seat could help determine control of the Senate. At a recent campaign event, the GOP lawmaker echoed a debunked conspiracy theory about the pandemic's death toll.
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After disastrous Democratic caucuses earlier this year, both Republicans and Democrats are giving the state a lot of attention and money in the run-up to November.
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King has a history of making offensive and racist comments. Now, some Republicans are worried that his district could be in jeopardy of getting picked up by Democrats.