Deidre DeJear (D)
Kim Reynolds (R)
Wages
| DeJear’s economic plan includes ensuring sustainable and living wages for all Iowa families and closing the gender wage gap. She has highlighted how the general wage gap has more negatively affected women of color. She recommends raising the minimum wage locally, rather than by the state government. [1] | Reynolds opposes raising the minimum wage at any level of government. She has endorsed prior efforts restrict local actions to improve minimum wage rates. In 2020 Reynolds denied a three percent raise for state employees after the pandemic. Instead, Reynolds has stated that wages should be “market-driven.” [2] |
Paid Time Off & Sick Leave
| DeJear has applauded federal efforts to create paid leave for families. [3] | Reynolds bashed efforts by the Biden Administration to support families with new paid leave options. [4] |
Helping Essential Workers
| During the pandemic, DeJear was active in helping small businesses get access to PPP loans and voiced opposition to Reynold’s ban on mask mandates. DeJear also criticized a Republican bill shortening unemployment benefits as well as Reynolds’ decision to return $95 million in covid relief funding for schools while using $3.7 million to advertise the state. Instead, she has called for affordable childcare, access to housing, and adult skills training. Additionally, DeJear’s platform includes expanding Iowa’s broadband capacity as well as tech-driven jobs. [5] | Throughout the pandemic, Reynolds repeatedly misused COVID-19 relief funding. In 2020 she had to return $21 million in misspent federal pandemic aid. Then, in 2022, Iowa’s state auditor called on her to return nearly $450,000 in federal COVID relief funds she had used to pay for her office staff. |
| In 2020, Reynolds met with meatpacking companies including Tyson, then refused to close meatpacking and processing plants despite mass COVID-19 outbreaks. She said that keeping the food supply chain moving was most important, with worker safety a lesser concern. | |
| Even during the height of the pandemic, Reynolds began lifting protective measures from workplaces and schools. Her actions to slow down vaccine access in the state placed Iowa last in the country in vaccine first-dose distribution. She protected companies over workers and patients by signing a bill providing businesses and health care providers COVID-19 liability protections. [6] | |
| Under Reynolds, grocery workers were not prioritized as essential workers in despite concerns voiced by grocery store owners and workers. [7] |
Health Care
| DeJear’s platform includes increasing access to affordable health care and mental health care as well as ensuring rural communities are adequately served. She names health care as one of her top priorities. [8] | Reynolds has consistently taken actions to reduce Iowans’ access to equitable, high-quality health care coverage. In 2018, she signed legislation allowing unregulated insurance that need not cover pre-existing conditions. A year earlier, the federal government rejected her administrations’ waiver plan to offer only individual coverage through a single, high-deductible plan. |
| In 2017, Reynolds endorsed repealing the Affordable Care Act, yet offered no alternative replacement plan. The same year, Reynolds also defended the state’s privatized Medicaid program, which the state auditor found to have illegally denied services or care to program recipients. [9] |
Unions & Labor
| DeJear has called for removing barriers to workers forming and maintaining unions in their workplaces. She also called for restoring collective bargaining rights for teachers, and has stated her support for UAW workers at John Deere, highlighting their 30-day strike for fair wages and retirement benefits. [10] | Reynolds praised the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling banning collective bargaining for public employees’ wages and claimed it was “long overdue.” |
| Additionally, Reynolds has used a technical loophole in state law to keep Iowa’s Public Employment Relations Board controlled solely by two Republican members. [11] |
Economic Insecurity & Inflation
| DeJear said that amidst rising gas and grocery prices, she would work to ensure secure and affordable housing. DeJear also highlighted that Reynolds was sitting on a $2 billion surplus that should and could be used to provide Iowans relief. [12] | Reynolds has blamed President Biden and congressional Democrats for inflation but has refused to take actions like suspending the state’s gas tax. [13] |
CHECK THE FACTS:
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DeJear for Iowa, accessed 4/20/2022; Twitter, @DeidreDeJear, 5/20/2019; Twitter, @DeidreDeJear, 10/21/2021; Iowa Capital Dispatch, 8/24/2021.
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Iowa Starting Line, 7/13/2021; Bleeding Heartland, 3/30/2017; Bleeding Heartland, 12/15/2020.
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Twitter, @DeidreDeJear, 10/12/2021; AFL-CIO, 3/11/2021; Twitter, @DeidreDeJear, 11/19/2021.
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Iowa Starting Line, 10/12/2021; AFL-CIO, 3/11/2021; Vox, 10/28/2021.
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Our Quad Cities, 9/13/2021; Twitter, @DeidreDeJear, 9/10/2021; Twitter, @DeidreDeJear, 3/23/2022; DeJear for Iowa, accessed 4/23/2022.
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Iowa Capital Dispatch, 12/14/2020; PBS, 3/1/2022; The Gazette, 6/9/2021; KGAN, 4/20/2020; Iowa Starting Line, 4/14/2020; The Gazette, 6/9/2021; KCCI, 2/4/2022; WHO, 10/20/2021; Patch, 2/8/2021; KCCI, 2/17/2021; KWWL, 10/29/2021; Iowa State Daily, 5/22/2021; Iowa Public Radio, 1/9/2022; Iowa Legislature, SF 2338, 6/18/2020; Iowa Starting Line, 10/12/2021; AFL-CIO, 3/11/2021; U.S. Treasury, accessed 4/23/2022; NCSL, accessed 4/23/2022; The Daily Iowan, 3/2/2022; Vox, 10/28/2021.
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DeJear for Iowa, accessed 4/20/2022; KIMT, 4/19/2022; Twitter, @DeidreDeJear, 4/16/2022.
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Iowa Public Radio, 4/2/2018; New York Times, 10/23/2017; Iowa Starting Line, 9/20/2017; Des Moines Register, 11/28/2017; Des Moines Register, 7/18/2017; Des Moines Register, 7/26/2021.
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Twitter, @DeidreDeJear, 1/22/2022; Twitter, @DeidreDeJear, 1/22/2022; Twitter, @DeidreDeJear, 10/25/2021; Twitter, @DeidreDeJear, 11/18/2021.
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Des Moines Register, 5/17/2019; The Gazette, 2/17/2017; Bleeding Heartland, 1/4/2022.
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Twitter, @KimReynoldsIA, 3/2/2022; Quad-City Times, 3/16/2022; CBS News, 3/17/2022; KHOU, 1/27/2021.