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Iowans don't live single-issue lives. A parent worried about their kid's classroom size is also worried about the family farm, the cost of a doctor's visit, the property tax bill, and whether the creek behind their house is safe. These issues aren't separate boxes to check, they're all part of the same Iowa life, and in the Iowa House, they all come from the same budget and the same set of choices. A community with good schools attracts good employers. A community where people can afford healthcare keeps its workforce healthy and on the job. A community with clean water and manageable property taxes is a community people choose to stay in. You can't fix one without paying attention to the others. That's how I'm approaching this campaign for House District 42: not as a list of separate promises, but as one plan for one community.
Strong Public Schools
Strong public schools are how we prepareour kids, support our teachers, and build the skilled workforce Iowa businesses depend on.
That starts with paying teachers enough to keep them in Iowa classrooms instead of losing them to other states or other professions. It means giving schools the resources to keep class sizes manageable and offer real career and technical training, not just a one-size-fits-all path to a four-year degree. And it means treating public schools as a community investment, not a line item to cut, because every employer who's looked at relocating to Iowa has asked the same question: will this community produce the workforce I need? Strong schools are also strong economic development.
HEALTHCARE
When Iowans can get the care they need, families stay strong and our workforce stays on the job.
That means keeping rural hospitals and clinics open instead of watching them close their doors and forcing families to drive an hour for basic care. It means making sure mental health and addiction treatment are actually available, not just available on paper. And it means recognizing that healthcare access isn't separate from the economy. A parent who can't get their child to a doctor is a parent who can't show up reliably to work, and a worker who delays care for a treatable condition is a worker who eventually can't work at all. Healthy families are the foundation of a healthy workforce. That includes reproductive health. Women deserve access to the full range of healthcare, including family planning and prenatal care and the ability to make those decisions with their doctor, not their legislature. I also believe that real reproductive health means real education: making sure Iowans, especially young women, have access to accurate, honest information about their health, their options, and their bodies. A woman who can make informed decisions for herself and her family is healthier, more economically secure, and better able to build the life she wants. Restricting that information doesn't protect families, it leaves them less prepared.
ECONOMY AND JOBS
A strong economy starts with strong communities. When we invest in families, workers, and local infrastructure, Iowa businesses grow.
That means broadband and roads that actually reach rural areas, not just the cities. It means supporting small businesses and family farms with the same seriousness we give big employers, because they're the backbone of most Iowa towns. And it means understanding that "good for business" and "good for working families" aren't opposites. When families have good schools, reliable healthcare, and safe communities, they're also the stable, skilled workforce that makes Iowa businesses want to stay and grow here.
water quality
Iowans shouldn't have to wonder if the water coming out of their tap, or running through their kids' creek, is safe.
That means holding polluters accountable instead of leaving the cost of cleanup to homeowners and small water utilities. It means giving the Iowa DNR the resources and authority to actually enforce the standards we already have on the books, rather than relying on voluntary measures that haven't gotten the job done. And it means supporting the farmers who are already doing the right thing with conservation practices, cover crops, and buffer strips, so that protecting our water doesn't get framed as farmers versus everyone else. Clean water is a public health issue, a property value issue, and an economic development issue. Nobody builds a business or raises a family around water they don't trust.
property taxes
That's not a coincidence, it's what happens when the state cuts its share and counties and school districts are left to make up the difference on the backs of homeowners. A real fix means the state actually living up to its funding commitments to local schools and cities, so property taxes aren't doing the work the state budget should be doing. It also means looking honestly at who benefits from the current system, because right now too much of the relief in recent "reform" has gone to commercial and out-of-state interests while everyday Iowa homeowners are still squeezed. Lowering the burden on working families has to be the test for any tax change, not an afterthought.
Cut funding from schools, and you weaken the workforce employers are counting on. Let rural healthcare disappear, and you lose the families who keep small towns alive. Let the state's share of school and city funding shrink, and homeowners get hit with the property tax bill to make up the difference. Let our water go unprotected, and you put both public health and farmland values at risk. These problems show up at the door as separate complaints, but in the legislature they trace back to the same choices about where the state puts its money and whose interests it protects. I'm running for House District 42 because Iowans are tired of leaders who treat these as separate fights. They're not. They're the same fight, for communities where people can build a good life without leaving.