The Planting Hope Platform
Affordability for Every Family
Provide stability for every family by protecting our local schools, and anchoring our communities with affordable care for every stage of life. Let’s build an Iowa where a wage honors work and success doesn’t require crushing debt, just hard work and a fair shot.
Return Iowa to #1 in Education
We rejuvenate Iowa’s schools by returning them to the heart of our communities by securing the funding our public schools deserve. Investing in education protects the foundational strength of our towns and ensures the next generation of Iowans can do even better.
Turn Science into Practical Solutions
We know that the best results come from using the right tools for the job. To solve our water, soil, infrastructure, and health problems we need to move past divisive politics and back to proven science to yield more for ourselves and our children.
Return Power to Your Front Porch
Protect your right to live your life and raise your family without being told how to do it by people who don't know your name. Become the neighbor who extends a helping hand across the hedgerow to support their rights to live as they see fit also.
Return Iowa to #1 in Education
It wasn’t that long ago when Iowa was consistently ranked at the top of all states in quality education. We’ve fallen to #13 and are moving in the wrong direction. I benefited from a strong education system and so should our children today.
Taxpayers should not pay for educational choice. They should pay for superior public education systems because that benefits the state by empowering our schoolchildren to become the best professionals who serve their communities.
We must provide competitive salaries and benefits packages for our school employees to attract and retain the best. They must be freed from restrictive governmental overreach to provide the curricula and lessons that create the best educational outcomes. As oversight, government’s role is to monitor that they achieve the results we all desire.
My parents started their careers as educators. My wife is a college professor, and I spent my career in higher education administration in admissions, financial aid, and marketing. We chose to send our daughter to private schools throughout her educational journey, from pre-K through Master’s. We never took a dime from state or federal tax funds to pay for our choice.
Affordability for Every Family:
I get it. Our family has faced difficult economic times. To afford our first apartment, we had to take out a personal loan. We had tens of thousands of dollars of student debt. We managed our budget carefully, made good on our financial obligations, and saved for an unknown future. That’s what you should expect from your state government.
When I was in my early twenties, the family had to sell the century farm to pay for the crippling medical costs of my paternal grandparents. That necessary decision pains me to this day. I watched the costs of my dad’s Alzheimer’s care wipe out significant savings my parents accrued to provide for a comfortable retirement. Now, my mom’s IPERS and Medicaid support is threatened. We made promises to our citizens and state employees that they will be cared for. I believe in keeping our promises.
Our farmers and small towns cannot be crushed by rising input prices, property taxes, and medical bills. Nothing defines Iowa better than bright green fields of bounty and vibrant towns providing quality education in uncrowded classrooms. There is plenty of state revenue to restore this ideal, but our budgets must match our priorities.
Turn Science into Practical Solutions:
It is interesting that our three public universities are perfectly aligned to help solve the top issues of today in Iowa.
The University of Northern Iowa is the preeminent university for education. We should be taking guidance from them instead of state politicians about the most effective pedagogy for each age. Instead of removing books from school libraries, we should be filling them with the stories that ignite the imaginations of our children.
Iowans face the threat of cancer more so than nearly any other state. The University of Iowa has a superior medical system and significant research capabilities. We should be funding them appropriately to diagnose the causes and treatments of cancer. As citizens, we must follow the science without interference from bureaucratic opinion.
Farmers face the challenges of high input costs, shrinking commodity markets, and low market prices for their output. Given the right incentives, they want to care for their land and protect the environment. Iowa State University is a leading agricultural institution who can help us solve competing issues, if we invest appropriately. As a hunter and fisherman, I want healthy soil and water to sustain my hobbies.
Trust the experts who have the experience and data to help us make the right decisions to positively impact our shared future. Resist the push to allow opinion to override fact.
Return Power to Your Front Porch:
Government should be about providing you with the freedom to live as you choose if you aren’t harming others.
Our constitution declares that we are all deemed equal but recent legislation undermines that foundational principle. In the same vein, we must be provided with high degrees of privacy without undue government oversight.
The decisions made by consenting partners, oftentimes with input from healthcare providers and faith leaders, are none of my business. I cannot know their personal circumstances, nor should I. The consequences of their choices will not be judged by me, nor should they be by the government.
I grew up in an idyllic neighborhood full of kids, backyard games, and kind neighbors. It instilled in me a desire for helpfulness. From philanthropic centeredness to foster and international student host parenting to disaster relief work, my core principle is extending a hand to those in need. Those I help are simply neighbors I’m often meeting for the first time.
Government must work to empower neighbors to support one another. Be there in times of greatest need. Provide the support to uplift the fallen, give backstop to the unsteady, and propel those in motion forward.