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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
The trial started Monday for the Des Moines Register reporter, Andrea Sahouri, who was arrested while covering a protest after George Floyd's death even though she identified herself as media.
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Iowa's governor is ordering K-12 schools offer students 100% in-person learning. But Iowa doesn't have a mask mandate, all teachers and staff aren't vaccinated and social distancing is a challenge.
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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. -
Members of the DNC have their first meeting of the Biden era on Thursday. They will consider whether Iowa should keep its place at the front of the presidential nominating process.
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The pandemic has affected many musicians' lives. While they've been forced off busy touring schedules and out of concert halls, some have completed projects for which they needed some extra time.
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President Trump returns to Iowa on Wednesday — a state he won comfortably in 2016 but is suddenly competitive amid the coronavirus pandemic and a struggling farm sector.