It’s been eight years since Republicans won a trifecta of the House, Senate, and Governor’s Office in Iowa. Their mandate was supposed to usher in a new era of population growth and economic dynamism. Instead of delivering on everyday issues, though, Republicans governed like they owned the place and forced through one wildly unpopular law after another — private school vouchers, defunding Area Education Agencies, and their six-week abortion ban, among others.
This isn’t the Iowa I grew up in. We don’t hear about the bipartisanship of the Bob Ray era or Iowa being the “silicon prairie” of the nation anymore. It's left many Iowans to ask basic questions. Where are all the good-paying jobs? Where are all the people? Unfortunately, poor rankings from nonpartisan sources have provided some answers.
Atlas Van Lines found that we’re the seventh-highest state for people moving away. The National Bureau of Economic Research reported that we have the 10th highest brain drain — college students leaving after graduation — in the country.
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis noted that we’re the 45th state for personal income growth and had the 4th slowest growing gross domestic product. Although Republicans like some of the rosier rankings from U.S. News and World Report, they often leave out that they also ranked us as the 14th worst state economy.
Many of us won’t be surprised to know that WalletHub found Iowa has the third highest energy costs. The Federal Highway Administration noted we have the second worst bridges in the nation. And our insurance premiums continue to skyrocket thanks, in part, to 48% of our levees being deemed insufficient by the Army Corps of Engineers.
The pride of Iowa — enough to put a schoolhouse on our state quarter — has been our education system. Unfortunately, the National Institute for Early Educational Research found that we rank 39th for preschool funding. U.S. News reported that we fell from third to eleventh in K-12 education. WalletHub puts us at 20.
For health rankings, we have the second highest cancer rate of all states according to the University of Iowa. Becker’s Hospital Review found we rank as the 43rd state for active physicians. Even before the abortion ban, we were the worst state for OB-GYNs according to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging found that we come in 49th for nursing home inspectors.
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Of course, these lousy rankings aren’t a reflection on Iowans. Instead, they’re a failure of the politicians running this state for nearly a decade. Republicans have talked a lot about how their votes — year after year — were meant to turn Iowa into the “Florida of the North.” Unfortunately, their nearly complete control has given us Florida’s feverish culture wars without any of the economic dynamism.
Pointing out where we’re coming up short isn’t enough. As the saying goes, any jackass can kick over a barn, but it takes a carpenter to actually build one. Iowa’s Democratic legislators have proposed bills on all these issues, but most haven’t even received a subcommittee hearing in the hypercharged politics at our statehouse.
As a first-term legislator, that made it clear to me the only way we can start the cleanup is to get more reasonable people elected. Unfortunately, this past election made the road back to common sense even harder as we lost seats in the statehouse. That made a few things clear to me. Many voters probably won’t vote their disapproval over vouchers or the AEAs, unfortunately, until schools are actually closing down and students are losing services. As Republicans changed their minds and learned to love “banking the vote” this year, we need to refocus Democratic attentions on early voting as well. And we need to focus on much more intensive, much earlier candidate recruitment. Amazing people can win elections regardless of party and, sometimes, in the unlikeliest of places.
In Trump’s first midterms in 2018, we held a Democratic seat in the U.S. House, flipped two more, and came a few points away from a total sweep with the 4th District. In the Iowa House, we flipped seven seats that year alone. I have no reason to think that the next Trump administration will be any less destructive or provoke a weaker desire to throw the bums out in 2026. Like 2018, I hope that good people from both parties can be clear-eyed about how we stack up nationally and — together — find people committed to get Iowa growing again.
State Rep. Sean Bagniewski is a Democrat representing House District 35 in central Iowa.
www.thegazette.com
This isn’t the Iowa I grew up in. We don’t hear about the bipartisanship of the Bob Ray era or Iowa being the “silicon prairie” of the nation anymore. It's left many Iowans to ask basic questions. Where are all the good-paying jobs? Where are all the people? Unfortunately, poor rankings from nonpartisan sources have provided some answers.
Atlas Van Lines found that we’re the seventh-highest state for people moving away. The National Bureau of Economic Research reported that we have the 10th highest brain drain — college students leaving after graduation — in the country.
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis noted that we’re the 45th state for personal income growth and had the 4th slowest growing gross domestic product. Although Republicans like some of the rosier rankings from U.S. News and World Report, they often leave out that they also ranked us as the 14th worst state economy.
Many of us won’t be surprised to know that WalletHub found Iowa has the third highest energy costs. The Federal Highway Administration noted we have the second worst bridges in the nation. And our insurance premiums continue to skyrocket thanks, in part, to 48% of our levees being deemed insufficient by the Army Corps of Engineers.
The pride of Iowa — enough to put a schoolhouse on our state quarter — has been our education system. Unfortunately, the National Institute for Early Educational Research found that we rank 39th for preschool funding. U.S. News reported that we fell from third to eleventh in K-12 education. WalletHub puts us at 20.
For health rankings, we have the second highest cancer rate of all states according to the University of Iowa. Becker’s Hospital Review found we rank as the 43rd state for active physicians. Even before the abortion ban, we were the worst state for OB-GYNs according to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging found that we come in 49th for nursing home inspectors.
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Of course, these lousy rankings aren’t a reflection on Iowans. Instead, they’re a failure of the politicians running this state for nearly a decade. Republicans have talked a lot about how their votes — year after year — were meant to turn Iowa into the “Florida of the North.” Unfortunately, their nearly complete control has given us Florida’s feverish culture wars without any of the economic dynamism.
Pointing out where we’re coming up short isn’t enough. As the saying goes, any jackass can kick over a barn, but it takes a carpenter to actually build one. Iowa’s Democratic legislators have proposed bills on all these issues, but most haven’t even received a subcommittee hearing in the hypercharged politics at our statehouse.
As a first-term legislator, that made it clear to me the only way we can start the cleanup is to get more reasonable people elected. Unfortunately, this past election made the road back to common sense even harder as we lost seats in the statehouse. That made a few things clear to me. Many voters probably won’t vote their disapproval over vouchers or the AEAs, unfortunately, until schools are actually closing down and students are losing services. As Republicans changed their minds and learned to love “banking the vote” this year, we need to refocus Democratic attentions on early voting as well. And we need to focus on much more intensive, much earlier candidate recruitment. Amazing people can win elections regardless of party and, sometimes, in the unlikeliest of places.
In Trump’s first midterms in 2018, we held a Democratic seat in the U.S. House, flipped two more, and came a few points away from a total sweep with the 4th District. In the Iowa House, we flipped seven seats that year alone. I have no reason to think that the next Trump administration will be any less destructive or provoke a weaker desire to throw the bums out in 2026. Like 2018, I hope that good people from both parties can be clear-eyed about how we stack up nationally and — together — find people committed to get Iowa growing again.
State Rep. Sean Bagniewski is a Democrat representing House District 35 in central Iowa.
Opinion: Ratings show a lack of leadership in Iowa
The Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines, Iowa on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette) It’s been eight years …
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