ISSUES
The Iowa We Inherit. The Iowa We Leave to Our Kids.
• IOWA FIRST POLICIES
Some Lines Are Worth Drawing.
Zach is clear about where he stands. He will:
- Protect life before birth and work to improve the health of Iowa families after birth.
- End state benefits for illegal immigrants.
- Put Iowans first for jobs in state government and Iowa’s public universities.
- Defend Second Amendment rights.
- Lower the tax burden on Iowa families.
- Keep partisan political advocacy out of Iowa classrooms.
Iowa government should serve Iowans, first and always.
Issues
Confront Iowa’s Cancer Crisis
Iowa needs answers. And we can’t wait on Washington to find them.
Zach has made confronting Iowa’s cancer rates a central priority.
His plan includes:
- Independent state-level safety testing of products used in Iowa.
- Directing more University of Iowa and Iowa State research toward Iowa’s cancer crisis.
- Investigating environmental, agricultural, and water-quality factors.
- Strengthening prevention and early detection.
- Connecting cancer research with Iowa’s water, food, and agricultural policies.
The goal is measurable: move Iowa into the bottom half of states for cancer diagnoses within four years.
Clean Water
Clean water should be something every Iowan can count on.
Iowa does not have to choose between clean water and strong agriculture.
Zach’s plan is to work with farmers, not against them, and invest in proven solutions that reduce runoff while keeping family farms economically strong.
That includes:
- Funding Iowa I-WILL and directing funds toward the water quality crisis.
- Stronger incentives for cover crops, buffer strips, and other proven conservation practices.
- Focusing resources where runoff and contamination are most serious.
- Supporting practices that improve both soil and water.
- Putting Iowa’s universities and state resources to work solving Iowa’s water problems.
Farmers should not carry this burden alone. Clean water is a shared responsibility.
Make Iowa More Affordable
A good life in Iowa should still be attainable.
Owning a home, raising a family, and building wealth should not keep getting harder.
Zach will focus on:
- Lowering the tax burden on Iowa families.
- Reducing property taxes, with the long-term goal of eliminating them for single-family primary homes
- Raising the tax burden on out-of-state institutional investors instead of Iowa families.
- Banning Wall Street hedge funds from buying Iowa single-family homes.
- Expanding opportunities for homeownership.
- Supporting local food and food-freedom policies that create new opportunities for Iowa farmers.
Affordability is not just about what things cost. It is also about who owns the homes, farms, businesses, and land that make up Iowa.
Save the Family Farm
Keep Iowa land in Iowa hands.
The family farm is not just part of Iowa’s past. It has to be part of Iowa’s future.
Zach’s plan includes:
- Cracking down on illegal foreign ownership of Iowa farmland.
- Selling illegally owned land back to young Iowa families and veterans where legally permitted.
- Raising property taxes on certain institutional investors while lowering the burden on Iowa family farms.
- Pursuing antitrust action against agricultural monopolies.
- Protecting farmers’ right to repair.
- Stopping eminent domain from being used for private corporate gain.
- Creating low-interest financing and mentorship pathways for young farmers and veterans.
- Directing more Iowa research toward the problems facing Iowa agriculture.
The goal is to reverse the decline in family farms and create 10,000 new family farms in four years.
Make Iowa Education #1 Again
Iowa schools should be built around learning, not bureaucracy.
Zach wants Iowa’s public schools competing with the best schools in the country.
His plan includes:
- Making the governor’s office the strongest advocate for public-school students.
- Creating innovation zones that give superintendents, principals, and teachers more freedom to try what works.
- Dramatically reducing reliance on standardized testing.
- Moving toward mastery-based learning.
- Taking disciplinary action when teachers use the classroom for partisan political advocacy instead of teaching the curriculum.
- Providing non-punitive off-ramps for students needing behavioral support.
- Expanding opportunities for Iowa students at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University.
The goal: put Iowa education back in the top five nationally.
Keep Iowa’s Kids in Iowa
Give the next generation a reason to stay.
Young Iowans should not have to leave the state to find opportunity.
Zach wants Iowa to be a place where young people can:
- Buy their first home.
- Find meaningful work.
- Start a business.
- Buy land and begin farming.
- Raise a family.
- Attend strong schools.
- Build a career.
- Come home after college or time away.
His plan includes tax rebates that can help young Iowans who stay or return with a home down payment.
But keeping young people here requires more than one program. Fix the fundamentals: water, health, schools, farming, housing, and economic opportunity.
