Why I’m Backing Zach Wahls for US Senate

Iowa needs to be a community of opportunity. I spent a decade as mayor of Waterloo, working every day to make sure the opportunities this state promises actually reach the people who need them most. And it is why I am proud to endorse Zach Wahls for the U.S. Senate.

I’ve watched Zach work. I’ve seen what he fights for and, just as importantly, what he refuses to back down from. Iowa needs that kind of fighter in Washington right now.

Here in Waterloo, we know what it means to be overlooked. For decades, there were parts of our city that hadn’t seen a new house built in over 80 years. People needed out for investment, for access to capital, for somebody in power to look them in the eye and say: your neighborhood matters. Too often, those cries fell on deaf ears.

That’s not just a Waterloo story. That is the story of Black Iowa. It is the story of small towns across this state watching plants close and young people leave. It is the story of families choosing between filling a prescription and filling the refrigerator. It is the story of communities that have been told, quietly and not so quietly, that Washington was not built with them in mind.

Zach Wahls is fighting to change that story.

In the Iowa Senate, Zach has gone to bat for working families on housing, on health care, on making sure the powerful don’t rig the system against the rest of us. He understands that economic development is about making sure the benefits of growth reach the people who have been left out the longest. He’s not interested in empty gestures. He rolls up his sleeves.

What I want from a United States Senator is someone with the accountability of a local leader. Someone who knows the difference between a press release and real progress. Someone who understands that behind every policy debate is a family trying to make ends meet, a small business owner trying to keep the lights on, or a community asking simply to be seen.

Zach Wahls is that person.

I’ve spent my career trying to erase the lines of disinvestment that divide our communities — lines drawn by neglect, by indifference, and sometimes by design. We need a senator who will take that same fight to Washington. A fighter for Black Iowa. A fighter for rural Iowa. A fighter for every community that has been told to wait its turn long enough.

The time for waiting is over. I’m with Zach Wahls, and I hope you will be too.

Wahls and Josh Turek are the Democratic contenders for the U.S. Senate in the Primary held on June 2. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The general election will be held on Nov. 3.

Read more at Ballotpedia.

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Zach Wahls is a two-term Iowa senator and a sixth-generation Iowan. He is married to his wife, Chloe and has a two-year-old son, Elijah.