116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
It’s the economy, Iowa Republicans
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Republican leadership is causing Iowa to fail.
Republicans’ “culture war” issues distract us from a much bigger problem: For the last three years, Iowa’s economy grew slowly or contracted while the rest of the country grew at a faster rate. Our GDP fell by 1.2% in the first quarter of 2025, led by the decline in agriculture. While we recovered part of that loss in the second quarter, it was significantly less than nearby states like Nebraska and Kansas. This means far fewer opportunities for all of us Iowans.
One of the major reasons for Iowa’s stagnant economic growth is a lack of qualified employees. But Iowa Republicans continue to make the state unfriendly to workers:
- Our cancer rate continues to grow, and numerous studies implicate nitrates in drinking water. But the DNR’s water monitoring resources have shrunk by more than 25%, and will soon entirely disappear. Many waterways stay on the impaired list for a decade or more. Meanwhile, the Republicans fail to even consider the Clean Water for Iowa Act. Who wants to move their family to a state with the country’s second-highest cancer rate — and one of only two with a rising rate? Would you expose your children to this kind of environment?
- Do we really expect businesses to find qualified employees when Republicans strangle public education? A 2% increase in K-12 funding isn’t going to stop our slide. A Ph.D. economist, Democratic state Sen. Herman Quirmbach, estimates that Republicans have underfunded schools by $2.1 billion since the beginning of the Reynolds regime. And the Iowa Workforce Development Board recently dropped critical, high-demand professions, such as law enforcement, firefighting, and medical assistants, from a scholarship program for community college students who want to get ahead. Whatever happened to Iowa’s status as top five in the nation for education?
- The state’s strict abortion ban means young couples seeking to start a family may fear the consequences of a problem pregnancy. I have a friend who strongly advised her daughter and son-in-law not to move here for just this reason.
- After Republicans canceled civil protections for transgender Iowans, stoking fear in the LGBTQ+ community, how much success will Iowa employers have in recruiting talented members of the LGBTQ+ community, whether from another state or a graduate of our own schools, for a high-demand job? It will be tough.
- The governor has sought a federal waiver to speed up Medicaid work requirements, even though other states that tried it found that low-income, working people who would have qualified instead lost coverage because of bureaucratic hurdles. Are sick people more likely to find and hold jobs?
As Iowa State University economics professor Peter Orazem put it: "Certainly if you look at the last 10 years or so, most of the attention paid on the political side has not been related to making Iowa a better place to live."
Iowa Democrats must focus on the barriers that stifle opportunities for all of us. Let the Republicans chase their DEI phantoms.
Randy Dillon is a retired tax partner with KPMG LLP. He lives in Fairfield.
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