Western Iowa is a Republican stronghold. There’s only one Democrat representing southwest Iowa in the state Legislature.
Josh Turek won House District 20 by only six votes in 2022. The district includes a portion of Council Bluffs and Carter Lake in Pottawattamie County. Turek grew up in Council Bluffs.
The 45-year-old former Paralympian, who won two gold medals in wheelchair basketball, faces a challenge from political newcomer, Marine veteran and industrial engine service technician, James Wassell.
Wassell said he joined the race because young people need a voice in society. The Maryland native is 26-years-old and the father of two young children. He moved to Council Bluffs two-and-a-half years ago to be near his wife's family.
IPR News contacted candidates in some key Statehouse races to ask them about their positions on important issues. Here is what Turek and Wassell had to say. Their answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Jump to a specific topic:
- Top legislative priority
- Eliminating the income tax
- Abortion rights
- Fertility treatments and contraception
- Education Savings Accounts (ESAs)
- Growing the state's workforce
What is the most important thing the Legislature should do in the next session?
Turek: I think that in the Legislature, we need to spend more time focusing on the issues that actually apply to the middle class, to the average worker, to the average voter, to those that are most vulnerable, making sure that kids and individuals with disabilities and the elderly have costs that are going down as opposed to just culture war issues that aren't applying to many people at all.
Wassell: I think the one thing that appeals to every voter is affordable energy and affordable cost of living. I know it doesn't necessarily affect everyone, but being a single-income household, where I'm providing for the family, I know a lot of younger families who are trying to start and get off their feet, having one month of really hot weather or really cold weather can severely impact your spending because you have to compensate for the cost of energy going up.
I know grocery prices are a really hard issue for a lot of people who are young and trying to start families; just depending on the fluctuation of the market, that can really throw off your monthly budget. So, I think focusing on making it easier for our energy companies to provide affordable energy and for our supermarkets and grocery stores to have competition so we can bring down those prices.
Gov. Kim Reynolds has said it is her goal to eliminate the income tax in Iowa by the end of her current term. Do you support eliminating the income tax?
Wassell: I'm very in favor of eliminating the income tax. I go back to when this country was founded. We were sick and tired of the British taxing us on our tea. People were coming over here to build a new life. Taxation is a burden on families trying to start lives because you're not making much, and then you have to give that income to the government. And the government is going to spend it, and they don't always benefit you in the ways they spend it.
As far as how the state is going to survive by cutting taxes, I think really you have to start bringing people in from other states, and I think we're starting to see that in Council Bluffs. I mean, the property market out here is very tight. I think part of the reason is because we are making the state more attractive for people from other states who are over-regulated. When I was out in California and I was engaged, my wife and I were trying to decide where we would end up. Her whole family is from Council Bluffs, and I wasn't ever too big of a fan of the Midwest until I moved out here. So, I was kind of looking all around the rest of the country, and then I saw Iowa has a relatively low income tax, and the property tax is ok. Those are things that attract people from other states to move into this state.
So, cutting tax while, in the short term, may impact the money the government has to spend over the long term, you're just going to bring more people into the state because it's going to be more affordable, so what ends up happening is the state's going to make up that revenue with an increased population.
Turek: The states that have been able to, let's say, effectively do something like eliminating the income tax, have a huge influx of tourism dollars. I'm thinking of Nevada, amongst others. Texas and Florida, for example, see a huge influx of tourism dollars. The reality is nobody likes to pay taxes, but we all like to have functioning schools and roads, and we like to have safety and police department and fire department. And on top of that, ultimately, you're going to have to shift the burden either to more property taxes or to a greater amount of sales tax, which is the most regressive form of taxation.
And so, I would say, no — I am for the richest and for the large corporations paying their fair share and not shifting more of a tax burden to more working-class families and middle-class folks.
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?
Turek: I think we should go back to the standard that we had before. I was a fan of the viability standard.
Wassell: Well, being Catholic, I'm very pro-life. It kind of feels like the Democratic Party uses abortion kind of just to corral voters. It's been in politics since before I was born. Roe v. Wade happened back in the 70s. I remember growing up in Maryland, and we would go down to D.C. every year to do the March for Life. And I think the question that needs to be asked is, “What are we going to do for these women who are in a very tough position in their life?”
Because when it comes to abortion, pregnancy is not an accident, no matter what way it happens; it requires both a man and a woman. There will be situations where there was a horrible act, like an incident with a man who had bad intentions and then raped a woman. That's horrible. So, there needs to be a healing process. The same thing with incest. And I don't think the healing process starts with, "Well, we're just gonna get rid of the child. We're gonna rip it out of the womb."
Right now, the abortion restrictions in Iowa are six weeks, and they do have exceptions for the life of the mother or rape or incest, meaning that if there was any one of those three conditions, it still technically would be legally permissible, and I think that's perfectly acceptable.
I'm not saying women don't have the right to choose whether they're pregnant or not. I'm just saying that if you're not in one of those extreme circumstances, that decision should be made before the pregnancy.
My wife and I have two children, and it would have been unthinkable for us to say, like, halfway through a pregnancy, "Hey, this isn't going to work out. Whether we're not going to be able to afford it or not, and we need to kill the child that we just created." I think what really needs to happen is you need to start enabling these pregnancy centers and these clinics to provide help, care and counseling for these women who are struggling.
I think the process of healing and the process of growing from that comes from community. It needs to start with your neighbors. It needs to start with your local pregnancy center. And people really need to come together around this.
What, if anything, does the Legislature need to do to ensure access to fertility treatments or contraception?
Wassell: I believe, honestly, most of that access is already there if you look. When I was in the public school system, we had these health classes, and a lot of those methods of contraception were on display in the class and were readily available. You can go down to most pharmacies and get that stuff over the counter.
I think what really needs to happen is we need to start having healthier discussions about the sexual act. We need to start teaching our kids of the powerful bond that happens during it, and not just trivializing sex like it's something you do to relieve stress. I think we need to stop trivializing it because that's where you get these unhealthy tendencies of, you know, individuals that do go out and commit horrible acts like rape and stuff. You want to start talking about how you have people in society who are able to have such evil and horrible desires that they go out, and they do these things.
I think the root of the problem is in our school system [is] we really just trivialize sex, and we don't show the beauty of both the man and the woman and their ability to come together and create life. I think what really needs to start happening is we need to start impressing on our kids the importance of the sexual relationship between man and woman and the importance of cultivating healthy relationships.
Turek: Well, I think that birth control, at this point — you should be able to get that just over the counter. You should be able to get that like Advil. And look, the truth is, you cannot have your cake and eat it too. You cannot sit here and say that you are pro-life and then you're going to defund the public schools, and you're not going to provide Medicaid, or you're not going to provide health care, and on and on and on. We've got to make sure that these kids are taken care of.
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 ESAs?
Turek: They shouldn’t exist to begin with. Education used to be the pride and joy of all Iowans. The pride and joy I felt when I was in first grade was that we were number one in public education out of every single state. And now we've seen a precipitous drop.
We now spend $1,300 less than the national average per pupil on our public schools. It is disgraceful. I have nothing against private schools. I went to private school for two years myself. But the policies that we currently have in place, especially the fact that there is nothing to prevent discrimination for individuals with disabilities or IEPs or services, you can even discriminate based on creed. I am fundamentally against the system that we have in place.
Public money for public schools.
Wassell: I'm not too familiar with the issue. I'm in favor of the Education Savings Accounts. As far as what the state is going to spend on them, I would potentially be in favor of a cap.
I was public schooled. My parents tried to homeschool me — they couldn't really handle it. I was a bit of a troubled child, and I got a lot out of the public education system. I do believe, though, that we are sort of running into a problem with public education, where we just keep throwing money at it, and the quality of education isn't necessarily improving with the money that's getting thrown at it.
If you have children, parents should be able to choose the type of education those children are going to receive because they know better than the teachers what is best for the child. When I graduated high school, the number of people I knew from my class that went into early childhood education, got their four-year degree and then came out as like a 21 or 22-year-old and went back into teaching public high school or middle school or early childhood education — it was ridiculous.
You want good teachers, and I believe to get good teachers, you need someone with life experience. Some of my favorite teachers from high school were the ones that were old. They were weathered. You saw they had a lot of years on them and they had seen a lot in life, and they were able to impart those life lessons on us and make a deep and lasting impact. The ones that, you know, you didn't necessarily vibe with as much were usually the ones that were just right out of college. They were overwhelmed, and they were stressed, mainly because they hadn't experienced enough of the world; they hadn't gone through a lot of struggle and trials.
I haven't necessarily made up my mind yet on whether we should be capping the education savings that the state's going to contribute to for parents who either want to homeschool their kids or send their kids to private school. But I do believe, at the moment, that it is healthy. It is healthy that the state is allowing this money to go to the parents’ discretion for their child because I don't believe the public education system in its current state is serving every child a good education.
Should the Legislature have a role in making sure private schools that get this state funding don’t rapidly raise tuition rates?
Wassell: I don't believe the Legislature will need to get involved. The purpose of funding following students is to allow parents, especially low-income families, greater freedom in choosing their child's education. It's important to remember that there are many parents who choose to homeschool their children due to a lack of confidence in public education. My wife and her siblings were homeschooled, and we will be homeschooling our children for at least elementary and middle school.
It would be completely idiotic for private schools to rapidly raise tuition from both a business and educational standpoint because it would destroy their enrollment. If parents perceive their child's school is price gouging them, they will move their child to a more affordable school or resort to homeschooling or public education. Private schools will most likely keep their tuition the same or lower it because this will expand their tuition and help them grow.
It is important to remember funding that follows the student gives parents control over their tax dollars. Tuition following students will benefit public, private and homeschooling equally because public schools will not have to worry about overcrowding or large class sizes. Private schools will be able to expand their enrollment and lower tuition rates. Parents who homeschool will be able to afford materials and give their children a better education.
Turek: Yes, of course. We need discrimination policies in place. We need to make sure that they're not egregiously taking advantage of students and raising those prices. We need to make sure that the funding can be audited, just like every other public school. So many things that need to be done.
What more should the Legislature be doing to grow and improve the state’s workforce?
Wassell: I think you really have to start looking at some of the regulations that are currently in place that are impacting smaller businesses. You see, the big corporations usually have no problem, for whatever reason, moving into the state and implanting themselves and hiring people.
I really think what we need to do is start looking at regulations and taxes that smaller businesses have to follow and start looking at what can be adjusted or cut. We need people to be empowered to take risks in life and be able to see an issue in their community or see something that's not available in their community and have the courage to step up and be like, “Hey, I can fill that gap,” whether it's creating a nonprofit or a small business.
The main reason I'm running is young people are kind of being held in a chokehold right now and not necessarily being allowed to take the same risks that our grandparents were able to take when they were growing up. Now, obviously, some of the risks back then were a little bit extreme. But I do think we need to start getting back to the point where young people can immediately get out of high school and start taking on life and not being afraid to fail, not being afraid to take risks, and not having the government, you know, always willing to step in.
So yeah, my campaign mainly is about bringing back to young people that we're going to make it possible for you to take these risks, and you're going to see more money in your paychecks and the government is not going to be so burdensome on your way of life.
Turek: There are many things that we need to do. We need to create a competitive environment. Over the last 100 years, Iowa has been the second-slowest-growing state in the entire union. We are currently keeping our college graduates at the lowest rate of any of the Midwest areas. We're seeing our rural communities continue to decline in population.
We need to create an environment — and that means also culturally and socially, and the laws that we put in place — that is going to be a friendly environment where people want to live and grow and make their families. One of the big issues, at least in my community, is affordable housing. We have a 0.9% rent vacancy rate. You have to have a place where people, say, "Because of the health care, because of the public schools, because of the business environment, this is where I want to live and grow and make my family."
