Candidate Profiles

We need people to want to stay here, to come and make a home here. Making this a place where people see a future for themselves involves access to healthcare and secure, affordable housing; educating and recruiting people for 21st century careers; and ensuring that all Iowans know how valuable they are to our communities. Toward these goals, we need to connect rural Iowa, improve water quality, and encourage entrepreneurship and creativity. We need to protect Iowans’ safety and steward our land and animals. There is so much that can be done to make Iowa a place people are excited to call home. We need definitive investments in Public Education to include the addition of pre-K to our public school systems and improvements to course offerings that leverage modern access to global learning.

First priority is to fund our public schools, followed by unfunded mandates including the Children's Mental Health System and underfunded programs like REAP.

Nationwide, studies show that hands free laws save lives of drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. So, yes, I support implementing a reasonable ban on the use of hand-held devices while driving.

There are three particular measures I think could assist in growing and retaining staff for nursing homes. First, we need to condense the 30+ titles of the roles in the field and create a portal so that these workers have transferrable credentials based on the professional training and skills that they build. Second, we need to ensure proper inspection of our nursing home settings. Currently, we are dramatically failing to properly inspect these facilities as required, every 13 months. Finally, Medicaid reimbursement for this field needs to be increased so that staff can be adequately compensated for serving in such an important, growing, and demanding field.

The best thing we can do is seek to answer the question of why we have such a high cancer rate and why we have a RISING cancer rate. People throw out potential explanations; radon, binge drinking, PFAS and PFOAS. I would like to see research so that we can stop guessing, and screening and prevention programs put in place in the meantime.

We must act as responsible stewards of our water, planting diverse, drought-resistant crops and working with natural ecosystems, rather than against them. Water quality can be improved by implementing Point-of-Source monitoring, recreating oxbows and turning back the straightening of waterways to slow water flow, and following annual recommendations for application of fertilizer. We must fully fund and follow our Iowa DNR in an effort to reclaim Iowa’s prairie and woodland heritage and engage people in enjoyment of outdoor water recreation opportunities year-round.

Iowa needs to aggressively work to bring in mental healthcare providers for all settings (out-patient, in-patient, residential placement, emergency), all communities (rural, suburban, urban), and for all cohorts (youth, elderly, veterans, schools, working adults, lgbtq+ individuals). Some of these people will be trained in Iowa, and we must offer incentives to retain them. Others, we need to convince to come here from other locations. In both cases, this means showing that Iowa is a great place to make a home, to work in a supported, supportive mental health field of services and providers, to grow a practice or find a niche in supporting a community. We should consider all opportunities to encourage young people interested in working in mental health, but also to provide stable, consistent, supportive working conditions for those Iowans as they progress in their field. We need to get creative to ensure that services are available to all when they are needed. This may include telehealth services, but mental health is not always best served by phone or video chat. It also may involve collaboration with non-profit groups such as United Action for Youth and CommUnity in Johnson County, and others around the state, to let those doing the work now tell us how we can best extend services to those whose needs are not currently met. Of course, when we have moved to universal coverage through a single-payer system, there will no longer be a question of individuals carrying insurance that providers do not accept.

What we need is happy families raising supported kids. Building a family is a serious, personal, and life changing action, and every person needs to be able to control their reproductive future. Only that control will lead to kids that are well, safe, and able to access everything that life can offer them. IVF creates pregnancies that are so deeply wanted that the parents are choosing to go above and beyond to bring children into their lives. What could be a better example of controlling one's reproductive freedom? Contraception must be accessible. Abortions must be safe and legal, and a decision made by a pregnant person in consultation with their medical provider and any family or friends they decide to involve. Bodily autonomy is paramount to us as human beings. A person cannot legally be forced to give a part of their body without consent, even to save another person’s life, in any situation, even after death. This ideal must remain clear and consistent across all events, particularly medical situations.

Absolutely not. One group's religious morals must NEVER be enshrined as law that impacts so many who do not share that religious viewpoint.

Instead of fleeing public schools, we must put taxpayer funds into building the BEST schools for every kid, and utilize new creative and technological assets to give students the opportunities they crave, whether that is studying ASL starting in 7th grade with a county- or state-wide online program, or building a house (as I got the chance to my senior year) in an applied technology course, or tracking into college-level courses early. We need to pay educators as the professionals they are. And we need to stop the brain drain from Iowa and show young people that there’s a future for them here. Curricular standards must be set by educators, for educators who understand both the educational development of students and the breath of experience that students bring with them to their lessons. There are high level guidelines that the legislature may act on, but subject and grade specific curriculum should be set by the Iowa Board of Education in collaboration with districts, parents, and students.

Long-term, Iowa’s economic reliance on so few industries is hurting us more and more. Development of future-forward ideas and business ventures is vital to Iowa as a place where young people can see a future for themselves. This starts in Iowa’s public schools, engaging students with exciting, hands-on STEAM curriculum from youth and encouraging them all to see that there are diverse areas where they might find their interests and gifts. Then, it requires support of community colleges and public universities, as well as policies that promote tech careers that are not traditionally college-founded, through apprenticeships and technical training programs, as well as support for those currently in the workforce to expand their skills and credentials. It involves promoting and designing programs that encourage business incubation and bringing together people with innovative solutions to Iowa’s struggles, such as the research parks currently under UIowa and Iowa State.