Political newcomers face off for Iowa House District 91 seat

Two political newcomers — Democrat Jay Gorsh and Republican Judd Lawler — are vying for an open seat representing Iowa House District 91 after incumbent Republican Brad Sherman decided not to seek re-election after the sudden death of his daughter.

The district includes Tiffin, Swisher, Oxford and all of Iowa County. Early voting started earlier this month and Election Day is Nov. 5.

Sherman, a pastor from Williamsburg, is not seeking re-election after serving one term in the Legislature due to the unexpected death of his daughter in 2023. Sherman recruited Lawler to run for the seat and endorsed his campaign.

While Gorsh did not face a Democratic primary, Lawler fended off Williamsburg Mayor Adam Grier to handily win the Republican primary and advance to the general election.

Jay Gorsh

Gorsh is director of the University of Iowa’s School of the Wild, which works with schools, county conservation boards and other organizations to bring outdoor learning experiences to elementary and middle school students throughout the state.

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The Williamsburg native and volunteer firefighter also holds degrees in elementary education and in teaching and learning, including a focus on special education and skills in educational leadership.

He said his main priorities are conservation, affordability and education.

For conservation, “we should work in bipartisan efforts to improve water and soil quality for our personal health and public environmental and economic health,” he said.

“Great members of The Izaak Walton League of Iowa have 'citizen scientist' programs like Save Our Streams, Nitrate Watch and Salt Watch. They also partner with other organizations such as the Iowa Nature Summit and Iowa Environmental Council to host the Iowa Water Summit every fall. These groups doing important work should have a seat at the table when policy decisions are being made,” Gorsh wrote in a candidate questionnaire from The Gazette.

For affordability, “we ought to incentivize affordable housing construction, renewable energy industries and hold price gougers accountable.”

When it comes to education, Gorsh said Iowa schools should be “fully funded” in order to do “the most good for the most people.”

“Our state supplemental aid given to schools used to be 4 percent consistently from 2006-2010. In the last few years, our Republican-led legislature has decreased that to as low as 1 percent,” Gorsh wrote on the candidate questionnaire. “We know that costs are rising, this includes utilities, for our school districts. We need to bring SSA back up to 4 percent so that districts don't have to make devastating cuts in their communities.”

Gorsh noted that he has worked with 98 schools across 44 counties in Iowa to provide school children with outdoor learning experiences.

He did not respond to questions in the survey about efforts to ban using hand-held mobile devices while driving; nursing home staffing and resident safety; or mental health services.

In response to a question about what he would do to make Iowa more attractive for investment and growth, Gorsh wrote: “Change policies that have been pushing out our young people. Allow for reproductive freedom, allow for diverse books to be read, allow for people to drink clean water.”

Judd Lawler

Lawler, a Johnson County native and lawyer and former federal prosecutor in New York, moved back to Iowa about 18 years ago and is a stay-at-home father.

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He did not respond to a candidate questionnaire or comment in phone calls or emails from The Gazette for this article. Earlier this year, he told the newspaper he would seek to continue Sherman’s work in the Iowa Legislature of “strengthening families and protecting individual liberty,” particularly on issues involving religious freedom, gun rights and property rights.

In an interview this fall with the Hometown Current, he said he was focused on the issues of affordability, property tax reform, protecting individual rights and education.

He told the newspaper that he had seen the property tax bills from some of his retired neighbors and the bills increased 13 percent in a year.

Lawler said the main cause of rising property taxes is inflation — caused by federal spending and high interest rates. “It costs twice as much to build a house, so the house you live in is worth twice as much,” Lawler told the Hometown Current.

Earlier this year, the Legislature passed a measure — House File 718 — that seeks to achieve a reduction in future tax growth primarily by merging most local government and school property taxes into one general levy, then installing mechanisms that reduce that levy if overall taxable valuation grows over a certain level.

Lawler said the state needs to continue to be responsible with its budgets, noting that Iowa is one of the few states to have a budget surplus.

On education, Lawler’s father, father-in-law, grandmother and great-grandmother were schoolteachers. He said he supports three modes of learning — public schooling, private schooling and home schooling — and for parents to have the freedom to pursue what they think is best for their children.

“When our schools stray from their primary mission, they should hear from all of us,” Lawler’s campaign website states. “When our schools succeed, we should let them know they have our support.”

Lawler told the Hometown Current he also is focused on mental health among youth.

They face higher rates of suicide “and they’re constantly censored,” Lawler said, leading to mental health issues. “Yet they are taught that they are privileged and born into a system that is inherently evil.”

On his campaign website, Lawler lists among his priorities protecting individual rights, saying that “our rights are constantly under attack.”

“And those who conspire to take away our life and liberty usually attack the weakest among us. There is no better example of this than their incessant efforts to take life from those who are literally voiceless — the unborn.”

He said the Legislature needs lawmakers like him who “will consider the impact of every proposed law on individual liberty before they vote on it.”

Comments: (319) 398-8370; olivia.cohen@thegazette.com