Meet the two candidates running for Iowa House District 28 in West Des Moines

Two candidates are competing for Iowa House District 28, which represents areas of Dallas County including southwestern West Des Moines, Adel and Van Meter.

Republican incumbent David Young faces a challenge from Democrat Laura Snider.

The Des Moines Register asked each candidate to respond to questions on why they're running and the issues their district is facing. Their answers may be lightly edited for clarity or length.

Learn More: Your Iowa Voter Guide 2024

Who is David Young (incumbent)?

Age: 56

Party: Republican

Where did you grow up: Van Meter and Johnston

Current town of residence: Van Meter

Education: Bachelor of Arts in English — Drake University — 1991

Occupation: Iowa State representative and practitioner in residence at The Institute for Public Democracy at Drake University

Political experience and civic activities:  U.S. representative — Iowa's 3rd District (2015-2019); Iowa State representative — District 28 (2023-2025)

Who is Laura Snider?

Age: 39

Party: Democrat

Where did you grow up: Topeka, Kansas

Current town of residence: West Des Moines

Education: I graduated from Washburn University with a bachelor's in arts and sciences in 2006 and moved to Iowa for law school. I graduated from Drake University School of Law in 2009.

Occupation: Prosecutor

Political experience and civic activities: I have never been involved in politics before.

What would be your top issue should you be elected?

Young: Property tax relief needs to be further addressed along with ensuring the transparency of the uses of property taxes. Iowans are rightly concerned over the exponential rise and unpredictability of their property tax bill. Also, after passing into law an increase in the starting teacher salary and raising pay for paraprofessionals, we must continue working on teacher pay by allocating additional dollars to help with compaction issues, as well as raising pay for veteran teachers doing great work for our students.

Snider: Reproductive freedom.

What policies would you support to improve Iowa’s education system?

Young: Raising veteran teacher pay is a priority deserving attention and resolution. Providing all teachers with the tools they need to handle disruptive students and protect themselves against violent students needs addressed. Teachers I talk to speak to the increase in behavioral issues they're witnessing in the classroom. Also, continuing work to ensure schools focus on teaching the basics — math, science, reading, history, and logic skills — is paramount to help ensure students have the tools they need for future success.

Snider: We need to fully fund our schools, repeal vouchers so public funds are staying in public schools, and raise teacher pay. It is important that we start listening to our educators, administrators, and school employees so that we can provide them the things that they need to support our children.

What do you think Iowa’s tax policy should be? Do you believe the state’s priority should be on lowering rates or spending on services for Iowans?

Young: I supported a flat income tax of 3.8% for all Iowans while ensuring retirement income is not taxed in Iowa. We’ve developed responsible budgeting principles allowing us to balance our budgets while keeping taxes low, and investing record amounts of funding for education, mental health, public safety, broadband, and other priorities for Iowans. By being responsible with the state budget — our taxpayer dollars — and promoting economic growth, we'll continue to keep taxes low and fund the services Iowans need and expect.

Snider: As with most things, the answer is somewhere in the middle. Many Iowans are working full-time jobs and still struggling to make ends meet. The cost of everything is rising and wages remain stagnant.

What policies would you support to improve school safety in Iowa?

Young: This past session we passed legislation to lower emergency response times to schools and invest in school safety infrastructure. I led the effort into law to empower a task force to determine what the gold standard for a school safety building code should be. We then need to prioritize investing to ensure schools reach this gold standard in helping to keep children and school personnel safe. We must continue addressing youth mental health by ensuring quality access to care and empowering parents with tools to approve and monitor the social media usage of their children.

Snider: We need to provide a robust mental health system for our children and their families. Families are struggling to get the care and support that they need to lead healthy, safe lives. We cannot continue to ignore the mental health crisis in this state. We do not have enough beds to treat the severely mentally ill. We do not have enough mental health professionals to provide the treatment. Without properly addressing the mental health crisis in this state, we are all less safe.

Iowa’s six-week “fetal heartbeat” abortion ban is now in effect. What next steps do you believe the Iowa Legislature should take when it comes to abortion?

Young: Promoting life and focusing on policies to support strong and healthy families is important to me. This is increasingly vital in the cases of unplanned pregnancies or parents struggling with fertility. We need to review and improve our foster care and adoption systems, increase access to quality maternal health care, provide financial and educational support for new parents, and protect access to IVF treatments.

Snider: We need to repeal the ban, put medical decisions back in the hands of the doctors and patients, and keep the government out of our doctor's offices. Iowa has the fewest number of doctors per capita, creating maternity deserts in many communities. This legislation will only lead to fewer doctors and less safe conditions for pregnant women. Medical decisions should remain between doctors and their patients. The government does not belong in their discussions.

F. Amanda Tugade covers social justice issues for the Des Moines Register. Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @writefelissa.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Meet the candidates running for Iowa House District 28