Moms for Liberty Debate

DES MOINES – Four of the five Republican candidates for governor outlined their plans for property tax reform, the state’s education system, economic growth and defending the sanctity of life during a Monday evening debate hosted by Moms for Liberty Iowa at the Iowa Historical Building.

The FAMiLY Leader and Americans for Prosperity Iowa were sponsors of the debate that featured state Rep. Eddie Andrews, a pastor from Johnston; Zach Lahn, a Belle Plaine farmer and businessman; former state Rep. Brad Sherman, a pastor from Williamsburg; and former Iowa Department of Administrative Services director Adam Steen.

Steen described the governor’s race as “a battle of good versus evil, and we have to call it what it is.”

“If we do not come together as a state and rise up, stand firm and hold our ground, the Democrats are going to come here and they’re going to decimate the values that Iowans hold so dear. I entered this race to preserve and protect the culture of Iowa,” he said. “I have the experience, the record and the drive to run the state as your governor from day one.”

Andrews said his vision for Iowa’s future is one in which “education is back to number one, where it belongs; where property rights are free from ambiguity and where mental health is taken care of, but loved ones are not left behind.”

Lahn said he shares a different vision of the state’s future because he is “not a politician.” Among his priorities is reducing the state’s higher-than-average cancer rate. “I’m here to put Iowa and Iowans first to take on the tough issues,” he said.

Sherman said the ministry outreach that he and his wife have done for University of Iowa students since 1981 has convinced him of the “indoctrination taking place.”

“We saw that the foundations of our freedom were being undermined, and I saw it as a big problem. That’s what launched me into being involved politically,” he said. “My slogan for our campaign is ‘restoring the foundations of freedom.’ That’s not just a slogan that we came up with. That’s been our heartbeat for four decades, and that’s what I’m going to bring to the governor’s office, is that restoring those foundations of freedom.”

Steen delivered the most forceful criticism of the presumed – and absent – frontrunner, Congressman Randy Feenstra, who was in the city for President Trump’s visit just a few hours earlier but has declined to participate in any of the debates to date. Responding to a question in which all four candidates agreed that life begins at conception, Steen said defending life is “most important issue of this entire gubernatorial race.”

“And because it’s the most important issue, I want to know why Randy Feenstra is not on that stage over there answering that question like we are answering. Because I’ll tell you who will answer that question: it’s Rob Sand. And Rob Sand will say, ‘The heartbeat bill went too far.’”

Steen continued, “The heartbeat bill did not go too far. Randy Feenstra is the perceived frontrunner in this race. We do not have the ability as a populace to drag him across the finish line to beat Rob Sand. That’s why this is so critical right now. It’s because of life.”

Saying “life is one of those things you can’t fudge on,” Lahn shared that he and his wife are “now banned for life” from a fertility clinic after refusing to discard embryos. “The ones we refused (to discard) turned into our youngest son,” Lahn said.

Sherman said life is “one of the fundamental issues that a government is supposed to protect.”

“It’s in the Declaration of Independence, one of the unalienable rights is life,” he said. “I was happy to vote for the heartbeat bill, which prevented surgical abortions after six weeks. … It was a step forward, but now we have abortion pills being mailed into our state,. It’s dangerous, and we had no way to (track) that. We need to do much, much better.”

Describing his long-time work on pro-life issues, including co-founding the Informed Choices Medical Clinics and serving as its chairman for 10 years, he insisted “Nobody is going to be stronger” on the issue. “It’s not just the pre-born. We need to take care of our elders,” he added, “And then there’s life all the way in the middle, which gets to the issues of cancer and (other health priorities).”

Andrews said he pushes back when pro-life voters are described as single-issue voters. “It’s not that we’re one-issue voters. It’s that it is the first issue. If you can’t get life right, then I can’t trust anything else,” he said.

When asked to describe what they want their legacy to be if they are elected:

Lahn said, “Number one, I want to reverse the trend of our kids leaving the state. That’s number one. I want 10,000 new family farms versus 10,000 lost family farms. Number three, I want our education system to be in the top five in the country by the end of my second term … and number four, I want to completely fall to the bottom of the ranks in cancer diagnosis. These are 20- and 30-year goals. I’m running because I want my grandkids and great grandkids to want to live in this state, and so this is what I’m looking at, not simple quick fixes.”

Sherman said, “I would like to be able to say that we have eradicated human trafficking from our state. I would like to see civics foundations being taught in our schools again that give a respect for our Constitution and the rule of law, and people understand how our government’s supposed to work. Because if we don’t know how our government’s supposed to work, we won’t know when it’s not working. I would like to see our rural landscape transformed and see our population filling up our rural landscape again with the family farms. … And I would like to see a network of small modular reactors making electrical energy so cheap that we can attract businesses to this state.”

Steen said, “The first one is, I would love to see Iowa being the most pro-life state in the union. I’d love to see a life-at-conception bill passed. I’d love to see Iowa as the trades capital of the world. I’d love to see Iowa being the healthcare capital world, where we’re teaching kids in seventh and eighth grade how important it is to jump into a medical field. … I’d like to see new industries formed in education, where classical education can be taught through our universities, colleges and community colleges. I’d also like to see new industries created in the healthcare world, things like restorative reproductive medicine instead of IVF. We have an opportunity in Iowa to create those new industries and become the shining light on the hill.”

Andrews said, “The first thing I would say is getting Iowa education back to number one. Renovating our mental health care system so that our loved ones are not left behind, including our veterans. Yes, we know that some of that’s federal, but we can do more here. Number one, making sure that imminent domain is not used in one iota for private gain.”

On property taxes, Andrews said current proposals are “trotting around the edges.” Describing himself as a “go big or go home guy” Andrews added, “ I think the whole system needs to blow up and start over,” beginning with a seven-year phase out of property taxes.

Lahn proposed capping local spending at 2% growth while growing local populations by retaining and attracting young people to rural areas. Steen called for a zero-based budgeting review of cities, counties, and schools to achieve transparency and accountability before considering next steps. “We have a spending problem in local governments. We have a spending problem in state government. We need to identify that, cut that out, and work on lowering taxes,” he said.

Sherman said he has a plan to eliminate property taxes on the primary residences of Iowans over 65. “This doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that you have to work most of your life, pay off a mortgage, and you still have to rent your house from the government,” he explained, adding there would be guard rails to prevent abuses. “Maybe people will stay here instead of moving to Arizona. Maybe the kids will stay here. That will help our population growth that’ll spread out the taxes.”