Iowa House Minority Leader

[Henderson] Democrats are outnumbered 2 to 1 in the Iowa House. What's their message? And the path forward. We'll sit down with House Minority Leader, Democrat Brian Meyer on this edition of Iowa Press.

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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, June 27th edition of Iowa Press. Here is Kay Henderson.

[Henderson] Our guest on this edition of Iowa Press is a Dubuque native. He is a former member of the Des Moines City Council. He's a former Iowa National Guardsman. In November of 2013, he took a seat in the Iowa House of Representatives after winning a special election. And in May, he was elected leader of House Democrats. Brian Meyer from Des Moines, welcome to Iowa Press.

[Meyer] Thank you for having me.

[Henderson] Also joining our conversation are Marissa Payne. She is a politics and statehouse reporter for the Des Moines Register and Erin Murphy, the Des Moines bureau chief for the Gazette in Cedar Rapids.

[Murphy] President Meyer, as Kay said, you recently took over as leader of the group, the House Democratic Caucus. What message did you convey to your members, especially as I assume one of the primary goals is to grow your numbers in the Iowa House in the next election?

[Meyer] Right. So, the first thing I, I campaigned on was we need to get back to the basics, talking about pocketbook issues that matter the most to Iowans. I also told them there's no way I'm ever going to run for any other office. So, I think that helped me out a little bit. So that was my main pitch. But getting back to pocketbook issues was a big deal to a lot of my members.

[Murphy] And is that talking both legislatively and next year, when your members and your recruits are running for office in the election?

[Meyer] That's right. In the legislative session next year, we will have some proposals that focus on pocketbook issues, and then we will campaign on those as well.

[Payne] Lawmakers passed a water quality bill in 2018 to address Iowa's water pollution issues, mostly stemming from agricultural runoff. Central Iowa Water Works, recently implemented a lawn watering ban because of high nitrate levels in source water. So, what does the legislature need to do to reduce nitrate levels? So, utilities aren't having to take these steps?

[Meyer] There's more to do. Anything that we do has to be in partnership with farmers. We are an agricultural state. It has to be voluntary. We can do more, though, and maybe expanding these programs and looking at other ways to do buffer strips and other things to stop the nitrates and other pollutants before they get into the water. But again, we are an agricultural state. We need to be mindful of that, and everything has to be voluntary.

[Payne] And as you try to address these issues, how do you approach doing so without alienating the rural voters that you're trying to attract?

[Meyer] Again, I think if we can make it voluntary and we can add more money into the system by which we can do buffer strips and other things that will stop the nitrates getting into the source water, then I think that we can have a good partnership with rural Iowa as an urban legislator, I recognize that, and I think it's something that we all need to be mindful of. And I think we can do it. We just need to commit the resources.

[Henderson] So what do you say to people like the late Bill Stowe, who used to head the Des Moines Water Works, who said the voluntary approach isn't working?

[Meyer] It can, though. We have to do more. I don't know a farmer in this state that does not want to be a good steward of the land. At the end of the day, they are our partners in this, and it has to be voluntary and we have to work towards the goal together. And it needs more resources and we can do more. But at the end of the day, it's an agricultural state and it has to be voluntary.

[Henderson] So this week there was an election in another jurisdiction in New York City. And a result that surprised some Democrats at the national level. Is there a lesson that Iowa Democrats could learn from that race in how to run and win an election?

[Meyer] I'm going to say not really, largely because we have to carve out carve out our own way of doing things here in Iowa. As Democrats. I think the national parties probably are far left of most of us in Iowa. And what happens in New York City is not indicative of what's going to happen in Iowa. So, we need to take our case to the voters and explain why we're different on the national than the national Democrats. And I think we can do that. And I think that we have a real opportunity here in the next couple of years to distinguish ourselves from the national Democratic Party and from the Republicans in Iowa.

[Henderson] So in response to Aaron's question, you said you need to focus on pocketbook issues. What issues? That were not pocketbook issues. Do you think Democrats stumbled on?

[Meyer] I don't know that we I wouldn't say we stumbled on them. I think that at the end of the day, having conversations about social issues, that either at the Capitol or on the political trail is probably something that although we're very supportive of abortion rights, at the end of the day, people, when I'm hearing back from candidates that ran the last time when they were knocking on doors, people were concerned about inflation. Most people said that they're concerned about, can I make my mortgage payment? Can my kids go to college? How do I pay for everyday life? And we didn't talk about those issues, and we need to do more of that.

[Murphy] One of the things that voters definitely talked about and heard from and brought to the session this past year was eminent domain and hazardous liquid pipelines. There have been obviously supporters of the issue and the bill that ultimately passed, but was vetoed by Governor Reynolds. Also, some criticisms that the bill went too far. If Democrats had been a majority party, what would an eminent domain slash pipeline bill look like?

[Meyer] Well, I think that's a good question. And at the end of the day, we had a bill that had a whole bunch of little things in it that not necessarily were related to eminent domain. But had Democrats been in charge, I think you would have seen a bill that would have been more favorable to landowners rights. I will say this about that particular bill. It was almost as if it was some kind of weird shell game that the Republicans were playing. All the House would pass this bill. The Senate would pass this version, and then they would come together and they'd do this. And if they actually wanted that bill to be signed by the governor, they could have used their leverage as the House and the Senate to hold back her priorities and wait for her to sign the eminent domain bill before they pass her priorities. I'm not convinced that they actually wanted the bill. I think there's a few in the in the in the caucus in the Iowa House that wanted it like Representative Holt. But at the end of the day, I'm not convinced leadership actually wanted it because there's levers of power that they could have used to get her to sign it.

[Murphy] Some of the advocates said they preferred the simpler bill that would have just flat out banned the use of eminent domain for any private projects, similar to a bill that passed in. And I forget which. South Dakota. South Dakota I can never remember which one off the top of my head. Is that one that Democrats and that bill existed? It wasn't the one that ultimately got the vote. Would Democrats have moved a bill like that?

[Meyer] I'm not sure if we, would we? I have to take that to my caucus. Like everything else, I have 33 members of my caucus, and there's probably 33 different opinions on what should be in that bill.

[Murphy] What do you expect this debate to look like next year? Obviously, with the bill being vetoed, no legislative action ultimately was taken. This topic isn't going away. What do you think this is going to look like in 2026 at the Capitol?

[Meyer] I think it will be back. And I think that at the end of the day, you're going to see something maybe a little bit different, maybe something that's more like an outright ban on it. You know, I know Representative Kaufman and others are working on that. And I know I've seen some of his comments about the governor. And at the end of the day, I do think that it's going to be a topic of conversation that's probably going to be front and center as we start the session.

[Payne] Yeah. Circling back to the pocketbook issues versus social issues, discussion auditor Rob sand, who's seen as the Democratic frontrunner for governor. He's talking about transgender rights differently than Democrats typically have. He has recently said that transgender girls and women should not compete in female sports. And you voted against the 2022 bill that bans trans girls from competing in girls’ sports. Are House Democrats going to follow suit in approaching discussing that issue differently? Or do you see sand as being kind of out on his own island talking about that?

[Meyer] Well, I think I go back to the fact that I have 33 members, and at the end of the day when if the topic comes up, there's going to be 33 different opinions on it. I will say this, that what happened this year in terms of them taking away transgender rights, was absolutely awful. The Republican majority likes to punch down. And what they did with these, with taking away those rights really has caused transgender people to be very concerned. At the end of the day, I don't know any Iowans that don't believe that you should be able to rent an apartment without fear that you'd be kicked out because you're transgender, that you could lose your job simply because you are transgender, and that you can go into a restaurant and be kicked out of it simply because you're transgender. That's what they did. They took those rights away this year. On the other things Representative Sand or auditor Sand is entitled to his own opinions on those things. And I know that everybody in my caucus has different opinions as well. And I don't know where we would fall on some of that.

[Henderson] Go ahead.

[Payne] Do you worry that by seeing Rob sand talk about these issues differently, that that will alienate some of the Democrats base voters?

[Meyer] I'm not worried about that at all.

[Henderson] On this program early this year, one of your colleagues, Representative Jacoby, from Coralville, made a proposal on behalf of House Democrats on property taxes whereby the state would give $1,000 to homeowners and would give $500 to renters. And as legislators over the next essentially four years or five years, would craft a property tax reform plan. Is that still what House Democrats support?

[Meyer] We're going to revisit that. That was a good start. At the end of the day, the Republicans have been in charge for ten years and have been talking about property tax relief for ten years and all that has happened is property taxes have gone up. Now, representative Jacoby and others came up with this proposal. I think it's a good start. It's a good proposal. They couldn't even get out of the starting gate last year really, on their property tax proposals. So, we will engage, as we always do, in that conversation, and we will have another proposal. We will also have a no tax on tips, no tax on overtime proposal. He proposed those as well.

[Henderson] And that passed the House with broad bipartisan support.

[Meyer] It passed in the in the committee in the Ways and Means Committee. But at the end of the day, we will come back and we will have that conversation about middle class tax cuts and not tax cuts for the wealthy.

[Murphy] And on this more broadly, you have Republicans who have been proposing getting rid of the income tax altogether. The state income tax. And now Senator Mike Bustillo talking about eliminating the residential property tax. Altogether. I don't know that that's going to be the caucus's standpoint that we'll see a bill on that. But we have a prominent Senate Republican talking about that. Those are the kinds of messages that are going to sound great to a lot of Iowans and a lot of voters. How do Democrats approach that discussion?

[Meyer] We have to balance the interests of the local governments with the interests of the property taxpayers, with the state government. The easiest thing to do and the way that we have proposed it in the past, is what Representative Jacoby has proposed, which is that you take some dollars from the surpluses at the state and you backfill into the local government to give relief on a homestead tax credit basis. So, at the end of the day, our proposal is going to be simply focusing on residential property tax payers. As for other proposals, I'm sure there's 100 other proposals out there that everybody thinks would be the best ever. But I think Representative Jacoby has come up with some really good ideas.

[Murphy] And are the ideas that I think to the point you alluded to. Ultimately here the concern comes from the local government level and their ability to what they say is, is have sufficient means to provide the services they're responsible for providing to their residents. Is Democrats approach going to keep those local governments whole?

[Meyer] Absolutely. That would be our proposal and that the relief would come from the state local governments is where the rubber meets the road, and that's where services come from for the most part. At the end of the day, most interaction that people have with their government is on the local government standpoint, and we propose that we do no harm there. But at the same time that we backfill and take some dollars from the state and use that for property tax relief.

[Murphy] And what I'm sorry is the is that sustainable then? Because that gets into the whole are we using a one-time existing source of funds for something that you hope to be able to sustain long term?

[Meyer] We believe it is sustainable and we will look at all options as it approaches. At the end of the day, it's a very difficult conversation to have, but they've done nothing on property taxes for the last ten years and we are ready to engage.

[Payne] And Congress is debating reducing Medicaid spending in the tax and spending bill known as President Trump's One Big, beautiful bill. From your view, what could that mean for the state budget?

[Meyer] Well, as it's written now, and I understand that it's probably going to change over the next couple of days. But as it is written now, the budget cuts that appear to be from Medicaid would do significant harm to rural Iowa and the rural Iowa hospital system that we have. I think that's the biggest problem that is in that bill. At the end of the day, we have to protect rural Iowa, and we have to protect those hospitals because nobody else is going to do it. And we have a congressional delegation that simply will not stand up for Iowa and fight back on this.

[Henderson] You have taken over from Representative Jennifer Konfrst, who's been on this program before, and she has been an advocate for having the Iowa Democratic Party's caucuses be first. There are many others in the Democratic Party who think it's time to move on, maybe even have a primary. What are your thoughts?

[Meyer] No. We need to bring back the caucuses. And I've long since advocated for us being put back into the number one spot. At the end of the day, we can get rid of the weird math that we do as Democrats and just adopt what the Republicans have done, which is more like a straw poll.

[Henderson] Just have a straw poll.

[Meyer] Just have a straw poll and just move forward with this. And if the National Democratic Party doesn't like it, I don't care, because New Hampshire and Iowa were tossed last time. New Hampshire, New Hampshire moved forward. They did what they needed to do and what they wanted to do. They still seated those delegates. At the end of the day, we need to do what we need to do. And I propose that we just move forward with our caucuses as normal.

[Henderson] So, in other words, going rogue, having them, whether they're sanctioned by the National Party or not, the National Party seems to have moved on. How do you convince national Democrats that Iowa Democrats should have a seat at the table when it comes? I mean, what's the argument for having Iowa be among the early states?

[Meyer] Well, when we've had the caucuses in the past, candidates have to come here and they have to interact with people and they have to explain themselves, and they have to use common sense to convince people in Iowa to vote for them. It's not all TV ads. It's not all flashy rallies and everything like that. At the end of the day, Iowa is the best place to sort out the wheat from the chaff and get us back to where we need to be as a party. On the national level, we on the national level are missing the Midwest. Common sense that Iowa has brought to those caucuses. And I advocate very strongly that we come back with those caucuses.

[Henderson] Aside from the criticism that Iowa isn't a representative state in terms of the national population as a place to start the conversation about the next presidential campaign, how do you answer the critics who say having the caucuses at 7:00 on a Monday night excludes too many potential? Participants?

[Meyer] I think that's a good point. And there's ways we can deal with that in terms of absentee ballots like we would any other way. There's opportunities out there, but just to go ahead and jettison the caucuses altogether, I think was a mistake in 2024. And I would like to see them come back. It was a great way for us to showcase the Midwest, a great way for us to showcase Iowa, and we need to bring them back.

[Murphy] You are, as a the new House Democrats leader, a member of a and I forgive me, I don't the official title but a sort of leadership committee within the state party that includes yourself. The Senate Democrat leader, the state party chairwoman, and auditor, Rob sand as a statewide elected official. Have you had this discussion with them yet? And how where do you have a majority among that group, at least on this opinion?

[Meyer] I have not had that discussion with them. I've batted it around with some of my friends, and everybody thinks it's a great idea, but I have not had that discussion with the party.

[Murphy] And then the part, you hear occasionally from Iowa Democrats, some Iowa Democrats, that they're okay, that the caucuses have moved on. They feel like it was a distraction from the work of focusing on local and winning local elections here in Iowa. And maybe that's a part of the reason for the recent slide. What's your take on that?

[Meyer] Totally disagree. It was a great opportunity for Iowa Democrats to organize. It's a great voter registration mechanism. And that's why I want to see him come back, is that we are allowing the Republicans to have that spotlight every four years, when we ought to be sharing in it. And at the end of the day, it helps Iowa Democrats.

[Murphy] Speaking of elections, look, taken in our last couple of minutes here, looking ahead to 2026 we've mentioned Auditor Sand running for governor. There's also a U.S. Senate election in Iowa. So those will be the two top of the ticket races here. How much does the strength of those Democratic candidates, whoever they ultimately may be, impact your efforts to increase the number of House Democrats?

[Meyer] It's extremely important, and I'm very excited about Auditor Sand running for governor. I think he has a common sense about him that can translate to rural Iowa, a common sense about him that can translate across the state in general. And I look forward to working beside him when he's the nominee.

[Henderson] It sounds like an endorsement because he does have an opponent.

[Meyer] It is an endorsement.

[Murphy] There you go. And that Senate, we're going to have a primary in the Democratic primary in that Senate race. Similar. Do you need a strong Democrat there as well to help you out farther down?

[Henderson] And have you picked someone? I guess we should ask them.

[Meyer] I'll answer your question. Yes. We need a strong candidate there. There's lots of good candidates there, and I look forward to working with whoever the nominee is.

[Murphy] Okay.

[Payne] Yeah. When you took over as minority leader, you told reporters that you wanted to win back seats previously held by Democrats, like in Newton. But there's not the same union presence there that there was. You know, without Maytag now. So, what is your plan for actually being able to win back those seats?

[Meyer] Changing the conversation to what I discussed earlier about common sense values, about talking about pocketbook issues and bringing the conversation to them and not waiting for them to come to us. At the end of the day, there's still a lot of people there that have the same political ideas that we have. And I think largely that some of these smaller industrial towns like that have kind of gotten away from us. And I want to try and bring them back and have a conversation and say, we need to distinguish ourselves as Democrats and explain to voters why we're the better option than Republicans.

[Murphy] How do you do that?

[Meyer] And that's a good question, because we need to have these conversations on a one-on-one basis. And as I've traveled the state with my friend Sean Bagniewski, we went up to Waterloo. We went up to Mason city. We're going to hit Sioux City, Council Bluffs, Newton, Ottumwa and over to some other cities in that area in central Iowa. We are going to have these conversations, and we are going to find out what can we do as Democrats to get back into the play. How can we do better explaining what we stand for and distinguishing ourselves from the Republicans? And I think that is key.

[Henderson] Democrats in the past have proposed raising the minimum wage. The last time the minimum wage in Iowa was raised was when Chet Culver was governor, which is a while ago. Will House Democrats propose raising the minimum wage they have in the past?

[Meyer] Absolutely.

[Henderson]At what level?

[Meyer] I don't know what that number is. We will have a conversation within our caucus to find out what the level is that we feel is appropriate for the state of Iowa. But we will be advocating for that raise.

[Henderson] Another issue that House Democrats have raised over the past few years is citing surveys which show a majority of Iowans support legalizing marijuana. The voters in Missouri passed an amendment that has legalized marijuana there, and the state of Missouri is seeing tax revenue pour in. What are your thoughts on pursuing that as a policy goal?

[Meyer] It's absolutely a policy goal. At the end of the day, most Iowans are very supportive of it. I think we need to do a better job explaining where the tax dollars will go. We are losing tax dollars to Illinois and Missouri right now because people are just going across the border, right. And so, at the end of the day, if we can tax it and regulate it like alcohol, we can use those dollars for something, say water quality or education or something that is going to benefit. And people can see this is where the tax dollars are going.

[Murphy] I mentioned early on that I assume one of your goals in these elections is to grow your numbers. And obviously the ultimate goal is to be the majority and be able to have your hands on the policy levers. Have you either expressed to your caucus or thought internally about what's the timeline for something like that? It's a wide majority of the Republicans possess currently in the legislature.

[Henderson] A supermajority.

[Murphy] Yeah, it's a it's a literal supermajority. What in your mind is the timeline for Democrats growing their numbers to ultimately where they're competitive for that majority? Again?

[Meyer] Well, there's really no timeline. We are going to make our case next year. It's going to be a midterm with the presidential president that's not particularly popular. And we had good success in 2018. I expect us to have some success this next cycle, but there is no timeline. I recognize the hole that we're in, but we also need to be the loyal opposition, and we need to say and convey to people this is what we would do if we were in the majority. And I think at the end of the day, they will come down on our side.

[Henderson] So we have about half a minute left. You, as Democrats represent the three regents institutions, is part of this pocketbook issue. Tuition at Iowa, Iowa State and uni.

[Meyer] That's a great question. And I think at the end of the at the end of the day, when you have a child that's going to graduate here in Iowa from high school, you want to be able to send them to a college that's affordable. And I've noticed that it's starting to slip away from a lot of people that you and I, Iowa and Iowa State are not nearly as affordable as I thought they were. As I was looking through some of the documents preparing for this. But we need to do a better job of reducing tuition at the universities.

[Henderson] My job right now is to say we are out of time. Thank you for joining us today and sharing your views.

[Meyer] Thank you.

[Henderson] You can watch every episode of Iowa Press at iowapbs.org. For everyone here at Iowa PBS, thanks for watching today.

Funding for Iowa Press was provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation. The Associated General Contractors of Iowa, the public's partner in building Iowa's highway, bridge and municipal utility infrastructure. Across Iowa hundreds of neighborhood banks strive to serve their communities, provide jobs, and help local businesses. Iowa banks are proud to back the life you build. Learn more at iowabankers.com.