Iowa House District 91 Candidate Mark Divitt says he’d require police departments and courts to publish traffic stops, arrests and sentences by race

Democrat Mark Divitt, who is running for Iowa House District 91 in the Iowa City area, responded to Black Iowa News’ 2026 Candidate Questionnaire. Here are his unedited responses.

BLACK IOWA NEWS: Black Iowans face challenges involving household income, homeownership, access to capital and business development. What specific policies would you support to expand economic opportunity, increase homeownership and help Black-owned businesses grow and succeed in Iowa?

Divitt: Ask anybody who’s bought a house how they came up with the down payment. A lot of them will say a parent helped. That’s how wealth moves in Iowa, one kitchen-table loan at a time, and a family that never had it to pass on starts every generation behind. About one in four Black households in Iowa owns its home. For white households, it’s three in four.

So I’d start with the down payment. State help for first-time buyers goes straight at the thing that keeps most working families renting. In towns growing as fast as Tiffin and Swisher, I’d also push for homes a nurse or a young couple can afford, and I’d stand up to speculators who treat a house as an investment product instead of somebody’s home.

A small business hits the same wall: no family money, no bank loan. Community lenders know which of their neighbors are good for it. I’d put state dollars behind them, and make state contracts something a five-person shop can bid on.

And I’d raise the minimum wage. It has sat at $7.25 for more than a decade. Johnson County raised its own in 2015, and the legislature took it back.

BLACK IOWA NEWS: Black Iowans experience disparities in maternal health, chronic disease and access to affordable, quality health care. What specific actions would you take to address these disparities, improve health outcomes and ensure Black Iowans have access to the care they need?

Divitt: A woman who gives birth on Medicaid in Iowa now keeps that coverage for a full year. The legislature got that right in 2024. The same law cut the income limit from 375 percent of poverty to 215 percent, and the state itself expected about one in six of those mothers to lose coverage. I’d put the limit back. Nobody should lose her doctor because she got a raise.

That year of coverage matters most for Black mothers, who nationally die from pregnancy-related causes at about three times the rate of white mothers. Many of those deaths come after the baby is already home.

The new Medicaid work requirements worry me for the same reason. A parent who loses insurance over a missed form is still sick the next morning.

Then there’s the water. Iowa has the second-highest cancer rate in the country, and it’s still climbing. I’d fund the monitoring that tells your family what’s coming out of the tap. And I’d make insurers put a real doctor, not an algorithm, behind every denial. When people appeal those denials, about seven in ten get overturned.

BLACK IOWA NEWS: Educational achievement, school funding, access to higher education and the teaching of Black history remain important issues. What policies would you support to improve educational outcomes for Black students, ensure equitable opportunities and prepare young Black Iowans for successful careers and futures in Iowa?

Divitt: In 1868 the Iowa Supreme Court ordered our schools desegregated — eighty-six years before Brown v. Board of Education. I’d like every kid in Iowa to know that. They should learn the rest of Black Iowa history too, including the chapters that are hard to read. A state that got it right first has nothing to gain by teaching only the “sanitized” parts.  The truth has its own power.

I believe in public schools, full stop. Iowa now sends more than eight thousand dollars a student to private schools, with no income limit, while public schools got a 2 percent increase this year and prices rose faster than that. I’d fund the public schools first. Every kid in Iowa was promised one.

Where we’ve actually slipped is early reading and math. Seventy percent of our fourth graders aren’t proficient readers. I’d pay for the math help Iowa’s own Department of Education says we need, put real support behind early reading, and expand childcare, because a four-year-old in a good program walks into kindergarten ready.

After graduation, a good career doesn’t always start with a four-year degree. I’d grow apprenticeships and community college programs in the trades, with local-hire rules so those jobs stay here.

BLACK IOWA NEWS: Issues surrounding discrimination, voting rights, policing and criminal justice continue to affect Black communities. What specific actions would you take to protect civil rights, address racial disparities in the justice system and ensure Black Iowans are treated fairly by government institutions?

Divitt: Iowa used to lead on civil rights. In 2025 we became the first state to take a protected class out of our own civil rights law. SF 418 passed the House 60 to 36, and my opponent voted for it. When a state takes protections away from one group, everybody should pay attention. I’ll work to restore them.

Voting got harder, too. In 2021 Iowa cut early voting from 29 days to 20. If you work double shifts or take care of a parent, those nine days mattered. I’d bring them back.

One number stays with me. Black Iowans are about 4 percent of the state and, in a 2021 national analysis, about a quarter of the people in our prisons. You can’t fix what you don’t measure. I’d require police departments and courts to publish stops, arrests and sentences by race, so we can see where the gap opens.

When a bill touches Black, Latino, Indigenous or Asian Iowans, the people it touches should read it first. That’s why I want to help build a new Iowa Diversity Coalition.

BLACK IOWA NEWS: Why should Black Iowans entrust you with their vote? (What in your record demonstrates that you understand the challenges facing Black communities and will take specific actions to improve their lives?)

Divitt: I’m not going to pretend I’ve spent my life working in Black communities. I’m a retired grandfather of six, and this year most of my work has been in Iowa County and northern Johnson County, organizing neighbors against a power plant. That fight taught me something. A company with lawyers and lobbyists gets heard in Des Moines. Neighbors get heard when they show up together as a community and unite their voices.

So that’s what I want to help build: a new Iowa Diversity Coalition that brings Black, Hispanic and Latino, Indigenous and Asian Iowans together. Community leaders, pastors, business owners, students. Its members would meet regularly, read bills before they move, and have a say before the bills are written. I’ll bring them to the Capitol to testify, and I’ll carry what they tell me onto the House floor. One voice is easy to ignore. Four communities speaking together (and the votes they bring) are a lot harder to ignore.

When Iowa took a protected class out of its civil rights law, I called it a step backward, in public. You’ll always know where I stand.

Iowa led the country on fairness in 1868.  Let’s renew that spirit here in Iowa in 2026.