DES MOINES, Iowa — Three candidates are running for Iowa House District 35, which includes the northern and western parts of Des Moines.
Republican Angela Kay Schreader (AKS) and Libertarian David G. Green (DGG) are challenging Democratic incumbent Sean Bagniewski (SB) for the seat. The two will face a tough battle as Rep. Bagniewski won his race two years ago with over 70% of the vote.
Local 5 interviewed the three candidates on their background, their reason for running and their priorities.
Tell me about your background.
AKS: My profession is senior construction project manager and I've been doing that for 15 years. Before that, I worked in the architecture side of things. I was born and raised in Minnesota. I moved here about six and a half years ago.
SB: I serve on a lot of the budget committees, including appropriations and commerce. I had a pretty standard freshman experience. We do have decreased numbers on the House Democratic side. So it was a little bit more partisan, a little bit more political than I was hoping for, but I’m hoping to have a bipartisan, more compromise-focused second term.
DGG: I guess I've always been a Libertarian. I got involved with the party fairly heavily in 2020. I served for four years on the state board. I was part of the committee that helped the Libertarian Party of Iowa gain major party status in 2022.
Why did you decide to run for office now?
AKS: When I started voting here, I noticed that we didn't have very many conservative choices. There wasn't somebody running against a Democrat. I thought, ‘well, I ought to have a choice, and so should other people.’
SB: Iowa is important to me. We just welcomed a baby last year. I've got an 8-year-old, and I want Iowa to be the Iowa that I was successful in. I started out in a trailer park with a single mother from Wisconsin. We moved here and Iowa was where we found the American dream. One of my parents put themselves through college. They had careers here. I was able to put myself through law school. I don't feel that Iowa's in that shape anymore, unfortunately.
DGG: Stepping away from my position on the board freed up some time. Also, my kids are adults now, and so I don't have to spend a lot of time parenting.
What are your priorities day one if you’re elected?
AKS: The biggest thing I really want to start working on is the mental health part of the initiative that Gov. Reynolds signed into law last year. They started putting money away, and they started merging the two departments. I want that mental health and addiction portion to be a priority. If it is not addressed the right way, it's just going to be a revolving door of a person going through the system and not getting any help.
SB: I want to get rid of vouchers. They are wildly unpopular in the state of Iowa. If we can't get rid of vouchers, more accountability for vouchers. I would like to look at more funding for the area education agencies. They are going to get even more defunded next July. I also want to tackle energy costs. WalletHub, which is a national, bipartisan ranking agency, looked at energy costs in the state of Iowa. We are the third highest for consumer energy costs in the nation. And I want to start bringing that down.
DGG: The state of Iowa was awarded tens of millions of dollars to address the opioid crisis. However, for the past two years, the legislature has done nothing with that money. It probably will end up not getting used to what it was intended for. Since this money has been awarded, I lost a good friend to opioid addiction. Would my friend and the children of my friends still be alive if the legislature had addressed that? Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't, but we'll never know.
How do you plan on representing the people of Des Moines?
AKS: Part of the mental health issue and addiction issue is also the homeless issue. Those people do not fit into society, and so they go out on the streets. If we get them help and get them treated correctly, get them on the right medications, get them services to get them through. I think that we can also solve a secondary problem.
SB: I was the Beaverdale Neighborhood President for quite a few years. I was the Des Moines Neighbors President as well. You're going to find me at Snookies. You're going to find me at the grocery store. My phone number is still on my website, still on every piece of campaign literature. I'm an accessible person.
DGG: The biggest thing I would want to do is to actually get it back to representing the people, everybody in the district, not just the people of the party. With the major parties, if you're elected representative, you have to follow the party line. If you don't follow the party line, the party will put somebody else in the primary against you.
Rep. Bagniewski won his seat by over 70% of the vote two years ago. How do you plan on closing that gap?
AKS: I'm talking to independents, and I think I'm talking about issues that they have. One of the issues is mental health. The secondary thing that I talk about a lot is the schools, how schools are not doing the right things for their children, whether it's public schools or private schools. I think school choice is a good thing, but I also think we need to offer more choices. We need to offer charter schools. We need to offer magnet schools.
DGG: My district is very much a vote blue, no matter who. I don't think that anybody but a Democrat has carried the majority in a while. So to unseat him, I think it's possible. With the campaign that I've run so far, I don't think it's realistic, to be perfectly honest.
Why should people vote for you versus your opponents?
AKS: I'm listening and I will listen to them. I'm not going to vote the party line like my opponent. If you look at his voting record, that's exactly what he did when the teachers got a pay raise brought up by the Republicans. He voted against it. Now I ask you, why would you vote against it?
SB: People should vote for me because I do want to reverse vouchers. I want to reverse the defunding of the area education agencies. I'm against the six week abortion ban, and I'm against the pipeline.
DGG: Whether I get elected or not, I would hope that it sends a message to the major parties that there's change on the way and that they need to reevaluate the way that they operate.