Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris is the latest Iowa Democrat to announce a bid for the U.S. Senate. She made her announcement Tuesday morning.
Norris has served on the state’s largest school district’s board since 2021 and is the president and owner of the Horizon Group, a company that provides market research and management consulting.
She has previously worked on the political campaigns of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and former President Barack Obama, and served as the chief of staff for former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Norris told IPR she’s running for the Senate because she’s concerned Iowa families are in crisis.
"You've got the economic strain, where essentials like child care, health care and housing are unaffordable, and our youth are in a mental health crisis right now," she said.
She said her primary concern is addressing affordability issues for Iowa families.
"There's different ways to do it, whether it's child care affordability, whether it's looking at solutions around pre-K to make sure that's available and accessible to working parents, I think it is addressing mental health issues for young people," she said.
Norris joins Democratic state Sen. Zach Wahls, state Rep. J.D. Scholten and Knoxville Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Nathan Sage in their bids for Republican Sen. Joni Ernst’s seat.
Ernst is in her second term in the U.S. Senate. She has not yet formally confirmed her campaign for reelection, but she has hired a campaign director. Former state Sen. Jim Carlin and Joshua Smith of Indianola are challenging Ernst for the GOP nomination.
