Peggy Stover exploring bid for Iowa House in Cedar Rapids district

A second Democrat is exploring a run for the Iowa Legislature from an open-seat district in southeast Cedar Rapids.

Peggy Rodrigues Stover, a professor at the University of Iowa and an officer in the Linn County Democratic Party, has formed a committee to explore a bid for the Democratic nomination in Iowa House District 65.

The district is represented by state Rep. Liz Bennett, a Democrat, who is running for her party’s nomination in Senate District 33, where Sen. Rob Hogg is not seeking re-election in 2022.

Breanna Oxley also is seeking the Senate nomination.

Community organizer Sami Scheetz earlier announced his plans to seek the Democratic House 65 nomination.

He welcomed Stover to the race, saying voters “deserve a spirited campaign about the issues to ensure that their next state representative is a person who understands the needs of working people.”

The district, which will be reconfigured when the Legislature approves a redistricting plan based on the 2020 census, voted 67 percent to 31 percent for Joe Biden over Donald Trump in 2020.

No Republicans have announced plans to run in the district.

Stover, 56, an associate professor and administrator at the UI Tippie College of Business, said she’s heard common themes in talking to people in the district about the dysfunction in Des Moines.

“For example, the state's continuing slow response to the aftermath of last year's derecho storm that devastated Cedar Rapids, the ongoing mishandling of the pandemic statewide, inadequate funding for public education, and the erosion of basic rights for workers,” she said in her announcement.

Stover also believes the governor and Legislature need to immediately look at alternatives to what she called the failed privatization of the Medicaid program.

"The pandemic illustrates the need for good, timely and affordable health care for all Iowans,” she said. “The privatization of the state's Medicaid program has been inefficient and costly to taxpayers and providers.”

Stover expects to make a final decision on an election bid by early winter, after the new district maps are completed and the Nov. 2 city council and school board elections have concluded.

Stover has a master's degree from the University of Denver and a bachelor's degree from St. Mary's University in San Antonio. Originally from Puerto Rico, she and her husband, Greg, have lived in House District 65 for more than a decade.

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