On the Issues

Dave will fight to lower prescription drug costs, expand rural healthcare access, and invest in medical research that saves lives. He’ll work to keep rural hospitals and nursing homes open, advocate for more benefits for Veterans, and ensure mental health services are available close to home.

Specifically, Dave supports allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies, capping the cost of insulin and other lifesaving medications, and protecting the Affordable Care Act from another round of repeal attempts. He will fight any effort to cut Medicaid, which more than 20% of patients at our rural hospitals depend on. He supports a public option, a voluntary government-run health plan that anyone can choose, while protecting the right of union members and others to keep the private coverage they have already negotiated. And he will work to expand the supply of healthcare providers in rural Iowa through loan forgiveness for doctors, nurses, and mental health professionals who serve in our communities.

Dave grew up in small-town Iowa and knows the challenges rural families face. He’ll work to expand broadband, repair roads and bridges, strengthen family farms, make housing more affordable, and support small businesses, all to keep our communities strong.

Specifically, Dave will fight for passage of a long-term federal farm bill that has been overdue for three years, leaving Iowa farmers unable to plan from one season to the next. He supports federal investment in high-speed broadband so every Iowa town has the same access as our cities, expansion of USDA loan and land-acquisition programs to help young and beginning farmers get started, and tougher enforcement of anti-monopoly laws against the corporate processors and consolidators that have squeezed family farms for decades. He will also push for federal infrastructure investment that prioritizes the bridges, roads, and water systems in rural Iowa that have been overlooked for too long.

Dave will push for policies that raise wages, support working families, and crack down on corporate monopolies that hurt farmers and small business owners. He believes in an economy where hard work pays off.

Specifically, Dave supports raising the federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 for 17 years, the longest period in American history without an increase. He will fight to pass the PRO Act, which would strengthen the right of every American worker to form a union and bargain collectively, just as Dave has done for over 20 years as a member of AFSCME. He supports expanding the Child Tax Credit, federal investment in affordable child care so parents can afford to work, and aggressive antitrust enforcement against the corporate monopolies driving up prices on groceries, housing, prescription drugs, and farm inputs. And he will fight to close the tax loopholes that let billion-dollar corporations pay zero dollars in federal income taxes while working Iowans pay theirs.

Dave will protect Social Security and Medicare so they remain strong for today’s seniors and future generations. These programs are promises, and he’ll make sure Washington keeps them.

Specifically, Dave opposes any cut, privatization scheme, or benefit reduction to Social Security or Medicare. He will fight to ensure annual cost-of-living adjustments actually keep up with the real prices Iowa seniors pay at the grocery store, the pharmacy, and the gas pump. He supports lifting the Social Security payroll tax cap so the wealthiest Americans pay into the system at the same rate as everyone else, which would keep the trust fund solvent for generations. And he will oppose any effort to gut the Social Security Administration’s staff or close field offices, which would make it harder for the seniors, disabled Iowans, and survivors who depend on these benefits to actually access them.

Veterans have fought to maintain our rights and freedoms, which are guaranteed to every American. Dave will oppose attempts to restrict personal freedoms, weaken voting rights, undermine equal protection, or interfere with individual property rights. He will work to ensure the government protects individual liberty, stays transparent, and remains accountable to the people, not to special interests or partisan agendas.

Specifically, Dave supports restoring the full strength of the Voting Rights Act after recent Supreme Court rulings gutted its protections, including federal legislation to ensure every American has equal access to the ballot. He supports a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and get corporate and dark money out of our elections. He believes the Supreme Court should be bound by a binding code of ethics, the same as every other federal judge. As an attorney for 27 years and a prosecutor for 19, Dave knows the rule of law only works when no one is above it, and he will hold accountable any president, of any party, who tries to put themselves above the Constitution.

Iowa is home to more than 175,000 veterans, and Iowa’s 4th District has more veterans per capita than most of the country. Dave believes the country’s commitment to the men and women who served does not end the day they take off the uniform.

Specifically, Dave will fight to fully fund the VA so veterans get the care they earned without wait times that put their health at risk. He will work to expand mental health care and suicide prevention services close to home, not hours away in distant cities. He will push to strengthen the GI Bill so veterans and their families can pursue education and job training without financial barriers. And he will hold Washington accountable when politicians use veterans as a talking point but fail to deliver real support for veteran healthcare, housing, and benefits. Public safety has been Dave’s career. He has worked alongside law enforcement and first responders, many of them veterans, for nearly two decades. He knows what it means to put service before self, and he knows our veterans deserve a representative who puts them first.