KMA News: Meet the Candidates — Dave Dawson
(Lawton) — KMA News continues its “Meet the Candidates” series, featuring the candidates running in key races in the June Iowa Primary. Today’s report features Dave Dawson.
A Cherokee native, Dawson grew up in Washta, and now lives in Lawton, a small community near Sioux City. Dawson holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology and psychology from Iowa State University and a juris doctor degree from the UCLA School of Law. An attorney for 27 years, Dawson worked at a law firm in Chicago before operating his own law firm for five years. For the past 19 years, Dawson has served as a prosecutor in the Woodbury County Attorney’s Office, and he served in the Iowa House from 2013 to 2017.
Speaking on KMA’s “Morning Line” program, Dawson says he’s running for Congress in order to address health care issues stemming from program cuts in the budget reconciliation bill approved by Congress last year.
“Last summer, when Congress passed a budget bill that cut a trillion dollars in health care funding, I knew exactly who that was going to impact,” said Dawson. “It’s going to impact low income kids who’ve been abused and neglected, and sometimes need access to mental health services, or substance abuse treatment to address the trauma in their lives. It’s going to impact people with intellectual disabilities who are on waiver programs that help them lead productive lives, and stay in their community. It’s also going to impact employers in small rural communities, especially those who provide health clinics and hospitals.”