Candidate Profiles

I think the most pressing challenge facing Iowa is our state’s ability to recruit and retain young talent. This is a multifaceted problem but I think the following would help: 1) Make Iowa welcoming. Reverse our state’s draconian abortion ban and stop the legislature’s attacks on lgbtq+ people. Show our state’s commitment to human rights and freedom. 2) Invest in public education at every level. The quality of our k-12 public schools is a huge draw for this community. Help make college more affordable and provide incentives to students who commit to staying in Iowa after graduation. 3) Streamline zoning and development processes statewide to encourage new housing construction and take on our housing shortage.

Iowa used to have the best public schools in the country. It's time to fully invest in public education and ensure every Iowa kid has access to the world-class public education that I received in our public school system. Iowa's public university system received slightly state funding this year as the year I was born. When you account for inflation, that's a huge decrease in state support for Iowa, Iowa State, and UNI. This has shifted the burden of paying for college onto students and families, leading to huge increases in tuition. It's time to invest in higher education and our state's young talent.

Yes, it would save lives.

There is a crisis in our nursing homes. The first step is to ensure that Iowa has enough inspectors to actually enforce current law. Right now, we are last in the country in inspectors. We should also invest in nursing home staff and ensure that they receive quality working conditions that encourage them to stay in the field.

Yes. This is a huge challenge faced by our state, it's also an opportunity to invest in innovative solutions. We have some of the top cancer researchers in the country at the University of Iowa.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has been woefully inadequate at enforcing current law. Even when laws are enforced, the fines are often less expensive than the cost of actually complying with state law. At a minimum, we should give the department the staff and teeth to enforce the environmental laws that are on the books.

The largest challenge in my view is Iowa's lackluster Medicaid reimbursement rate for mental health care. Good mental healthcare costs money and we won't get it if Medicaid does not pay a reasonable rate. The measure of efficacy would be seeing the waitlist for mental health beds disappear.

I've cosponsored a constitutional amendment to ensure that Iowans have access to reproductive freedom. Iowans should be able to make their own choices when it comes to abortion, contraception, IVF, and other reproductive healthcare.

No, it would strip even more freedom away from a huge number of Iowans.

One of my top concerns is about the impact of phones and social media in schools. I think it's time to provide pilot funds for schools to try out specialized bags or lockers that help keep our schools free of distractions from phones. Standards are important, but the legislature should not write curriculum. We need to touch the experts who are trained to teach kids.

Invest in public education, and stop making national headlines for taking away freedom from Iowans. Work to make Iowa a leader in the green economy of the future.