Who are the candidates for the Iowa House District 36 seat? – Des Moines Register

Des Moines Register Staff| Des Moines Register

How to vote early in Iowa's June 7, 2022 primary election

Early voting for the June 7 primary begins on May 18. Heres how to get ready to vote.

Elisabeth Smith, Wochit

Six Democrats are running for an open seat to represent Des Moines residents at the Iowa Statehouse.

It's the largest competitive primary field this year in Iowa.

The candidates areAustin Baeth, a Des Moines physician; Jaylen Cavil,anorganizer with the Des Moines Black Liberation Movement; Chris Disbro, a doctor; Shannon Henson, a personal injury and insurance claims attorney; Gabriel De La Cerda, a Democratic activist and social worker; and Jack C. Porter, a retired state preservation consultant.

The winner is expected to claim the House seat because Republicans have not named a candidate.

Early voting for the June 7 primary is underway.Here's how you can vote in Iowa.

To help voters, the Des Moines Register sent surveys to every candidate in this competitive primary. The candidate responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity. Candidates appear in alphabetical order by last name.

More: How to vote early in Iowa's 2022 primary elections from registration to voting locations

Austin Baeth

Jaylen Cavil

Chris Disbro

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Shannon Henson

Gabriel De La Cerda

Jack C. Porter

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Baeth:Im a husband, father, primary care physician, and small-business owner. The son of teachers and a medical educator myself, I will prioritize restoring our public schools to be the best in the nation. I will add medical expertise to the Legislature, which has no doctors, to fix our health care system and protect reproductive rights. I will use my business experience to grow Iowas green economy to fight climate change and water pollution. With years of experience advocating for progressive legislation at the State Capitol, I will fight to address systemic inequities to ensure everyone finds opportunity in Iowa.

Cavil:I am the youngest and only Black candidate in this race, which means I have a much different lived experience that informs my perspectives on the issues. I am also the most progressive candidate in this race. Most importantly, I am the candidate in this race who has been in our community working alongside those who are most marginalized to address the issues Im running on. Every issue on my platform that I promise to fight for once elected is something I have already been fighting and organizing for. This is not new to me.

Disbro:I have a unique set of skills and experience that will make me the most effective representative. I have advocated for legislation creating new agricultural programs in the past, meaning I have the institutional knowledge and relationships on both sides of the aisle to hit the ground running Day 1. Im self-employed, which gives me the flexibility to engage on constituent issues and campaign to retake the Legislature for Democrats year-round. Saving our democracy is not a part-time job, and we need someone who can dedicate full-time year-round to getting our state back on track.

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Henson:I am the only attorney in this race. I am trained to listen, analyze, negotiate, and advocate and these skills translate easily into the work I will do for this state at the Capitol. I am also the only woman in this race, and women are an underrepresented demographic at the Capitol. Only 30 of 100 seats in the Iowa House are currently held by women. With the recently leaked Supreme Court opinion, we know that marginalized communities including women are under attack. As both a woman and an attorney, this issue is personal to me, and its more important now than ever to elect champions for reproductive freedom.

De La Cerda:Im the only Latino in the race. But more importantly, I come from a strong labor background. I worked at Bridgestone/Firestone, and I am the only candidate in this race that I know of, who spent time on a factory floor. I am the only candidate with endorsements from labor, specifically AFL-CIO. I am a single father with a two-year degree. I dont want to win this seat to be the fundraising arm of the Democratic Party. I want this seat to advance the cause of workers in the Statehouse.

Porter:I am experienced with a strong desire to serve the residents, businesses, and organizations in House District 36. I have had the privilege to serve my county, state, county, city, and neighborhood. I have a strong base of knowledge and experience is public service. I am a fourth-generation Iowan and lived most of my life in Des Moines. I have worked hard to preserve our history, our structures and our unique cultural heritage. We helped to re-establish the Sherman Hill neighborhood and create the Robert W. Mickle Neighborhood Resource Center, which is an incubator for small nonprofits and businesses.

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Baeth:Despite the many differences between Democratic and Republican lawmakers, there are still ample opportunities for bipartisan policy. While working statewide to get more Democrats elected, I will simultaneously propose legislation that addresses the common goals of Iowans of all political stripes: great schools, affordable and accessible health care including mental health services, and a healthy economy that respects our environment. I will use my training as a doctor to model evidence-based problem solving, using data to guide policy decisions rather than extreme political ideology. It doesnt have to be a Democratic idea or a Republican idea, just an idea that works.

Cavil:My main priority and commitment is to represent the needs of House District 36 residents, and to fight every day on issues that will improve Iowans lives. Im not someone who will be bound by party loyalty or concerned with partisan games. If legislation is important and will help Iowans, especially marginalized communities, then I will work with whoever to ensure it gets passed. I vow to always put the people first.

Disbro:The same way I have for the last eight years advocating for industrial hemp by showing up, being open and accessible, and communicating honestly. My most recent legislation this year was sponsored by Republicans in the House and Senate, and it passed both chambers unanimously. Being effective means working with others, and I firmly believe I can continue to bridge the partisan divide. This is how you get things done as the minority party.

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Henson:I think Democrats are going to take the Iowa House sooner than some think, but probably not by next year. Working across the aisle will be important, particularly when Democrats are in the minority, but I will always be a fierce advocate for Democratic priorities including supporting our public schools, defending reproductive freedom, strengthening workers rights, and promoting social and racial justice.

De La Cerda:Currently, Iowa is ranked 50th in GDP growth in the nation. I would work with the GOP to correct this, specifically when it comes to securing federal funding. Governor Reynolds refused federal funding for COVID, public schools, and unemployment a quarter-billion dollars. Both parties would have benefited from securing this funding to stave off the loss in GDP. There is certainly common ground to be found with Republicans on the hill with this issue. I also wish to work with the GOP to ensure that eminent domain rights are not being abused at the expense of property owners.

Porter:If elected, I pledge to work with anyone in the Iowa Legislature who believes we can and must find common ground to address all Iowans' concerns and needs to live a safe, productive, and rewarding life for themselves and their family. Whether an inner-city resident, small-town Main Street business owner, or a family or urban farmer, our common desire is to raise a family that is safe, healthy and financial stabile. Equitable treatment before the law and equity treatment are deep desires in all people. We must work together to achieve the best we can be for all Iowans.

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Baeth:The Governors Child Care Task Force made 15 recommendations to improve the accessibility of child care in Iowa, the majority of which have yet to be pursued by the Legislature. Iowa should facilitate public-private partnerships to incentivize employers to sponsor child care as an employment benefit. Most importantly, we need significant public investment to expand eligibility for the Child Care Assistance program to 185% of the federal poverty level and provide tax incentives to ease operational costs to child care centers and raise wages for caregivers. Public investment will pay dividends by easing Iowas workforce shortage and educating our next generation.

Cavil:I believe our state must pass legislation to ensure universal childcare by covering costs for families and making long-term investments into the child care industry in Iowa. I support increased staffing for child care facilities and other policies that would lessen the crisis for families and the child care industry.

Disbro:The immediate solution is to fund child care and pay caregivers givers a competitive wage. Legislative opportunities to expand child care options are straightforward, and its just a matter of making it a budget priority. Further, increased wages for caregivers will help the state retain skilled professionals. The bigger picture is about why its unaffordable. This stems from stagnating wages, increased working hours to survive despite increases in productivity, and exorbitant rents. When people are forced to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet, the stress on our child care system becomes untenable.

Henson:We have a crisis in this state when it comes to the issue of child care. Families are faced with both high cost and limited availability of child care options. We need to expand the child care assistance to help struggling families, make sure that we are taking advantage of federal funds that are available to assist Iowans, and encourage and incentivize employers to help their employees with child care.

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De La Cerda:The recent child care bill is a Band-Aid. Addressing child care without addressing the wages and benefits of workers across the state is treating the symptom without addressing the sickness. Wages and salaries are stagnant in Iowa.This is why child care is out of reach for so many families.I want to see a combination of individual subsidies to families to assist with child care, and tax benefits to companies that subsidize child care for their workforce.

Porter:While serving as program director with the Iowa Commission on Volunteer Services, I witnessed the value AmeriCorps, VISTA, Senior Corps, and numerous volunteers created in service to before, during and after school programs. Their service helped organizations leverage paid staff to serve more youth and expand programming, which helped to offer more and better education and activities. Their service was in small townsand urban areas all over Iowa in large and smaller school districts. This model could be expanded to child care, early learning, before and after school programing but modified to be coordinated by counties rather than school districts.

Baeth:There are already numerous ways in which public education is overseen by parents, educators, and publicly elected school board officials; an assembly of non-experts beneath a golden dome isnt needed to call the shots. Parents already have the option to homeschool if they prefer more control over their students experience. A public school system not only serves a child and family but all of society and the economy that fuels it. Its in everyones interest to expertly educate students to maximize access to vocational opportunities while nurturing critical thinking skills that are sorely needed in our world today.

Cavil:Individual parents have a role to play in public education when it comes to supporting their children and having open communication with their childrens educators. When it comes to setting policies and curriculum, I believe that individual parents should have a minimal role and those decisions should be decided by experts and trained staff who have the mission to serve all public school kids in mind. I believe we must be teaching accurate history in our schools and that our public schools should be inclusive and safe environments for everyone.

Disbro:Parents who are engaged with their childs school work and who work in collaboration with teachers to ensure their child is taking full advantage of their educational opportunities are to be desired. Learning works best in collaboration with engaged parents. But it is a partnership. It is not a parent and servant relationship. A loud and aggressive minority should not be allowed to whitewash education because they dont want to work with teachers. More often than not, those exact parents are the ones who could benefit from learning right along with their child instead of trying to dictate their worldview to schools.

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Henson:The actions by the Republicans in the Iowa Legislature this session to ban books andput cameras in classrooms are completely unnecessary intrusions by the state into the local school boards decision-making process. Our teachers deserve respect and competitive pay, and our children deserve a robust educational experience, which must include our history even if its ugly.Suggesting that teachers are sinister and parents are in the dark about what their children are learning is simply untrue and its an attempt to undermine trust in our public schools and distract from the real issues facing our schools.

De La Cerda:It wasnt all Iowa lawmakers spending time debating this, it was only Republicans. They are using schools as a political cudgel to push an agenda at the expense of teachers and students. The system we have in place of school boards and PTA organizations gives parents a voice in their childs education. The current controversy is manufactured by the GOP to galvanize their base. Ultimately, I believe schools and teachers need a free hand to foster critical thinking in their students to become better learners, not to be indoctrinated into a regressive or outdated social system.

Porter:I volunteer as treasurer of the Fort Des Moines Museum and Education Center. I give tours of the exhibit which documents the service of Black men who were trained to become Army officers in World War I. One story is about Dr. Warmoth T. GibbsSr., who in the mid-1950s Civil Rights protests was president of North Carolina A&T State University. He was quoted as saying: We teach our students how to think, not what to think. His words seem to be very applicable to our current educational environment.

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Baeth:Iowa has not had a comprehensive climate plan since the Iowa Climate Change Advisory Council submitted its report in 2008. We should reconvene a new climate change advisory council to provide an updated action plan to account for current technology and most recent atmospheric projections. We need to restore the Iowa Solar Tax Credit, restore funding to our state university environmental research centers, legalize the direct-to-consumer sale of electric vehicles and invest in EV charging infrastructure, and implement state tax credits for investment and production of wind energy. Iowa should aim for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Cavil:I support an immediate moratorium on new and existing factory farms which are wrecking our waterways and polluting our air. We also must force MidAmerican Energy to shut down all of their coal plants across our state and move to 100% renewable energy. I will oppose and resist any attempts to build carbon capture pipelines across our state, as these pipelines would be extremely harmful and are a false climate solution. We must prepare our state to respond to climate disasters that are already happening to ensure Iowa families are safe and supported before, during, and after catastrophes.

Disbro:We should be investing in solar and wind energy, working to move towards biofuels that operate independent of petroleum, investing in regenerative agricultural practices, and enforcing existing laws on water contamination. We should be expanding our statewide EV charging stations instead of requiring more gas mixtures. We should be building disaster relief systems for the increasingly powerful and unseasonable storms we can expect to continue. We must hold large corporations accountable for their emissions and make environmental protection laws mandatory instead of voluntary. We shouldnt waste state dollars on vanity projects with no actual impact like the current pipeline being discussed.

Henson:Iowa is uniquely positioned to help combat climate change. We need to push for more renewable energy such as wind and solar and we must continue to find and support regenerative agriculture, seeking real solutions to energy sources, and leading the way in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.

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De La Cerda:We need to double down on the things we are already doing right. Further investments in wind energy and the development of solar energy need to be a priority. Ethanol is not a solution to climate change, but it can be a bridge. The current state tax credit for pickup trucks needs to be extended to EVs. Agri-business needs credits to build sequestration systems on-site to deal with bio-waste. Lastly, we need to provide generous tax credits and subsidies to the working class so that they have an actual choice between EVs or gasoline-powered cars.

Porter:We are in a climate crisis and just touting ethanol as an additive is not enough. I am not a scientist but believe we must look at thepollution as dire and adopt controls to turn this looming catastrophe around. In my opinion, solar- and wind-generated energy on an industrial scale is a viable option to reduce air pollution. We must work with big ag organizations to mandate buffer zones along our streams to attack water pollution and award family and urban farmers for using environmentally friendly farming practices to help reduce the pollution of our land.

Baeth:There is a severe lack of community-based housing options for Iowans with intellectual or physical disabilities, especially in our rural communities. The main constraint on the expansion of home and community-based servicesin Iowa is a persistent workforce shortage of direct care workers. Iowa should bolster its Medicaid spending, which is matched by federal dollars, to raise wages for direct care workers to recruit more into the field. Community capacity building should be given high priority to smoothly transition residents out of the Glenwood Resource Center.

Cavil:Iowa must meet the requirements of the Olmstead decision and fully fund community-based care which supports independent living, rather than institutions. The Legislature should pass statewide protections and mandates similar to the ADA in order to support Iowans with disabilities. Our state must de-privatize our broken Medicaid system and create a universal health care system to ensure every Iowan has free and equitable health care.

Disbro:This is a particular issue that I am passionate about. My oldest son has a severe traumatic brain injury with complicated medical needs. Iowa is fortunate to have many organizations dedicated to helping people with disabilities and their families have the best quality of life possible. Funding organizations and eliminating unnecessary bureaucratic red tape helps create opportunities for Iowans with disabilities. This includes appropriate housing, job training, accessible health care, and other support services. Pay increases for caregivers must also be a priority to recruit and retain talent.

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Henson:There is so much that we can do to make sure we are taking care of Iowans with disabilities, but a great first step would be repealing the privatization of Medicaid. Iowans with severe disabilities rely on Medicaid for services and help. Privatization of has been a disaster for this population and has only served to place additional barriers between them and required care.

De La Cerda:No section of the population has suffered more under the current experimentation with the privatization of Medicaid than people with disabilities. The help that disabled people rely on to afford care is being curtailed by this failed privatization, and this directly results in more disabled people losing their homes, and the ability to live a life of dignity in their communities. Until a true single-payer health care system is put into place nationally, we have to at least reverse our states disastrous Medicaid policy to help make sure that disabled people arent being forced into hunger and homelessness.

Porter:This question, inmy opinion, is the most difficult issue for me to attempt a coherent answer. I am aware of service organizations in Iowa such as Optimae LifeServices headquartered in Des Moines' East Village. This organization is led by a long-time family friend, William Dodds. I have observed how they work with people to help them learn and apply job skills while earning a wage for their work. This model seems to be one of perhaps many different approaches, which attempts to help with quality of life for all people. I sincerely wish I could provide a better solution.

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Baeth:I do not support eliminating state income tax nor implementing a flat tax. This is a philosophical question about fairness without a provable right or wrong answer. I personally believe that a progressive or fair share tax system (wealthier people pay a higher proportion of taxes) is most fair as it can counterbalance the forces that propel some people into wealth while tethering others to poverty. Alternatively, a system in which everyone is taxed at the same rate regardless of wealth unfairly burdens Iowans living paycheck to paycheck.

Cavil:No, I would not support the elimination of state income tax. I believe in a progressive tax system in which the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes in order to support social services. We must repeal and reverse the flat tax rate passed by the Legislature this session or we will see disastrous effects on our states economy. A flat tax rate or an eventual total elimination of income tax will cause Iowa to go bankrupt and will lead to even worse underfunding of our public education system and other social services. I support increasing the top marginal tax rate significantly.

Disbro:I do not support regressive tax policies that will only help the highest income earners in the state. If we want to talk about tax reform, then we should start with property taxes. Iowa has some of the highest property taxes in the nation per capita. Iowas property taxes are exorbitant, resulting in a greater tax burden on regular Iowans and shutting young people out of the housing market.

Henson:No. Eliminating the state income tax would serve to benefit the wealthy at the expense of working people.

De La Cerda:As a kid, I lived in Texas, a state with no income tax. Ive seen firsthand what happens when the burden of taxation is shifted from those who can pay their fair share, to those who cannot. When the current fair-tax system is put into place in Iowa, somebody making $70,000a year will save $450. Someone making $1 million will save $70,000. That isnt right, and only hurts working families who need to stretch every dollar. I want a progressive income tax system that is just, fair and ensures that the wealthy pay their fair share.

Porter:No, nor an increase in sales taxes or service fees. However, I would introduce an initiative that forgives property tax for seniors with a fixed income of less than $25,000 annually and freezes property tax at the current rate for seniors with a fixed income of less $50,000. In addition, small nonprofits should not be asked to pay payments in lieu of taxes, but large organizations such as hospitals should pay a PILOT. I also will work to create a law that requires properties owned by the federal and state governments to reimburse municipalities and counties for their cost to provide public services.

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Who are the candidates for the Iowa House District 36 seat? - Des Moines Register