Times-Republican: Congressional hopeful Dave Dawson holds town hall at Marshalltown Public Library
Former State Rep. Dave Dawson stepped away from politics a decade ago to return to his career as a prosecutor. Now, the Democrat is getting back in the mix by running for the U.S. House in Iowa’s Fourth District, and he stopped by the Marshalltown Public Library on Saturday to share his own story and explain why he’s running for Congress.
Dawson, who now resides in Lawton with his wife Liza and their three children, recounted his roots being born in Cherokee and raised in nearby Washta in northwest Iowa, and after his introductory speech, he spent about 40 minutes taking questions and comments from the audience.
Opting against entering the family business of farming, Dawson went to Iowa State University and then the University of California Los Angeles for his law degree, first moving to Chicago and working in corporate litigation for a large firm there for three years. He quickly discovered, however, that it wasn’t his calling and returned to Iowa to work as a prosecutor in the Woodbury County Attorney’s Office, where he has spent most of the last 24 years.
Dawson said he chose that job because it afforded him the opportunity to protect the public and children, and cited his record of community involvement as a coach, church elder and nonprofit board member. When he served in the Iowa Legislature, Dawson ran his own private law firm focused on family law and court-appointed attorney work.