Woman Who Yelled “People Will Die” at Ernst Town Hall Meeting Running for Statehouse
The audience member who yelled, “people will die,” during the town hall meeting last week in which U.S. Senator Joni Ernst replied, “we’re all going to die,” has launched a campaign for the Iowa legislature.
India May is director of the Ionia Public Library, an RN and a death investigator for Chickasaw County. She wants to challenge incumbent Republican State Representative Charley Thomson of Charles City for the District 58 seat.
In a “May for Iowa 2026” Facebook post, May says she attended Ernst’s town hall at Aplington-Parkersburg High School last Friday (05.30), when she was “overwhelmed by the repeated lies and dismissals of the real concerns about food insecurity and losing healthcare, so I yelled ‘people will die!’”
May says her intention is to run as a progressive Democrat for Iowa House District 58, to “undo the damage caused by the incumbent, Charley Thomson.”
May says her work at the library is more than just books.
May has established a campaign website at mayforiowa.com.
Iowa House District 58 includes all of Chickasaw County, three-quarters of Floyd County, and northeast two-thirds of Bremer County.
***here is our original story on the town hall involving U.S. Senator Joni Ernst
U.S. Senator Joni Ernst brought the national focus on north Iowa Friday (05.30) during a Town Hall meeting at Aplington-Parkersburg High School.
Ernst’s remark came after an audience member yelled out that “people will die” in reference to the “Big Beautiful Bill” the Congressional Budget Office estimates would cut over 700 billion dollars from Medicaid over the next 10 years.
Ernst says Republicans intend to return to the original rules for Medicaid.
Still, it was Ernst’s “we all are going to die” comment that sparked national controversy. She tried to apologize on Saturday (05.31) through social media.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut hit back at Ernst, telling CNN, “I think everybody in that audience knows that they’re going to die. They would just rather die in old age at 85 or 90, instead of dying at 40.”
