Candidate Profiles

1. Change: Iowans are increasingly frustrated with their political system, characterized by repeated elections of traditional leaders who promise improved solutions by consolidating power. The current political climate is marred by divisive party politics rather than uniting citizens from all backgrounds to find meaningful solutions. To address this, I am running as an independent for the Iowa House of Representatives, advocating for a solutions-oriented approach to governing. Our campaign is a grassroot, data-led campaign. We decline money from Super PAC's, political parties and special interests. We are truly people powered and funded and are rooted in the belief that our diverse perspectives make us stronger, and that valuable ideas can emerge from anyone, regardless of their background or political leanings. To revitalize the democratic process and regain public trust, we need a younger, solutions-oriented generation to participate in state politics. 2. Clean Water: Every Iowans deserves access to clean water. We need to fund and prioritize clean water, and work to ensure all Iowans have safe drinking water. This issue is at the very heart of Iowa communities' existence. Without clean water, we can't live here, and voters know that. In 2010 63% of Iowa voters approved a constitutional amendment to support a statewide natural resource initiative. Despite that initiative, lawmakers have been unable to devise a formula to fund it. The Environmental Working Group, based in Washington, D.C., released its latest review of water utilities early in 2022. It concluded that most of Iowa’s 1,084 utilities produce drinking water that has unsafe levels of multiple contaminants, many of which are byproducts of the water treatment process. Iowa currently ranks second in the country for cancer rates and is the only state in the country with a rising cancer rate. Despite a multi-billion-dollar surplus, Iowa lawmakers agreed to only a $75 million dollar grant to help clean up Iowa's waterways. To ensure that Iowans from all backgrounds have access to clean, we must work to find viable long terms funding solutions to clean up our waterways and work with our agricultural and industrial sectors to help protect one of our most precious natural commodities. 3. Elevating Public Schools: Iowa is grappling with an acute shortage of teachers, necessitating policies that retain and competitively compensate educators to provide quality education for students. The state as of spring 2024 ranked 36th in the country for starting teacher pay at just $38,500. Despite a substantial budget surplus, there had been no effort to increase these wages or support staff salaries. In April, the state legislature passed a bill that would lift starting teacher pay to $47,500, sadly the state failed to pass meaningful funding reforms that ensures schools have the vital funds to pay their teachers and keep their doors open. To make matters worse, Iowa's legislature approved HF 68, allocating over $230 million taxpayer dollars for school vouchers, diverting funds from general fund and Area Education Associations that provide essential services for students with special needs. This redirection of funds to private schools lacks the same level of accountability and inclusivity required of public schools. Private schools can reject students for any reason and have unrestricted tuition increases, rendering them unaffordable for low and middle-income families. To sustain rural schools, immediate action must be taken to allocate more funding to small districts. The state must also allow more flexibility within the current tax code to allow local towns to lift their taxes to keep their schools open.

The State of Iowa has recently revised their FY 2024 surplus, which currently stands at $2.102 billion dollars. Tax dollars should be vested back into our communities and to the betterment of our quality of life. Sadly, in recent years Iowa has sold out its public support systems to corporate for-profit entities. Public education dollars are now being sent to urban areas, depriving rural public schools of much needed funding. The privatization of Medicaid has resulted in higher costs for taxpayers. To put it bluntly, public taxpayer dollars belong to the public and should be used for the betterment of all and not be given to for-profit corporations. Excess taxpayer money is breathing proof of under investment in communities. Instead of cutting taxes for wealthy Iowans and corporations, we should be sending money back to municipalities and give local communities more control and agency to invest in their communities as they see fit. Rural towns cannot continue to do more with less any longer. We need to address the tax code to make sure that more of our tax dollars are kept at the local level and give our local councils, supervisors and citizens the agency and ability to utilize those taxpayer dollars as they see fit.

This is a novel idea that I believe will enhance public safety, but I struggle to understand how this would be enforceable. Ultimately, more regulations without nuances, flexibility, and/or resources to enforce and adapt to these regulations will result in yet more a more burdensome government overreach.

Recent increases in Medicaid reimbursement rates have helped rural healthcare providers and nursing homes remain solvent for the moment. Healthcare costs continue to increase by 15-20 percent annually. Meanwhile, private health care insurers continue to consolidate, buy out competitors and dictate costs and care for patients. This is wrong. How did we get to a society where we let a for profit organization determine what type of health care or access you receive? In the meantime, these private health insurance companies continue to rake in unprecedented profits and buy back stocks to over inflate their assets. A lack of diversity within any economic system will only yield monopolies that control the system and prices. The state of Iowa should make a concerted effort to break up the insurance and healthcare monopolies by instigating a state-run reinsurance program as well as mandating that insurers pay for services such as hearing aids for adults. Additionally, the state should have more oversight of private agencies that continue to elevate prices to extraordinary levels and have a firmer grasp of how these funds are being spent to examine next tangible steps for nursing home care.

Absolutely, yes! Great policy is made through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research and data collection. We must understand and have full transparency as to why our citizens are becoming so ill. Additional funding should be given to clinics across the state, with an added emphasis to citizens that live in health care deserts.

Great ideas can come from anywhere, but viable solutions can only come about when restorative practices are implemented from vested parties. The state should establish a working committee, comprised of farmers, economist, water advocates and health care officials to come up with tangible and viable solutions to cleaning up our water. Additionally, the state must devise a viable funding formula for cleaning up of our water and incentive regenerative and restorative agricultural practices for farmers, while holding large polluters and industries that have long known about their practices, liable. Iowa citizens deserve full transparency and have a right to clean water, which is why, as a legislature, I would support a constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right to access of clean water. Continued investment into data collection and research is also necessary to provide tangible evidence of the efficacy of these efforts.

This is one of the most trying issues for our state. A continued and decades long disinvestment by state leaders into our rural health care clinics has yielded a mental health care desert in most parts of our state. The toll is felt from our schools to our local law enforcement. Immediate action must be taken. The Iowa legislature should utilize their reserve to help set up telehealth clinics across the state and allocate more funding to rural health care clinics. Furthermore, the state of Iowa was awarded a $750 million dollar settlement from the opioid epidemic. These funds will come in 10 annual payments and must be used to address substance abuse and mental health care. I would like to see county public health and local area clinics pair to apply for this funding and set up the systems they see fit for their communities, whether it be more counselors in schools, an additional mental health professional in a clinic or other solutions to address this pressing need.

Abortion is a medical procedure that should be made between a doctor and a patient/family. Iowa currently ranks 49th in the country for OBGYN's, with roughly 1 OBGYN for every 10,500 women and roughly 1/3 of Iowa's continues are classified as maternal deserts. The fetal heartbeat law passed in Iowa is similar to a law passed in Texas several years ago. The blowback has shown us what lies ahead: OBGYN's leaving the state, women being denied healthcare, doctors fearful of having licenses revoked, an increase in infant mortality and maternal mortality rates. Healthcare is healthcare. It's a personal and a private matter and the government has no right to dictate what care a person should receive if their doctor believes it is in the best interest of the patient.

This is a sensitive issue. There are those that have a moral belief that they should have bodily autonomy and freedom to choose their future and others that have a moral belief that abortion in any circumstance is wrong. And the only way to honor both perspectives is to allow a woman the right to make her own decisions about her body. Defining "life" as 'at conception,' is a statement, but does little to address the needs of women or families. I would like to see a policy discussion that is focused more on what policies are needed to support women and families in today's economy and work to create policies that support better access to family planning and maternal healthcare so that abortion, which are at a historic low, are less frequent.

The state legislature is allocating $235 million dollars to private school vouchers; taxpayer money that should be going to public schools, not private schools. Recent changes to the AEA's have also stripped resources from our rural schools. Why these decisions were made and the data that supported them, to me, does not speak to the betterment of the majority of Iowans. As a public-school educator, I would like to see more agency and autonomy given back to local schools to help decide their curriculum and make the systemic changes they see as advantageous to their schools and students. The state has a Department of Education to help oversee curriculum standards, the legislature, many of which have no formal teaching experience or specific content knowledge, should not be setting curriculum standards for students. This should be left up to school boards, curriculum experts and the department of education.

IEDA has done an excellent job of setting up systems, programs and tax credits that support the expansion of industry, small businesses, housing development and childcare. I am continually impressed by our public state agencies, schools, volunteer fire departments, small business owners and our community leaders for their commitment towards equitable support for the people of Iowa. Iowa has always been my home. I made the conscious decision to come back to Iowa because I know this state has good values; values that aren't based in Republican or Democratic ideology, but values that are based on our collective commitment to show up, work hard and care for one another. These are the values that I see reflected in my neighbors. But those values are being lost by a legislature that is more intent on passing bills that are written by corporations and special interests and catered towards profit than they are about actually bettering the quality of our lives. Public schools, clean water, quality and affordable childcare, strong local economies and supporting our small farmers and businesses; these are all essential to creating a stronger and more vibrant Iowa. Learn more about our policy positions and ideas at ianforiowa.org.