Molly Donahue faces challenge from Kurt Bendixen in Iowa Senate 37 race

A second-term Democratic state representative faces a challenge from a Republican newcomer in the race for Iowa Senate District 37 representing eastern Cedar Rapids and Marion.

Molly Donahue, a Democrat in the Iowa House, faces Kurt Bendixen in the Nov. 8 general election. She narrowly defeated newcomer Austin Frerick in the June Democratic primary for the seat.

Members of the Linn County Republican Party Central Committee in August nominated Bendixen of Cedar Rapids to challenge Donahue for the Iowa Senate 37 seat.

“I decided someone better step up and represent those conservative values,” Bendixen said.

His priorities include fighting inflation and rising living costs by “eliminating needless government spending and red tape,” improving public safety and ensuring Iowa students are taught fundamentals and not an “anti-American ideology,” according to Bendixen’s campaign website.

Bendixen opposes attempts to defund the police and supports law enforcement so they have sufficient resources to combat violent crime and human trafficking.

Bendixen has said he opposes the Linn-Mar Community School District’s policies to protect transgender students from discrimination. He supports a parents group suing the school district to prevent the politicization of K-12 education.

The group argues the Linn-Mar policy passed in April allows children to make fundamentally important decisions about gender identity in school without parental involvement and shield those decisions from their parents.

He believes parents should have the final say over what their children are taught.

Bendixen has said he supports Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds’ proposal for publicly funded scholarships for private school tuition.

Additionally, Bendixen said he supports free speech and Second Amendment rights, but that free speech is “not as free anymore” because he felt people are being shut down in COVID-19 discussions or in college classrooms. He pointed to the Linn-Mar transgender policy as one case.

“I believe in the Constitution the way it was written,” Bendixen said. “I believe the Founding Fathers made a great system.”

With the state’s nearly $2 billion budget surplus, Donahue said she favors putting funds toward tax breaks for working- and middle-class Iowans to alleviate pressures caused by inflation and stagnant wages.

Specifically, she envisioned a tax credit expansion for child care, lowering the income tax rates for the middle class, cutting the income tax for working Iowans juggling two or more jobs and ending “tax giveaways” to corporations or millionaires.

Donahue said she wants public schools to be fully funded “so that we can provide a world-class education to all students regardless of where they were born and live with enough services and staff to make that happen.”

She opposes Reynolds’ proposal for publicly funded scholarships for private school tuition.

To support Iowa’s public K-12 schools, Donahue said she would like to bring the school supplemental state aid funding rate up to 4 percent, restore collective bargaining rights to educators, support the enhancement of teacher education programs to increase the number of prospective educators and lower student-to-staff ratios.

On the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade decision that had legalized abortion, Donahue said she is against bans on abortion. But as Iowa Republicans who control the Legislature look to impose restrictions, there should be exceptions for the health or life of the mother, rape and incest, she said.

“These medical decisions should be between a woman, her loved ones and her family doctor,” Donahue said. “Abortion is health care, whether it be by choice or by medical necessity …”

Tom Barton of The Gazette contributed to this report

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