Iowa House Representative Eddie Andrews

[MUSIC]

[Kay Henderson] He wants to move from the Iowa House chamber to the governor's office. We'll talk with Eddie Andrews, one of several Republicans campaigning for the party's nomination for governor, on this edition of Iowa Press.

[Announcer] Funding for Iowa Press was provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation. Banking in Iowa goes beyond transactions. Banks work to help people and small businesses succeed, and Iowa banks are committed to building confident banking relationships. Iowa banks, your partner through it all.

[MUSIC]

[Announcer] For decades, Iowa Press has brought you political leaders and newsmakers from across Iowa and beyond. Celebrating more than 50 years on statewide Iowa, PBS, this is the Friday, October 10th edition of Iowa Press. Here is Kay Henderson.

[Henderson] Today we'll be having a conversation with a candidate for governor in 2026. We have invited several candidates to join us here at the Iowa Press table, and we'll be having those conversations in the coming weeks. Today's conversation is with State Representative Eddie Andrews. He is running for the Republican nomination for governor. He's serving in his third term in the Iowa House. He represents Johnston, part of the city of Urbandale and Saylor Township in the Des Moines Metro. He is also a tech entrepreneur and a minister. Eddie Andrews, welcome to Iowa Press.

[Eddie Andrews] Well, thank you, Kay and Erin. It is certainly a pleasure to be here.

[Henderson] Erin Murphy is with the Gazette in Cedar Rapids, and he'll be joining our conversation.

[Erin Murphy] So, Eddie, you're joining us today, literally coming from meeting with some landowners in Iowa who were gathering over their concerns about eminent domain carbon capture pipelines. And there was a court hearing as we tape here on Friday, that they were attending. You have made that issue and you're expressed support for property owner rights. Very central to your campaign. Why has that been?

[Andrews] Well, number one, it's a constitutional right. The Declaration of Independence. Right. We just celebrated the 249th anniversary of that. We all know the phrase life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. That pursuit of happiness refers to property and the right to enjoy the fruits of your labor on that property. And really, when we talk about the next sentence, it's government's right. It's government's job to protect landowner rights and property rights. And so even though some people in the metro may not understand how critical that is, if we allow that precedent that someone can take your property for their business idea and then get government to help them, then they really don't have property rights and they can force them to do. They can take their backyard. If they can take someone's farm, they can take your backyard. And it's a slippery slope. And I firmly stand against that.

[Murphy] Yeah. And I guess to that, the heart of this is because eminent domain is used commonly for public good infrastructure. I take it your viewpoint is that these carbon capture pipelines are not a public good.

[Andrews] They are not. Well, they're not a public utility, first of all. We all understand that that the traditional use of eminent domain is obviously railroads and roads and things like you mentioned, public good. Right. But this is imagine like this. Here's how I think about this. Someone comes up to you and says, I've got the best idea in the entire world. I'm just going to need your property to do it. And oh, you don't want to sell. Well, then I'll just get government to help me. And that is absolutely nonsense. And I do know that there are major donors to my party who are part of that. And I just say eminent domain, eminent domain abuse is just that. It's abuse. And it will end on day one if I'm governor.

[Murphy] So, to that that was the other thing I wanted to ask you, as governor, you're coming from the legislature, you're well aware of the history there and the differences of opinions between largely House Republicans and Senate Republicans on this issue and how to get legislation done. How would if this is still unresolved after 2026 election, how would a governor Eddie Andrews get a bill to his desk that he would be willing to sign?

[Andrews] Well, first of all, let me just clarify. This is a huge, huge issue for a lot of Iowans. And it's a 90/10 issue. So, it's not just House Republicans versus Senate Republicans. It's more House versus the Senate Republican leadership. And so, I've actually written legislation to remove that. The granting of eminent domain from the Iowa Utilities Commission. I am part of the intervenors who are presently suing the Iowa Utilities Commission. You actually referred to the lawsuit court case this morning that I'm going back to as soon as this interview is over as governor, I would put on day one that we cannot allow eminent domain to be used for any non-utility period, full stop. The whole bill can be one sentence effectively, and certainly the whole point about carbon capture, we can debate that, whether that's even a valid science. But certainly, you cannot have eminent domain for a non-utility full stop.

[Henderson] When you announced your candidacy in June on the steps of the Capitol -- 

[Andrews] Yes. 

[Henderson] -- you said you wanted your candidacy to be a mandate on money. Is that an indictment of candidate who is soon going to announce his candidacy? Congressman Randy Feenstra?

[Andrews] Well, this didn't just start now. I've actually written two, not just one, but two different bills to address money and getting money out of Iowa politics. It's not nearly as bad as Washington, D.C., but I have been there. This is my third term, and I have seen how money can affect votes. I can I have seen how money can invite corruption and, you know, it's disgusting. Quite honestly. I mean, imagine George Washington sitting in Philadelphia and everyone is saying, I think, George, I think you should be our first constitutional president. But I don't know this guy. Other guys got more money. So maybe we should think about him. And that's exactly what the situation we face now. It's not who has the best ideas? All the experts, all the smart people say, well, how much money have you raised? And that's a disgusting, disgusting commentary on our state of politics. And when I go and while I am --when I become governor, we will make a number of inroads on removing the stain of money on Iowa politics.

[Henderson] So, will you put limits on how much people can contribute to campaigns? Will you restrict how outside groups can spend on campaigns?

[Andrews] One of my very first bills, it got a lot of laughs because I, I put limits on Iowa contributors and then I suggested a $1 limit for out-of-state contributions. And, you know, people were like, well, that's way too low. And I and I said, well, make the case that someone from out of state should have an impact on Iowa politics. And most of them were silent. And it really -- an overhaul needs to happen in Iowa politics. And little did I know that a year or two later that I would be in the governor's race. And one of the first questions they ask is, how are you doing on money? Not the, you know, what are your politics? What are your stances? What's your history? What's your voting record? And once we get in the room, though, with these potential voters, our message resonates. And so, it's only getting in those rooms and getting across the state that I'm enjoying actually that that part.

[Murphy] So, part of your message also has been talking about property taxes and which a lot of the candidates are. But you have said that you're working on a plan that would potentially altogether eliminate individual property taxes. How will that plan then account for local services like police emergency services that the local governments currently rely on that for?

[Andrews] Yeah. Good question. So, here's the -- here's what's going on. I'm the one who's actually committed to this. I've been talking about it for a long time. As I go across the state, a lot of people say, oh, that's right, I've heard you on the radio, I've heard you on such and such place. You're the guy -- I'm putting a name to a face that's been talking about property tax reform and also property tax elimination. Obviously, we can't eliminate it on day one or day three for that matter. This is going to be we can set it up to phase out property taxes and some of the problems that we are attempting to solve. I can't tell you how many stories I get about 90-year-old grandmothers who are on fixed income, no longer working. Their house is paid off, but their house is still requiring property tax payment every year, and it's effectively rent. And they require assistance from maybe a family member every single year to pay those property taxes. It's like rent there being property taxed out of their homes. And in the previous work that we did on property taxes, it was my pushing to get at least some relief for seniors, different counties presently handle that differently. Some you have to apply for in other counties just grant it. But it does provide some relief for seniors and veterans. But as we go forward, we -- it can be done. We're looking at the numbers right now. We had to recalculate due to some of the changes that were in the so-called big beautiful bill that changes some of how we receive some dollars. And so, we are repackaging what I have and recalculating some of those numbers. But it is it is very doable. And one state has already done this. And other states are now starting to talk about this as well.

[Murphy] Does your plan include the state picking up any share of that? In the past, you mentioned the commercial property tax, the state did a little while back when the state changed its mental health funding system. Part of those plans were for the state to pick up those things instead. And we also know now that the state budget numbers, there's some warning signs in there. So would you rely on the state to cover.

[Andrews] Well, there's like five questions in there.

[Murphy] There is.

[Andrews] So yes, there are several ways to do it. In my proposal we actually have three different outlines of a way to do it. The simplest one that people talk about -- and we do put all these on the table for commentary -- is simply increasing sales tax and letting all those visitors and people who show up every four years for our caucuses show and help pay for that. And that would offset some. But there are also a number of things we can do. There's like I said, we have three different paths to do this. Like I said, we are recalculating some of the numbers due to the most recent changes, and we will rerelease those plans soon.

[Henderson] On your campaign website, you say mental health is one of your priorities. And in 2021, you handled a bill that would have required insurance companies to reimburse at the same level for an in-person appointment with a counselor or therapist and an online appointment. What else do you envision should happen in state law to facilitate expansion of mental health access to services?

[Andrews] Well, thank you for remembering that bill. Mental health is actually why I got involved in politics. That is a passion. It's personal to me. My family. Many of you know that I adopted a boy and he was a knucklehead. But he was a normal kid, smart kid. But he did come with some mental health issues. And unfortunately, we lost him six years ago. But along the way, we got to see how many holes we have in our mental health care system here in Iowa. We were rated, I believe, towards the very bottom, like the bottom. And since that time, I've worked just in the legislature and we've passed about 22 different bills that address different aspects of mental health. And we have a long way to go. We've authored bills, or I've authored bills and led on bills to improve continuity of care, to increase more doctors. One of the first conversations that I had was going to the University of Iowa asking, how do we expand the residency program here for psychiatrists and behavioral health therapists since they provide most of the training for those doctors in our state? And effectively they said, well, we need to expand our residency. And I said, well, then let's do that. And they said, well, that's going to cost money. I'm like, we can probably find some money. And I'm saying this as a freshman, right? But we did. We found that money. And that program is now starting to implement, get more doctors here. That's just our two of those providing incentive programs for keeping graduates of the new expanded residency program, keeping them here for five years, that we've already implemented that program. That program is going very well. And we give those young doctors five years to fall in love with Iowa. We are hoping that by that time, maybe they've established their practice, maybe found that special someone, maybe even started a family, put some roots here. And right now, we believe that program is going extremely well. Better than planned. And that will provide, over time, more doctors and reduce waiting times. As governor, we can put that on. We can put the put the speed, put the pedal to the metal on that increase more doctors increase our services, provide better continuity of care, and take a little bit more -- we've had some reorganization, but put a little bit more of that in to the hands of local control in counties.

[Murphy] You represent in the Statehouse, a district here in suburban Des Moines that is among those that gets its water from the Des Moines Water Works, which were, well, the issues that have been there with nitrates in the water. And this is a statewide problem, too, not just central Iowa. What do you view as the governor's role in addressing water quality in Iowa?

[Andrews] Well, you're right. This is not just a local problem. It's a it's a statewide problem. And you start with where the nitrates come from. I think you start with farmers who are doing their best to be good stewards of the land and to simultaneously increase their crops. And so, I think it's going to take a sit down of all of us, all parties involved. And that's kind of my specialty. You know, I went into blue districts because I don't mind talking to everyone. We bring everyone to the table and talk about pros and cons, whether it's simple crop rotation or different styles, but really addressing why nitrates are in the water. Sit downs with Des Moines Water Works or whatever the new name will be, and bring all parties together. I am personally working with a clean water advisory board that we have, and we've got a we've got a pretty good handle on what we think we should do, but before I actually start releasing that, we're going to run that through a few more people, bring more people on board, and then release that.

[Henderson] Is it voluntary or mandatory? 

[Andrews] What do you mean?

[Henderson] That is the thing with the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy. It's still voluntary on the part of farmers on how much nitrogen they apply to their land. Are you talking about mandatory things?

[Andrews] Look, I think leadership goes a long way. I mean, they call it kind of the bully pulpit for a reason. You know, you can have a soft bully pulpit, but I do think once people understand that everyone needs clean water, it is a basic human need, right? Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, we all need clean water. And once we understand the importance of that, I think we can make the case that it will be widely used.

[Murphy] Another sort of public health question Iowa's rising cancer rates were one of the --

[Andrews] Oh my.

[Murphy] -- yeah, one of one of the only states in the nation where the rate is still going up, have one of the worst rates generally speaking. Where again, as governor, where's the state's role in this? Governor Reynolds this past year proposed some a little funding injection into research. What more could the state of Iowa do under Governor Eddie Andrews.

[Andrews] Well, you know, I immediately when we heard that stat, I was actually in the state House and I was sitting next to a Democrat, a doctor who is also a state representative, and we just could not believe this. And so, I talked to him and I said, what do we need to do? What do we need to do? And we he talked about some things. I talked about a few things. And we decided that the first thing we need to do is find out what the what's causing this. We have a lot of thoughts, but let's actually do the research. And we were so pleased that the governor led on that and just said, let's, let's get some numbers together. Once those numbers and data are known, we're going to work. But it's what we've done so far is put together a program to start on known cancer-causing issues such as radon. We proposed and passed out of the house. I don't think it went through the Senate -- 

[Henderson] Correct.

[Andrews]  -- to provide incentives for every Iowan to have radar radon kits, because obviously those are known cancer causing or radon is a known cancer cause. And it's silent. And if we can provide every Iowan with a cancer detection, radon detection kit, that would help. I think it's not limited to that. I think there are some land issues, location issues, probably some health issues. But ultimately we need to get find out what happens or why it's there and immediately go after that.

[Henderson] On your campaign website, you also say that you want to revitalize education. As a member of the Iowa House, you voted to create the education Savings Accounts, which helps parents cover the costs of private school tuition. And you've said you want more choices. So, does that mean you would support giving homeschooling parents money for homeschooling, state money for homeschooling their child?

[Andrews] I think it depends on I think homeschoolers themselves are mixed on that. And I think, you know, not getting in the weeds. But homeschoolers are divided into IPIs or independent. And then there's I forgot what the CPI stands for, but this is a group that works with the schools. And I think the IPI, the independents want nothing to do with government money. But here's the here's the bigger picture. When I talk about revitalizing education, it's to all of our advantage to have the most educated workforce. Among our state. I remember when Iowa was rated number one, when I was a kid, we weren't just near the top. We actually led the nation. And that's what I want to call my. My plan is called back to number one. And somewhere along the way, both Republicans and Democrats abandoned what I call the Iowa model in favor of the national models, and the most famous of which is No Child Left Behind and Common Core, and abandoned effectively what was working for decades when Iowa led the nation. We have to reverse that completely and get back to a modified version of the Iowa model. And we talk about homeschools. But remember, homeschoolers are a small percentage. Even with ESAs, we're still talking 90% of our kids are going to a public school. And so, I'm for improving education along the way, whether it's public traditional, public charter, nonpublic trades, which is a big part of my focus, improving our apprenticeship program, which we passed and expanded a couple of years ago to further that and ultimately get Iowa back to number one, put our focus back on the classroom.

[Henderson] We have about three minutes left. When you announced your candidacy, you described your wife, Betty, as a wonderful woman. 

[Andrews] She is. 

[Henderson] She is the president of the Iowa Nebraska NAACP. You described yourself as kind of a house divided, but you work together on things. Do you think that's an asset that you come from a situation like that, as you go out and campaign?

[Andrews] Absolutely. You know, we talk about a lot about division in our country, and you can't talk to this side because they hate this person, hate this person. People have seen us publicly disagree and somehow manage to be together like, this is a living witness and a living testimony that you can work together when we can and sometimes when we agree to disagree. Or as she says, sometimes I'm just wrong. I didn't agree to disagree. Right? But the truth is that I do believe that is an asset. I've had people who told me right now in my current city, in my current district, they vote for me in part because of my wife. I am the only Republican right now who is a conservative, but wins in a blue district. I've never entered a race in which I, all the smart people, thought I was going to win. Right? And part of that is because they know I listen to every single person.

[Murphy] We got just a couple minutes left and I apologize for introducing this big topic with the clock winding down. But we're a couple weeks into now the story of the former Des Moines public schools superintendent being arrested and facing various immigration and gun charges. I'm just curious for as a gubernatorial candidate, what you see the state's role in this issue, either specifically or broadly? I've seen some members of the legislature say the state should take over operations of the school. Do you think it merits that level of action?

[Andrews] So first of all, let me just say it is concerning that it's not us or the administrators who are taking the brunt of this. It's actually the children. It's actually the students and the families. And that part is disappointing because ultimately that's who we're supposed to serve as a Republican, as a conservative. I think sometimes emotions we have to check our emotions because if we really believe in local control, let's have local control with transparency. And I just heard that the state auditor is refusing to, as of today, said he would not audit that. And I think that's even more concerning. I do think if things should be if there should be transparency, that's one place where transparency should be hard.

[Henderson] And I have a bit of transparency here. We are out of time for this conversation. Thank you for joining us today.

[Andrews] It is my pleasure.

[Henderson] We have invited several candidates who are running for governor to join us here at the Iowa Press table, and we'll be bringing you those conversations in the coming weeks. You can watch most episodes of Iowa Press at iowapbs.org. For everyone here at Iowa PBS, thanks for joining us today.

[MUSIC]

[Announcer] Funding for Iowa Press was provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation.

Banking in Iowa goes beyond transactions. Banks work to help people and small businesses succeed, and Iowa banks are committed to building confident banking relationships. Iowa banks, your partner through it all.