In Senate District 22, which largely covers the Des Moines suburbs of Urbandale and Johnston, Republican Sen. Brad Zaun is up for reelection against Democrat Matt Blake.
Blake, 36, is a former member of the Urbandale City Council, where he served from 2019-2023. He is an attorney with the Dickinson Bradshaw law firm and a JAG officer with the Iowa Army National Guard.
Zaun, 62, is seeking a sixth term in the Iowa Senate. He was first elected in 2004 and is the current chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Zaun is the director of sales at Master Dowel, which manufactures concrete reinforcement products.
IPR News contacted candidates in some key Statehouse races to ask them about their positions on important issues. Here is what Zaun and Blake had to say. Their answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Jump to a specific topic:
- Top legislative priority
- Education Savings Accounts (ESAs)
- Eliminating the income tax
- Abortion rights
- Fertility treatments and contraception
- Growing the state's workforce
If you were elected, what would be the most important thing that you would want to try to accomplish in the Legislature?
Blake: My goal would be trying to make sure that we increase the quality of life here in Iowa. We're having issues with underfunding and attacks on our public education system. We are not taking steps to address what is best for trying to bring workforce here and retain good jobs here. And we are doing many steps to even take away the freedoms of some of our fellow Iowans. There are a number of policies I would like to tackle, but it's really focused on trying to make sure that the quality of life for Iowans and for those that are coming to Iowa is one of the best in the nation.
Zaun: [Reducing] property tax. It's just because of all the door knocking that I've done. It's just kind of a reoccurring theme. And I don't know what that formula is to help, but I mentioned I've had a bill in the past that caps property taxes on all the governmental entities on your property tax bill on anyone over the age of 65, and I started out with a house of $250,000 assessed. I'm not saying that's correct, and I'm flexible with that, but I think minimally we have to do that because I think it hurts people that are retired because they do have a fixed income. But it really is something we need to look at across the board for everyone, both commercial, mostly residential.
Next year, the state’s Education Savings Accounts that families can use to send students to private schools will be available to anyone, regardless of income. Should there be a cap on what the state is willing to spend on that ESA program?
Zaun: I would not support any cap. I don't think any parent or child should have to go to a school because of the zip code they live in. I've seen all kinds of data that shows that the increase in student performance in both public schools and nonpublic schools. You have just this last, late summer, the Des Moines Public Schools with billboards advertising they want kids. I really believe in school choice, and I do think the ultimate goal is to increase student performance and it has been proven in all the other states that that has been the end result. And again, I believe in putting parents in charge.
Blake: Oh, absolutely, there should be a cap. I don't understand the logic. If the goal of this program was to try to create innovation in our education system, if the goal of this program was trying to give certain individuals and certain places options and choice, then why have no cap on the system? You're just trying to subsidize individuals that already are paying for this education one way or the other, and this is literally hundreds of millions of dollars that is going out of our public education system toward private vouchers. That, to me, doesn't make sense.
Gov. Kim Reynolds has said it is her goal to eliminate the income tax in Iowa within her term. Do you support eliminating the state income tax?
Blake: I understand completely this necessity of making sure that Iowans need to have that money in their own pocketbooks. But that all being said, the income tax is still the largest revenue generator in the state of Iowa. And we have promises. We have promises to our public education. We have promises to Medicaid. We have promises to make sure that we have roads and bridges that aren't crumbling.
Money has to come from somewhere, and if we do have a reduction in revenue when it comes to the income tax, we will have to make cuts. That's just how it will work. And what are the two largest drivers of the budget? It's schools, education and Medicaid, and they are going to be hurt if we don't take steps to try to make sure that we have a balanced approach with our funding sources here at the state level.
Zaun: I support the long-term goal, assuming that we have the revenues there. Yes, that would be the ultimate goal that I would look at. I mean, I think it would bring a lot of people back to the state of Iowa, especially younger people. I've got a son that lives in Texas. There's no income tax down in Texas, so yes. Obviously, I supported the flat tax at 3.8% but yeah, I think that should be the ultimate goal.
In a 2023 special session, the Legislature passed — and the Iowa Supreme Court later upheld — new abortion restrictions. The law prohibits an abortion once the presence of cardiac activity is detected by ultrasound. That can happen as early as six weeks, when some people are still unaware of their pregnancy.
What action, if any, should the Legislature take to change Iowa's abortion restrictions?
Zaun: I support what we did on the heartbeat bill. But what's really unfortunate is that lot of people want to say six-week, eight-week, ten-week ban. There's nothing in there that defines that. What it's defined as is when the expectant mother comes in and a heartbeat is detected. I am supporting the bill that we did — obviously I voted for it — with the exceptions of rape, incest, health of the mother, which is determined between the doctor, her physician and the mother herself.
To me, the abortion issue is settled. Obviously, our Supreme Court made a decision and said that it's constitutional, and so me, personally, I am only going to support what we passed in regards to the heartbeat bill.
Blake: We should repeal it. The six-week abortion ban is too extreme for Iowa. I know that there was a recent Des Moines Register poll that had it in the 60th percentile — even higher — related to people that wanted to have no restrictions. Again. You know there might be discussions of, can we find some policy that works for Iowans? Yes, but at this point in time, my hard line is that we need to get rid of the six-week abortion ban. That is not what Iowans believe. That is not what the people believe.
Should the Legislature take any steps to ensure access to fertility treatments or contraception?
Blake: If we can't move back on the six-week abortion ban, then we must have absolute guarantees of IVF. We must have absolute guarantees of contraception. I know there has been discussion amongst some on the other side of potentially curbing those — potentially doing away with IVF, as some other states have done — and no Iowan is asking for that. You know, people want to be able to have control over their own health care decisions, over their own family planning, and they shouldn't have the Legislature trying to step in to make those decisions for them.
Zaun: I would answer your question “yes” on both.
My opponent saying that I don't support IVF — the bill that came over from the House this last session [raising the penalty for causing the death of an “unborn person"], I personally, as Judiciary chair, killed that bill. And I said that to the media at the same time — because obviously the House wasn't really happy with me — that is because there were some concerns that would have a detrimental effect to IVF. And I did that.
What more should the Legislature do to grow and improve the state's workforce?
Zaun: We need to make sure that we take down some of the red tape and the roadblocks that are in front of employers right now. I would be open-minded to targeted areas where there is a workforce shortage, such as what we've done with mental health. But there are certain segments of the workforce that we really have a big shortage. Obviously, teachers was something that you hear from school districts, the amount of resumes they get in for positions are very low. We tried to do something in regards to teacher pay for not only the new teachers, but the established teachers that are there.
But really, to answer your question directly, we need to target the industries that are having problems finding people, and probably provide some incentives or some type of tax credit for those particular positions.
Blake: I'm a millennial, and if you look at what my generation and generations below me are looking at when it comes to places that they want to move to, where they want to raise their family, they're looking for places that are focused on making sure that they have good jobs, that has recreational opportunities. They're looking at places that have very good schools, where they don't have to worry about the future of their children. And they want to make sure that there is a quality of life that they can appreciate. Again, having policies that might focus on maybe low taxes that's maybe a part of it, but really it's an entire approach to what young people are looking for and I think that's what we're struggling right now in Iowa.
We need to take a new holistic approach to being like, what is it that young people want? They want a whole host of things, and right now the Iowa Legislature is not focusing on that dynamic. They are trying to legislate things on fear and spite, and they are attacking different groups of individuals — and that doesn't attract young people to our state. That doesn't attract new workers to our state.