If there’s anything Democrats have learned from the 2020 elections, it’s that showing up matters. I believe this to my core. There is so much that needs to be done in our state; we have so many people who are hurting, dying, or are otherwise unwell. We cannot allow those words to be descriptors of our party. If Democrats want to do the work the people need, if we want to act on environmental crises, fully fund public education, and defend organized labor, we need to do more. Iowans can’t afford to let Democrats sit idly while the GOP out-organizes us in nearly every rural district in the state.

I’m an organizer. That’s where my interest in politics and government began. I’ve worked in urban and rural Iowa, in deep-red Georgia, Virginia, and Washington, DC. Organizing is what we need. Organizers are making incredible progress in groups like the Eastside Dems, New Iowa Project, and Ankeny Area Democrats. But there is more to be done.

I believe in changing the role of legislators in our community. Our local standard-bearers need to fill that role where there are gaps. We have hundreds of thousands of good Democrats who haven’t had the opportunity to vote for a local Democratic candidate in ages. We cannot allow that to continue.

This is my pledge to you: When elected, I’m going to continue being an organizer for our community and party. I’m going to work in Johnson County and beyond to build our party’s power and work to deliver on the policy our community demands. We cannot address the challenges of our time without a Democratic majority. I am dedicated to building that majority.

We need all hands on deck and we can’t afford to take anyone out of the fight. Elected Democrats also have a unique advantage when it comes to organizing statewide. When elected officials are doing the work; knocking on doors, having hard conversations, and most of all, listening, we give people hope.

When elected Democrats show up and show out in rural Iowa, we can motivate people to act, organize, and volunteer. Many rural Democrats and county parties have felt abandoned by the IDP, rather than supported. I’m here to change that.

I’ve spent the last decade of my life volunteering, organizing, fundraising, and making change happen in Iowa and beyond. I have the experience and tools required. If elected, my pledge to you is to take on the Democratic deficit in rural Iowa head-on.

We need to invest in our schools and educators to ensure our students at every level receive the world-class education Iowa has long been known for. No charter schools. No vouchers. No money taken away from our kids’ collective future. Iowa must stop its chronic underfunding of education. Safety is crucial to the learning process. All students have a right to feel safe at school; without fear of gun violence, COVID-19, or discrimination.

– I stand for fully funding our public educational institutions and halting the advance of privatization in Iowa’s school systems.
– I support the creation of a targeted public service loan forgiveness program for Iowa educators and mental health professionals who choose to work in our public institutions as a means to entice Iowa-educated professionals to stay in Iowa.
– I support ending state funding for schools that discriminate or reserve the right to discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community.
– I support the implementation of comprehensive, common-sense gun violence prevention legislation. including but not limited to universal background checks, the regulation of “ghost guns,” mandatory reporting for lost and stolen firearms, and the enactment of stricter licensure requirements.
– I support the return of mask mandate authority to school boards and other local officials to keep our kids safe.
– I support students’ rights to be affirmed in their gender identity and sexual orientation.
– I support the expansion and implementation of anti-racism education in all schools.
– I support the expansion of occupational education opportunities and apprenticeships in Iowa schools that better prepare students for entry into the trades and communicate the value of labor in the market.

Let’s make sure our kids get the education and our teachers the pay they both deserve.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Declaration of Independence established these founding principles to guide our nation. Healthcare is a human right because it is instrumental to our ability to achieve those fundamental principles. I promise to fight for the accessible, high-quality, affordable healthcare and prescription drugs that every Iowan deserves, regardless of how much they make or where they’re from.

– I support the expansion of Medicare/Medicaid and rolling back unconstitutional anti-trans exclusions.
– I support codifying the protections of Roe v. Wade and a person’s essential right to choose.
– I support significantly increasing funding for mental healthcare and increasing the number of staffed psych beds to address Iowa’s mental healthcare deficit.
– I support efforts to reduce the cost of prescription drugs.
– I support the build-up and creation of robust substance addiction treatment resources to address the opiate epidemic and prevailing issues with methamphetamine. 

Healthcare is a human right. Abortion is healthcare. Trans healthcare is essential.

Now more than ever, we need to protect workers against an onslaught: a minimum wage that hasn’t been raised in over a decade, a global pandemic threatening lives, and an overtly labor-hostile trifecta in Des Moines. Workers in Iowa have fewer rights today than they’ve had in generations. Government needs to work for the people. Laws that serve to disempower the people in the workplace only serve to put working-class Iowans in a worse state economically.

– I support unionization in every workplace to ensure more Iowa workers are compensated fairly, get quality benefits, and maintain the power to work together to stop exploitation and other unfair/illegal practices like wage theft.
– I support policy that robustly responds to wage theft, providing a framework for handling cases and penalties for employers engaging in the activity including but not limited to fines, interest accrual, ineligibility for government contracts, and criminal liability.
– I support a $15/hr minimum wage and the return of local control to county governments.
– I support abolishing “right to work” laws and reinstating Iowa’s Chapter 20 labor provisions that led to 40+ years of fair, stable, and predictable contract negotiations.
– I support building protections for Project Labor Agreements and implementing Prevailing Wage policies throughout government.
– I support workers’ rights to select their medical providers for workplace injuries.
– I support the expansion of programs that reduce the barriers that young people face in acquiring licenses and permits required for many jobs in the trades, transportation, and industry.

When the middle class works together, it’s strong, prosperous, and there isn’t anything that can stop it. Join a union today.

Our planet is in crisis. For hundreds of years, we have engaged in unsustainable exploitation of the Earth’s resources. We have leveled forests for paper, burned native prairie for farmland, and drilled deeper than any other form of life in search of fossil fuels that pollute and warm our atmosphere. According to a recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, our past actions have ensured that in the next 30 years, we will see more extreme and dangerous weather events, drought, wildfires, coastal disintegration, along with decreases in global biodiversity. Iowa, as a bastion of industrial agriculture, sits in the gunner’s seat and crosshair of this crisis. To prevent the worst from occurring in the future, and to protect the lives and livelihoods of many who are directly impacted by climate change in the present, we must act decisively.

– I support a policy that would ensure Iowa has a net negative or net-zero carbon footprint within a decade.
– I support the expansion of Iowa’s renewable energy portfolio of wind and solar facilities and would advocate for more independent home, municipal, and cooperative solar arrays.
– I support a moratorium on CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding  Operations) statewide, and the creation of more meaningful and comprehensive policies to prevent harmful gas and manure leaks that poison our air, water, and soil.
– I support greater cooperation with states and stakeholders in the Mississippi watershed working to reduce nutrient, pesticide, and sediment runoff that causes the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone.
– I support a comprehensive policy to address Iowa’s water quality crisis that provides local-level actions, regulations for producers, and an overhaul of the Master Matrix.
– I support the creation of policies that incentivize farmers to engage in regenerative agricultural practices that capture and sequester atmospheric CO2.
– I support the legalization of industrial hemp and incentives to build state hemp industry and infrastructure.
– I support funding Iowa’s Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund.

Iowans have the expertise and drive to make Iowa a national and global climate leader. 

For far too long, Iowa’s Republican-led government has failed to prioritize the needs of Iowans in the budget. They’ve slashed spending on mental health resources, aged care, and education with real reductions or increases below annual inflation rates. Republicans have doled out billions of dollars worth of tax breaks to large corporations like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. This money and the current $1.2 billion in surplus should be used to recover from the pandemic and invest in Iowans, but Republicans refuse. I believe in investing in Iowans.

– I support expanding and increasing funding for state and local affordable housing efforts based on the recommendations of experts working with those in need.
– I support the passage and implementation of the Iowa Manufactured Home Resident’s Bill of Rights that affords rent protections, rights to residents in the case of property sale, creates good cause eviction standards, requires fair fees and legal leases.
– I support increasing funding and access to affordable childcare and early childhood education.
– I support expediting rent and mortgage assistance requests made possible by the American Rescue Plan.
– I support property tax credits for low-income veterans, elderly, and disabled Iowans.
– I support the expansion of renewable energy tax credits that incentivize local green power production and use.

In the richest country in the history of the world, it’s time we made Iowans’ money and economy work for Iowans, not just big corporate interests.

Black lives unconditionally matter. Full stop. Black men matter. Black women matter. Black trans lives matter. Black disabled lives matter. The criminalization of Blackness must end. This requires a systemic approach to reforming the justice system, investing in communities of color to encourage local growth, and a wholesale effort to dismantle white supremacy wherever present.

– I support the demilitarization of the police and the end of Iowa’s involvement in the federal 1033 program.
– I support greater emphasis on de-escalation training in law enforcement education and drilling.
– I support ending statutory mandatory minimum sentences that fail to address community safety by focusing on punishment rather than rehabilitation and exacerbating mass incarceration.
– I support ending the War on Drugs and the regulation/legalization of cannabis in the state of Iowa.
– I support expunging the records of all those charged with nonviolent cannabis-related offenses and expanding our current inadequate medical cannabis program.
– I support increased funding for public defenders’ offices to ensure quality representation for all.
– I support significantly reducing the usage of cash bonds, a practice that disproportionately affects low-income folks and perpetuates cycles of poverty and incarceration.

168 Ways to Donate in Support of Black Lives and Communities of Color

Everyone deserves the right to live their lives honestly, without discrimination, and fear of violence. While the LGBTQ community has made leaps and bounds toward achieving these goals, we still live in a time where systemic discrimination and violence are an ever-present threat in their daily lives. We must do more to ensure all members of our community can feel safe and thrive.

– I support a ban on Sexual Orientation Change Efforts, otherwise known as “gay conversion therapy.”
– I support the expansion of Iowa’s hate crime statute to include gender identity to empower the criminal justice system to robustly act against offenders motivated by hate.
– I support making it easier for all Iowans to acquire and alter forms of ID, as well as including an option for nonbinary status.
– I support the implementation of comprehensive and LGBTQ inclusive sex education in all schools.

Donate to Iowa Trans Mutual Aid, OneIowa, Iowa Safe Schools

Whether by the secessionist slave drivers of the 1800s or by the terrorists that stormed our capitol on January 6th, our democracy has always been under threat. Now more than ever it appears to be cracking under pressure, unable to withstand the constant stream of abuse that many continue to send it. We must enact swift, systemic changes if we want to wrestle our republic from an authoritarian slide. In Iowa specifically, much needs to be done.

– I support a comprehensive overhaul of campaign finance law in the state of Iowa and the imposition of topline limitation on campaign contributions.
– I support the abolition of voter ID laws that serve as an unnecessary barrier to the voices of those in often marginalized communities.
– I support the complete abolition of the felony disenfranchisement regime that has long been used to disenfranchise communities of color and support the restoration of voting rights for all Iowans.
– I support ending prison-based gerrymandering in Iowa.
– I support protecting Iowa’s nonpartisan redistricting commission that has served as a model for fair redistricting nationwide.
– I support the return of local control to counties and municipalities where the state has acted partisanly to pre-empt common-sense measures that improve the lives of Iowans. 

Everything comes down to democracy. It is our obligation to upkeep and protects representative government so future generations can enjoy the liberties and freedoms of those prior.

– I support the creation of a net neutrality regime to protect Iowa consumers and businesses from monopolistic control of telecommunications companies.
– I support the creation of a “Right to Repair” in Iowa.