MUSCATINE, Iowa–Ahead of this fall’s gubernatorial election, Democratic Candidate Deidre DeJear visited Crossroads in Muscatine July 27. DeJear’s visit makes up part of her Workday Wednesday series, in which she has visited a different Iowa employer each Wednesday since February to share her platform and better understand concerns from a range of different professions.
DeJear opened by introducing herself to the small group that had gathered to listen to her speak. Born in Jackson Mississippi and raised in Oklahoma, DeJear first came to Iowa as a college student studying at Drake University. DeJear found Iowa welcoming and conducive to opening her own consulting business, which she started even before she graduated from college. DeJear’s business has grown since its founding, assisting many companies with branding, marketing, and shifting their focus to stay successful first during the recession of the mid 2000’s and then during the initial crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic.
DeJear then addressed the key issues she hopes to focus on if elected governor. She stressed the importance of investing in public education. Identifying Iowa as a longtime leader in education, DeJear considered the state’s commitment to providing all children with a good education, as evidenced by their choice to desegregate education before any other state, a strong legacy to start from. She plans to focus on improving education by allocating more funding to state universities and community colleges to keep them affordable and by focusing on adding technical opportunities to high schools to allow graduates to take good paying jobs upon graduation, if they wish. “We’ve got resources in our state, your tax dollars, that can go to education and early childhood education; we just need a leader with the wherewithal to do it,” she stated.
Improving access to mental and physical health care services represented the second major issue DeJear focused on. DeJear acknowledged that a lack of inpatient mental healthcare beds and professional psychiatrists and psychologists made it difficult for people to access the mental healthcare services they needed, especially those without adequate insurance. Low reimbursement payments to health, mental health, and other providers from Medicare discourages new providers from setting up practices. By bringing together providers, patients, insurers, and stakeholders, and by setting up strong reciprocity agreements between Iowa and neighboring states, DeJear would like to see health and mental healthcare systems reformed to better serve patients. “We need to focus on each other,” she stressed.
Following her speech, DeJear fielded questions from the audience. Commenting on improving worker and service shortages, DeJear highlighted how focusing on education would provide a more skilled workforce and how the state government could use its resources to create programs focused on providing pathways for people to start and maintain small businesses. Additionally, DeJear would also promote the installation of fiber internet throughout the state, raising broadband speeds to allow businesses to operate more efficiently.
In response to concerns about working with the current Republican majority in congress, DeJear believed she could still make progress on her core issues. She believed that most of the legislators in both the house and senate shared her values and priorities, as evidenced by the unanimous approval of Iowa’s redistricted map, which she believed represented a fair division of the state. She also saw congress’ decision not to act on a bill providing vouchers for private school students as encouraging, as it could allow for a broader discussion of meeting all students educational needs later.
