Why I’m Running

I’m running for reelection to Iowa City Council District B because I want to take my four years of experience and hard work on the council and use that to keep moving our city forward, and to keep fighting for the people of our city, especially the most vulnerable. That’s what I’ve been doing for four years, and that’s what I will keep on doing if the voters of Iowa City will honor me again with a spot on the council.

Let me give you a few examples of what I mean. When I took office in January of 2022, we were still in the middle of a pandemic. Right off the bat I argued for the original (and later the supplemental) funding for assistance for the workers in our community who were struggling and didn’t get as much help during other COVID relief (sometimes referred to as the excluded workers). In that first year, I was also a vocal supporter for substantial relocation resources for the residents of Forest View Mobile Home Court after the pandemic dashed a proposed project that would have given them safe and secure housing. And that was just the beginning.

Fare Free Bus Service also highlights how I work as a council member to put priorities into action through listening, advocacy, and working together with others. In the years before and after I was elected, I listened to people who wanted better public transit options. In the months-long strategic planning process we as a council took that public input and identified fare free bus service as a goal. The staff took that guidance and came back to us with a proposal for a two year pilot program funded with ARPA money. We approved it, got regular updates on its amazing success, and then we continued to make ongoing funding for this service a budget priority, even in tight budget times. This is an example of how the public, the council, and city staff and workers came together to make Iowa City a better place, and is the kind of process I consistently strive for.

These are just three quick examples of the work I have done on council, but for a longer list, you can click here. That’s the kind work I will keep doing if reelected, while also taking that experience to stand up against the forces from Des Moines and D.C. that want to tear us down.

Before I talk about some specific ongoing issues, like affordable housing, economic equity, and structural inequality, I want to talk more about the challenge of being a blue island in a red state and in a Trump controlled country. Our people are under attack. Certainly immigrants, trans folks, the rest of the LGBTQ+ community, and our BIPOC friends and neighbors are specific targets for the Reynolds and Trump administrations. Also under attack are women, educators, students, researchers, librarians, public schools, colleges and universities, physicians, nurses, other healthcare workers, people who don’t want to get a vaccine-preventable disease, people who want clean air and clean water, people who care about climate change, the people struggling to make ends meet, the people living on the street, folks on Medicaid and Medicare, who need food assistance, rental assistance, mental health care, drug treatment programs, and everyone who believes in the difference between right and wrong and that decency and honesty matter. But the thing about a list this big is that pretty soon there is a whole lot of us. And how do we not only protect each other and survive, but turn this around?

Together.

Four years ago the word together appeared in multiple languages across the bottom of my campaign signs. Because who I am is someone who believes in what a group of people can do together. It was true four years ago coming out of COVID, and it’s even more true now. If you are like me, you and the people you love show up somewhere on that (incomplete) list of people under attack right now. But I know that if we stand together, we are strong. If our community stands together, we are strong. And that’s the kind of person I am, the kind of councilor I am, and the kind of councilor I will continue to be – one who believes in the power of pulling together and works to make that happen. We won’t always agree, but I will always work to find ways of working together and bringing people together for the sake of our shared goals, our shared survival, and our shared humanity.