Joe Mitchell, the Trump-endorsed Republican running for Congress in Iowa's 2nd District, is on video making a string of racial remarks at a college party.
The Daily Mail published the footage on October 23. A woman who knew Mitchell in college gave it to the paper. She said it was recorded in 2017, when Mitchell was a student at Drake University in Des Moines, though she wasn't in the room.
What he says in the video
According to the Daily Mail's account, as reported by Atlanta Black Star, the clip opens with Mitchell shouting, "I don't like Black women!" He then says he wants to marry a Black woman and doesn't want white children: "I want my kids to not be white."
HuffPost reported that he also says, "I don't like [expletive] white people, okay?" — and calls other women "[expletive] spoiled [expletive] brats that listen to their dads," who "get [expletive] yacht rides from them."
In another exchange, Mitchell brings up his Black friends' skin color while bragging about the size of his own genitals compared with theirs. One of the friends calls him racist. Before the clip ends, Mitchell shouts back: "You guys are the racist ones!"
The woman who supplied the video rejected the idea that his age excuses it. "We are all drunk and young once, but that doesn't make us any less accountable for our words," she said.
His answer
Mitchell did not deny the video is real. His attorney accused "political foes" of trying to damage the campaign.
His own statement, to HuffPost, was about the camera, not the words:
"My entire generation has had a camera in their face since we were born. I was 19, in college, and I have grown up."
He followed it with a campaign line: "I achieved the American Dream, and I'm running for Congress so every American can reach their full potential."
Why it matters now
Two years after that video was recorded, Mitchell was in the Iowa House of Representatives. He was elected at 21, the youngest person ever elected to Iowa's Legislature, and served from 2019 to 2023. Now he's asking voters to send him to Congress to replace Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is running for the Senate. His opponent is Democratic state Rep. Lindsay James, and HuffPost reports recent polls show Mitchell slightly behind, within the margin of error.
"I have grown up" is a claim, and the only way voters can test it is by the record he built after college. We've been reporting on that record:
- He took $10,000 from the pipeline boss and, eight days later, was the only Republican on his committee to vote against Iowa landowners.
- He voted no three times on protecting homeless veterans, disabled Iowans and foster families from Iowa's housing-voucher bill.
- He runs against lobbyists after running a trade group that spent nearly $75,000 on them.
The facts, in short
A video recorded in 2017, when Joe Mitchell was a 19-year-old Drake University student, shows him shouting "I don't like Black women," saying "I don't like [expletive] white people," and making crude racial remarks about his Black friends. Mitchell, Trump's endorsed candidate for Iowa's 2nd District, did not dispute that the footage is real; his response blamed his generation's cameras and said he has "grown up."
Source
Damning video reveals vulgar rant of MAGA star Joe Mitchell, then-19, about 'black women' — Daily Mail, October 23, 2026. Additional reporting from HuffPost and Atlanta Black Star.
