On Monday, August 17, Zach Nunn held his annual campaign fundraiser at JR's Southpork Ranch at the Iowa State Fair. It's called "Operation Top Nunn: Salute to the Troops."

Onstage, Nunn brought up the families of two Iowa soldiers killed in Syria last December — Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard of Marshalltown and Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar of Des Moines.

"That's what the days like this are about," Nunn said. "Recognizing how we can help those who survive with us and honor those who've given the ultimate sacrifice."

The headline guest was Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. And Hegseth was not there to talk about the troops.

What the Rules Say

The Defense Department wrote guidance in February 2026 covering political activity by Senate-confirmed officials — people like the Secretary of Defense. It says they are:

"prohibited from… organizing a political fundraiser or speaking at a fundraiser."

If such an official does show up at a partisan event, the guidance says their remarks "should be limited to DoW issues," and they "must refrain from advocating for or against a candidate for partisan political office, or commenting on any campaign related issues."

Here is what Hegseth actually did at Nunn's fundraiser, according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch reporter who was there: he called on Iowans to reelect Nunn to the House, describing him as a needed ally for the administration.

"President Trump needs the type of leaders who understand why a $1.5 trillion dollar budget, a one-time generational investment, is what is necessary," Hegseth told the crowd.

Organizing a political fundraiser: the event was Nunn's campaign fundraiser. Speaking at a fundraiser: he spoke. Advocating for a candidate: he asked people to vote for one.

Iowa Starting Line, which first reported the conflict with the department's own rules, notes this is the second time this year Hegseth's conduct has run into guidance his own department wrote. In May he headlined a Kentucky rally for a primary challenger to Republican Rep. Thomas Massie.

The Pentagon's position is that Hegseth attended in his personal capacity.

The Part Nunn Owns

Hegseth broke the rule. But it was Nunn's event, Nunn's campaign account, and Nunn's decision about what the evening would look like.

This fundraiser was originally scheduled for March. It was called off after two Iowa soldiers — Major Jeffrey O'Brien, 45, of Waukee, and Sgt. Declan J. Coady, just 20, of West Des Moines — were killed on March 1 in an Iranian strike on a facility in Kuwait. They were among six Americans killed in that attack, all assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command, based in Des Moines.

Nunn rescheduled it for the State Fair, kept the "Salute to the Troops" name, invited two Gold Star families to the stage, and booked the Secretary of Defense as the draw.

The money raised goes to Nunn's campaign, and the event also benefits veterans support organizations.

His opponent, Democratic state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, put it this way:

"It's disgraceful that Zach Nunn and Pete Hegseth are partying together at a campaign stop in Iowa while our service members are under threat and facing poor conditions overseas. Our leaders should be focused on ending this war and keeping Americans deployed overseas safe, not fundraising for Zach Nunn's campaign."

What Else Was Said From That Stage

Hegseth also used the fundraiser to talk about the Pentagon's rollback of diversity policies, and he used a slur for transgender people to do it. Describing the department, which the administration has renamed the Department of War, he said: "at the Department of War, we do training, not tr——es."

"It is a day and night difference," he continued. "Training, lethality, accountability, discipline, readiness — the bedrock of what it means to be an American warrior — is the only focus of our department."

That was the speech at an event honoring dead Iowa soldiers, delivered while their families were in the room.

A Pattern of Borrowed Credibility

Nunn's campaign has leaned on this kind of staging before.

In June, he accepted a "badge of honor" for cancer research funding at an event where a cancer patient in the room had just lost her Medicaid — coverage she lost because of the budget bill Nunn voted for. He promised to protect Medicaid and SNAP, then voted for the bill that cut both. When a reporter asked him about rural hospitals, he swatted the phone away rather than answer.

And this campaign has already shown it will bend the rules to hold this seat. Nunn's campaign worked to knock a Libertarian challenger off his own ballot, and he has taken to calling his opponent, a Lutheran pastor, a Satanist.

Nunn is one of the most vulnerable House Republicans in the country this year. A "Salute to the Troops" that doubles as a fundraiser, with a Cabinet secretary breaking his own department's ethics guidance to headline it, is what that looks like.

Nunn's campaign did not respond to Iowa Starting Line's request for comment.

Source

Zachary Oren Smith, "Pete Hegseth broke his own department's rule to fundraise for Zach Nunn", Iowa Starting Line, August 18, 2026.

Robin Opsahl, "US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth joins Rep. Zach Nunn at Iowa State Fair", Iowa Capital Dispatch, August 17, 2026. Photo by Robin Opsahl / Iowa Capital Dispatch.