Democratic Candidate for Governor, Julie Stauch

[Kay Henderson] We're still more than a year out from the 2026 election, but campaigns for key races are well underway. We'll talk with Julie Stauch, one of two Democrats running for governor on this edition of Iowa Press.

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[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 3 edition of Iowa Press. Here is Kay Henderson.

[Henderson] Today we're going to have a conversation with a candidate who is seeking the Democratic Party's 2026 nomination for governor. We've invited other candidates in the gubernatorial field. Next week, Eddie Andrews, a Republican. But now this week, Democrat Julie Stauch. She owns her own consulting company. She worked for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. She's worked on numerous political campaigns from city council to presidential races, including the 2020 Pete Buttigieg Iowa Caucus campaign. And in 2022, she worked on Mike Franken's U.S. Senate run. Julie Stauch, welcome to the Iowa press table.

[Julie Stauch] Thank you. Thank you for having me.

[Henderson] Joining our conversation, Erin Murphy of The Gazette in Cedar Rapids.

[Erin Murphy] Julie, we wanted to start with some recent news. And in the wake of the Des Moines Public Schools superintendent being arrested by federal immigration officers, you issued a statement shortly after that calling on Governor Reynolds to resign. I'm curious, given what we've learned since then, about Mr. Roberts, sort of questions about his work history and questions about his immigration status. Do you stand by that call for Governor Reynolds to resign?

[Stauch] I do, for many reasons. My rationale in that was both my frustration with the lack of due process occurring in with ICE, and the fact that she has agreed to have Iowa National Guardsmen and women participating in this. It just is it, is not how these things should be done. Yes. People who violate immigration rules should be penalized for that. But the process, hauling people away to another place, that part of it is just out of control. And that is that is ICE. That's a big shift in ICE from what it has historically been.

[Murphy] And Kay is going to get a little more into that. I'm curious, what's your perspective? What a governor's role should be in a moment like this. It's sort of a local issue because it's a local school district that they're dealing with, but we're talking about federal immigration laws. What would a governor Julie Stauch have done in a moment like this?

[Stauch] Well, in a moment, actually, what I would have done would have been prior to that moment — it would have been when ICE was asking to — when the federal government was asking for permission to come into Iowa, I would have set some standards for, yes, you can do this because they have a long history of working here as well, but they've changed how they're doing it, and we have to have them adhere to Iowa law, which has due process. And that's what was missing. And that's what angered me so. The lack of due process here.

[Henderson] You mentioned the Iowa National Guard, about 20 soldiers assisting in paperwork for ICE. They did not participate. No Iowa National Guard soldiers participated in this particular instance. But the Iowa State Patrol had an officer and a K-9 officer support ICE in this instance. As governor, if you're elected, you would be serving during the final two years of Donald Trump's term. Would you be willing to go up against the Trump administration? You saw what happened to the Winneshiek County sheriff when he announced some of the ideas that you just articulated, and he was challenged by Iowa's attorney general.

[Stauch] He was challenged and he lost, and she lost. The attorney general backed down and he was not penalized in the way that she said he would be.

[Henderson] So what would you do as governor if the Trump administration says, "Do this or we're going to withdraw X amount of federal dollars?"

[Stauch] I would — they have to adhere to our standards and that they are reducing the federal standards, the Iowa standards still have to be adhered.

[Henderson] So what are the Iowa standards in terms of enforcing immigration law?

[Stauch] It's all tied to due process. It's all tied to how we, how we, it goes back to the 101 on there has to be a warrant. There has to be — a judge has to be involved with that. There has to be a warrant. There has to be. There are all these standards that you have to follow through. And they're not following those standards. They're just showing up and taking people. What we saw in Iowa City the day before, there was none of that. There was just a guy showing up to work in a grocery store and being accosted there. I mean, that's not how ICE previously has worked in this state.

[Murphy] The in the case of Mr. Roberts, there was a judge's order for him to be removed from the country. Was he? Why do you believe he was not given due process?

[Stauch] I did not know that there was a judge's order that had not — I had not seen that at the time at which everything was going on. I had not seen that.

[Murphy] I want to get to the to the campaign. And there's another Democrat in this race, State Auditor Rob Sand, who has a healthy campaign war chest, $7 million, $8 million, $7 million of which was donated by his family. How do you compete with that? And not just from a money standpoint, but what it means. And getting your name out. He has statewide name recognition. Those resources are what helps a candidate do that. How do you compete with someone with those kinds of resources?

[Stauch] I have two parts to answer there. The first part is if you go back over the last four statewide elections, starting with Bruce Braley, then Fred Hubbell, then Theresa Greenfield and even Mike Franken, all of those Democrats had more money than their Republican opponent at the end of the race. Money is important in campaigns, but it is not a winning variable. It is a tool that one uses in the campaign. And I think the other challenge there for Rob Sand is we're — what I'm hearing from Iowans in meetings across the state is that they — one of their number one concerns is clean water. And he has a — he's in a very difficult position now because the $7 million and whatever else he might have received from his family and his wife's family are from people who are both selling nitrous and the nitrogen for the fields and contributing to the problem. And so, he continues to avoid discussing the point. And I think he's in a very hard spot because of that. And I'm not encumbered by that. And I am talking freely about it because it is a top priority of Iowans.

[Murphy] And we and we are going to get to water quality a little bit later. You made some interesting points on whether money and resources translates to wins. Let me offer a slight pushback and some other examples. You mentioned Fred Hubbell, $7 million of his own money in that campaign. He did come within two points. He didn't win, but he did come within fewer than three points of Governor Reynolds in 2018. And then in 2022, the Democrats gubernatorial candidate, Deidre DeJear had far less resources and was defeated by a far wider margin. So, isn't that kind of counter evidence to your point that those resources can be a good thing and help?

[Stauch] Oh, they are a good thing. They are a good thing. They're just not a be all, end all. That's the point that I want to make.

[Henderson] I'm going to ask a sensitive question. And at the start, admit that I am closer in age to you than I am to Rob Sand.

[Stauch] That's okay.

[Henderson] But there's been a lot of interest in the U.S. Senate race among Democrats, because you have a group of 30 and 40 year olds that are running, and there's a sense among Democrats nationally that it's time to turn the page over to a new generation. Is that an impediment for you and that you've been in Democratic politics for decades, and you are an elder statesman.

[Stauch] I look at it as I'm experienced and my experience has been bucking the system the whole way through, not following it. And, you know, the both, all the party structures out there right now and it's not recent, have lost sight of the goal. And they are they are focused on factors and have been for quite a while. That are not meaningful to the success of candidates. They've been more focused on consultants. They've been more focused on money and how the money gets used and influencing with that. Then they have been on actually communicating with the people in in a district for whatever race one is seeking. So, and then to the second part, to me and my age, I'm not looking at being a career politician. How about that for a contrast?

[Henderson] You mentioned consultants. Did you push back as a consultant who's worked on many campaigns?

[Stauch] I was never a consultant on a campaign. I was always an employee. My consulting business has been with non-political entities, non-political campaigns.

[Murphy] So let's get back to some topics and including water quality which you mentioned, you issued a year, some of the things actions you would take as governor or would like to see happen on water quality. The big picture question we often have for folks is how realistic those are in the current political climate in Iowa. And are these items that you believe are realistic, that can pass in this state, given especially at the state level, with legislators who are always hesitant to pass a new law that would be seen as an overbearance on farmers.

[Stauch] I'm going to answer the first part of the question first. The, yes, there are absolutely ways. In fact, there are, a lot of the damage that has been done, has been done under Governor Reynolds when she reorganized state government and when she has the DNR head report to her. Our current DNR leader is out — straight out of Kim's office and was a lobbyist beforehand. And basically is carrying her water on all the destruction that she wants done. They've pulled, they've dropped the 1972 Clean Water standards. They proudly dropped. They have dropped the, I'll call them water monitors or meters. There's a more sophisticated term for them, but that have been checking rivers, checking above Cedar Rapids, checking above Des Moines, checking rivers all across the state for levels before they get of nitrous, before they get to the communities, in order to make sure that the community understands what they have to deal with, with their water matters. All of those are administrative moves.

[Murphy] Those are actions the governor can take.

[Stauch] Those are actions a governor can take. And last week I put out my pledge to Iowans on clean water, on what I would do the first day. And it includes those actions, and I intend to do that on every one of the top issues that Iowans have talked to me about.

[Murphy] You mentioned something in there real quick that makes me think, and I'll ask the governor's reorganization of the executive branch of state government. Is there anything within that plan that she did that you would like to undo as governor?

[Stauch] I don't know the whole plan at this point in time. What I'm focusing on, on the elements of the plan that that Iowans are complaining about and are very concerned about. So, I couldn't answer to the whole plan at this time. I expect I'll have to again at some point.

[Murphy] Another issue you talked about is Iowa's rising cancer rates, which is has been established as one of the few in the nation that's increasing, and it's one of the worst rates overall. What as a governor can you do or what kind of policy would you like to see that could address that from the state level?

[Stauch] Well, I've been having a parallel conversations, just beginning parallel conversations on these key issues with experts because I'm not an expert on any of them. I'm basically a problem solver. I'm somebody that people hire to come in and take what's there and fix it and get it running on track. That I have done in campaigns. But the to the point of all these other issues, the cancer issue, I have conversations lined up, but I haven't had them yet with the experts. So, I don't want to try to fake being an expert. I'm not. But what I am is a person who will drive the change that needs to occur.

[Henderson] I want to circle back on the water quality issues. So as governor, you would direct the Department of Natural Resources to rescind some of the changes that they've made in water regulations, correct? How would you overturn the legislature not even funding the river and stream monitors?

[Stauch] Well, that is a different problem. And that is a different — will have a different timeline on it. One of the things that I learned when I worked at Planned Parenthood was there are ways to negotiate with a lot of different people who don't agree with you, because let's be honest, many people in the legislature, even at the time that I was working there, had one impression of Planned Parenthood. And what I did, somebody said, well, we should I wish we could talk to these other groups. And I'm like, I can talk to them. And I went and met with about 33 different business groups that were — would conservative business groups that would lobby sometimes against us, even though it wasn't a direct chain. And what I found is that we actually, based on the topic, we could come to agreement and we could indeed have some actually came on board because they agreed with the point we were seeking. Others agreed to stand down and not fight us. That's huge. That's huge when someone stands down and says, we will not fight you on this bill, and we could make progress then on birth control funding on increasing nurse education opportunities. So, there are, there are many, many ways that it can be done. And I do have experience doing that.

[Henderson] You have said as governor you would sign a bill that would ban the use of eminent domain for a carbon capture pipeline. How would you accomplish that given the makeup of the legislature?

[Stauch] What I said was, I, what I'm opposed to on that is the a pipeline created for a private company and where the profit goes to a private company. Eminent domain is about our shared surfaces, our streets. All you know, sometimes hospitals, but all those shared spaces. This is not about shared spaces. This is about greed. Plain and simple. And this is what... and that is why I will, I would, I would narrow, tighten and narrow the scope of the existing eminent domain law so that it does not have — they can't make that move to give to private.

[Murphy] I wanted to ask you about education savings accounts here in Iowa. The taxpayer funded program for private school tuition assistance. You and I talked about this a little while back, and at that time, you said, and this was a hypothetical with a Democrat led legislature too, that you would, in that case, fully repeal the law. That would include taking away these scholarships for low-income families. Do you feel that strongly about the program that you think it shouldn't be available at all?

[Stauch] What I, I, I do feel that strongly about the program. Yes. I also have had conversations since that time with people running organizations that are really having a meaningful impact. And so, I am, I am interested in and look, it has to go through a legislature. And so, like the experience I just described, it's going to have to be negotiated. So, but you know, you start from the position that you want the most and you work from there. And I would as a person who has a degree in elementary education and a minor in child development, but couldn't ever teach, I, I have strong allegiance to our public schools. And this is about both breaking the bank of our state government as well as breaking down our public schools.

[Murphy] So, so to that, I'm sorry, can I can I ask as a follow up? Because that seems to get at the heart of this debate is Democrats believe that all that funding should just go to public schools. And Republicans argue that we can do both. We can fund public schools and have this assistance for private schools. Where do you — does it have to be an either or? Can the two not exist?

[Stauch] It's possible they could exist. The biggest problem right now is among the many problems right now is they've opened it up for anybody to collect vouchers. And at the very least, it's got to be based on income levels, just like — 

[Murphy] So some kind of — 

[Stauch] — Medicaid is based on income levels and a whole bunch of other programs in our governments are based on income levels. It's possible that that could be a compromise position, but from a public education point of view, I, I see this as only being destructive and look at all the communities across the state that are being left behind because there are no private schools in their area. You know, that's maddening. It's just it's so thoughtless in that it's a program that is just designed to destroy rural schools.

[Henderson] Your fellow Democrats in the Iowa Legislature have criticized the move to lower Iowa's individual income tax to a single rate. Yes. They're pointing to a decline in state revenues. As governor, do you think it's foreseeable to repeal a cut that's already been appreciated by Iowans?

[Stauch] You mean repeal a cut that the big money like?

[Henderson] That they've been getting.

[Stauch] Yeah. I mean. Can I tell a story that happened to me once in in this arena? I was working at Pioneer Hybrid and the CEO was arguing that we needed flat tax, and because he paid twice as much as I paid, I came home and I looked up how much he was paid. And I'm not talking about the extra benefits. He was paid more than 12 times what I was paid, and when I saw him again, I said, you know what? I looked up your salary. You should be paying 12 times more than me. Not two. Not just two times. You're getting off light right now. And I think that that's what's at the core of this flat tax is just greed. It's more greed. And it. And we need to be able to fund our government because our government provides services in a cost-effective way that no other entity does. And that's important. And those services are vital to the people of Iowa.

[Henderson] Legislators have been talking for years, and we've covered it about reducing property taxes. What are your thoughts?

[Stauch] Right now, what they're doing in many ways, looks like they're trying to starve the county and city governments. They've made several tax moves recently. The one they switched from corporations to being able — I'm not going to express it properly. I won't even try. But they've made several moves to try to make things easier for large business and for corporate leaders and property tax has now become even more than it was originally planned. The source for funding for communities and counties. And that makes it really hard on the people out there. So, on the one hand, I think that we have to cut property taxes, but we've got to be real. If we're going to cut property taxes like the legislature says they want to do, then we got — where's that money coming from otherwise?

[Murphy] We're down to our last couple of minutes here. A couple of last things we wanted to get to. You're, again, thinking about the Democratic primary. Rob Sand has taken some positions on like ranked choice voting that don't necessarily align with the Democratic Party at large. He's supportive of that idea in elections. He often talks about both parties are at fault for the current political system. I'm curious if you agree with those stances or as a Democrat, do you feel like he's straying from the party line on some of those things?

[Stauch] I think he's off message. I think the point that that needs to be made is the one I made earlier, which is we have problems in all the political parties right now. That is true. They've all lost sight of their mission. They've made their mission something other than what it should be. And it's different with the Republicans and the Democrats. It's not the same. In the Democrats, amongst the Democrats and back. I'll just go back to his point. His point was the ranked choice voting. Ranked choice voting is a hot mess. And it is, it is not how people make choices. And consequently, you get very unusual outcomes out of it. We can look to the state of Maine and see the senator from Maine, Senator Collins, who is a constant winner of ranked choice voting and a very low performing U.S. senator. And I think that's just one example of why ranked choice voting is not a good thing for Iowa.

[Henderson] In 10 seconds. Can you tell us what the mission of the Democratic Party is?

[Stauch] The mission of — the mission of everybody should be serving the people of Iowa and the Democratic Party got all caught up in data and stats and other things, and stopped talking to people. And that's what I've been doing this summer. I've been out talking to people and finding out what they actually care about and what they want, because I want to go to work for the people of Iowa.

[Henderson] Well, thank you for talking to us today. That concludes our discussion. We have invited multiple Democratic and Republican candidates to join us at this table and join us in the next few weeks to see who they are. You may watch every episode of Iowa Press at iowapbs.org. For everyone here at Iowa PBS. Thanks for watching today.

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