I never anticipated I’d run for public office, but when it became clear no Democrat was going to be on the ballot in the 2022 race for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, I knew in the age of Trumpism and Anti-Democracy that conceding a quarter of our congressional districts without a fight was unacceptable. As such, without name recognition, connections, money, or pedigree, I jumped into the race to fight the good fight on your behalf.
2022 was the most tiring yet fulfilling year of my life, between campaigning, working a full time job, and raising my two boys with my wonderful wife. I met many lovely people and got to fight the good fight alongside all of you. We kept true to our values without degrading ourselves, selling out, lying, or taking corporate money. We didn’t have paid consultants, and we didn’t parrot the standard party talking points. My words were and are completely my own.
Together, we built our campaign completely from scratch and accomplished more than I ever could have imagined.
Our campaign has shown what someone who doesn’t come from money or pedigree can do with the support of the community and a lot of hard work.
Despite getting into the race much later than average once it was clear no other Democrat was going to be on the ballot, we raised over $53,000 during our 2022 campaign. While we were probably the most grassroots congressional campaign in the country, having raised less than the big money campaigns due to the shorter campaign timeframe, rejecting corporate PAC money and building our campaign from scratch with no moneyed connections, we accomplished so much.
We earned more votes in our district than our gubernatorial candidate, a great candidate I consider to be a friend, who was one of my favorites to campaign with in ‘22.
We only fell 3% short of where we would have been had we grabbed the votes U.S. Senate Candidate Admiral Franken earned in the district that we didn't despite him raising over $11 MILLION to our 53k!
Our campaign ended up earning more votes than 70% of the roughly 120 major party U.S. House candidates in general elections in ‘22 who raised $75,000 or less.
With our donations, we were able to participate in and host hundreds of public events and forums in all 36 counties to talk with constituents.
We were able to reach 37,025 Iowans via text messaging campaigns.
Tens of thousands more were reached with radio and newspaper advertisements.
5,700 postcards and thousands of handouts and yard signs were sent and distributed.
I believe this shows we spent our money wisely and reached a lot of people per dollar, which hopefully serves as a model of what a candidate that doesn’t come from money or pedigree can do if they put a lot of effort into it on the grassroots level.
Without a candidate running, there’s no conversation, no pressure, no progress.
I was the first state or federal-level candidate in Iowa in either major party to campaign against carbon capture pipelines. Our campaign helped pull some of our state-level candidates over to my position.
I dedicated the entirety of my party State convention speech to threats to the LGBTQ+ community despite internal resistance from some in the party, well before the ’23 legislature session in DSM that was so destructive.
We heard from many right-leaning folks in the 4th District who voted for a Democrat for the first time because of our shared views on private school vouchers and carbon capture pipelines, and because of us exposing the absolute corporate ownership of the Iowa Republican Party.
We had so many people tell us we were the first campaign they ever felt proud to vote for.
We inspired others without connections, money, or pedigree to consider running the next cycle when they thought it was impossible before.
We held our opponent, Randy Feenstra, accountable, forcing moderation where there usually is extremism.
With our campaign being outspoken against carbon capture pipelines from the very beginning, we were able to make Feenstra afraid to tout his support for them despite taking money from those companies and writing an op-ed early on in support.
After highlighting that Feenstra’s campaign is funded by fossil fuel donors and criticizing him for being anti-wind and anti-solar, he now speaks more positively about wind energy which is a step in the right direction.
Rep Feenstra not only voted against the PACT Act (Which upon passage greatly expanded health care for veterans suffering from ailments caused by toxic burn pit exposure) the first time it was in the U.S. House, he went on a radio program to delegitimize it. Afterwards, my supporters and I put constant pressure on him for that vote. In response to the backlash, he voted for it the 2nd time around, claiming deceitfully he “always stood for our veterans.”
Our campaign was able to show the entire 4th District how afraid Rep Feenstra is to be held accountable publicly as he decided after a private forum debate with me to be the only major party congressional candidate in Iowa to decline a debate offer.
Because of the pressure, Feenstra’s campaign had to spend thousands on attack mailers against me.
Many candidates for office don’t run for what I argue is the right reason: to build community.
We know we fight an uphill battle, but I don’t care how red our district is.
People are people, and pain is pain, regardless of partisanship.
We have built something incredible, and this is just the beginning.
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.