Julie Stauch (D) Enters Iowa Governor's Race

Iowa is broken..

Jun 03, 2025

Note: Laura Belin and I will be on the Iowa Farmers Union Lunch and Learn, a virtual event this Thursday, June 5, starting at 12:30 PM Central. You can sign up here to be part of their weekly lunch and learns. You don’t have to be a farmer to participate, and you don’t have to be a farmer to join the Iowa Farmers Union. I’m a proud member because of their important advocacy, and because I learn a lot from other members.

I drove to the West Des Moines Public Library yesterday to interview Julie Stauch, who has announced that she is going to run as a Democrat for Governor. Julie looked familiar, but I don’t think that we have ever spoken before. You know how it is, you go to lots of political meetings, conventions, etc., and you see familiar faces, but you don’t necessarily know everyone. Well, I don’t anyway.

I’ve lived in lots of places, but one thing that drives me nuts about Iowans is that we seldom introduce ourselves to each other. It’s sort of like if you stick out your hand to someone to shake it and introduce yourself, it’s kind of an intrusion into their space.

So I try to be good at it, but sometimes I’ve stuck out my hand, looked people in the eye, and said, “Hi, I’m Bob Leonard,” and they look at my hand, then at me, and the puzzled look on their face tells me they think I am from another planet.

But Julie saw me coming and offered her hand to me first, which is good.

Here is the audio of our meeting, followed by a transcript. I apologize for any errors in the transcript.

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So Julie, tell us a little bit about yourself, where you grew up, under what circumstances, and what got you interested in politics.

I grew up, well, I was born in Ames when my father was in college at Iowa State, but then like a lot of people, he left Iowa to go to take his job in another state, and so I went to elementary school in Geneva, New York, a year in Seville, Ohio, and then we landed in Statesville, North Carolina, where dad started his own greenhouses, and so that was when I was in the eighth grade, and I started working in his greenhouses. I've worked my whole life.

I think that's an important thing for people to know, no millionaires in the family, but a lot of what the work has been that I've done, I got my degree in elementary, oh, and then I came back to Iowa for college, okay, and I got a degree in elementary education with a minor in child development, and so met my husband there, and well, soon-to-be husband, and we dated for a couple years, and then we got married after college, and he was working for Wayne Feeds, and so we moved to Mason City, and we lived there for 11 years, and we were active in the community.

I actually opened my own business there. It was a retail needlework and custom framing shop, and got involved in the chamber, was actually hired to do work for the Convention and Visitors Bureau for the community, and Jim and I were involved in everything, our church, we were both on church boards, but we reached a point at which there weren't opportunities to grow in Mason City, given our educations, and so we decided to move to Des Moines, and part of that was I thought I wanted to go to law school, and I took the LSATs, and I could meet the standards for Drake and the University of Iowa, but so if I came to Des Moines, I could pick Drake as a school.

I then went to work in the AG's office at one point, and I decided I do not want to be a lawyer, so, but anyway, I've done all, did you see my resume? I think it was shared with you. I’ve done all kinds of things.

Yes, I saw your resume. I saw how many things that you've done. I sort of started reading it in detail, and then skipped to the end.

That's okay.

You've done a remarkable number of things, including things with respect to organizing and helping political campaigns. I don't know very many people with that breadth of experience.

Did you ever read The Tipping Point?

I read The Tipping Point.

I got my 10,000 hours plus in, Bob.

You got more than that, yeah, Malcolm Gladwell. Yes. Yes, 10,000 hours and more, so I mean, I'm being honest. I just went through it and then skipped to the end. What was the most, oh, say, significant, do you have a moment, really significant moment? Let's start with growing up.

Okay.

What made you decide?

Oh, yes, politics. Yes. You asked that question. Second grade. In second grade, I read every biography in the school and really became enamored with what democracy, as a second grader, I didn't process it this way, but I became enamored with what the different kinds of leaders who became presidents and what they could do to help people's lives and fascinated by it to the point that my mom took me to the public library because I'd already read all the books, and I was rereading at the school, and we got more biographies for me to read, and so that was when the spark was lit for me on all of this. Did I work on any campaigns? No, not until we lived in Mason City, but I've always just had this passion for democracy and what it can do to make so many people's lives better and an opportunity. I was talking with a Republican friend a year and a half ago, and I just said democracy is what made it possible for you to be the attorney you are and to have all these different life experiences you had and me to have these because if it wasn't for that, we'd be living on a farm somewhere and not going anywhere because you were supposed to do your farm work, right? And that's what you were supposed to do, but democracy changes that.

So I am a big fan of the good that can come out of democracy. Right now, there's not a whole lot of good coming out of it at the federal level or at the state level, which is why I'm now getting into this to to get involved because our state needs a problem solver and not a problem creator.

Okay, and so democracy gives all of us from whatever walk of life and public education, I would guess that you would say, to let us be what we want to be, whether it's to stay on the farm or be like the carpenter that I was trained to be. Or you're the nursery person you were trained to be.

Well, I was actually in elementary education with a minor in child development. There were no jobs when I got out.

No jobs for that, but I was just thinking following your father's footsteps.

Oh, my dad. Yes, I'm a very good gardener.

Yeah, I bet you are. Okay, and then anything in the political world that, you know, really inspired you to run for office?

Yes. Well, how I got into campaigns, I started at a local level, but I wasn't really in. And then in 1983, I voted every time, right, but I wasn't really into campaigns. 1983, it was November. I don't know what it was, but I was yelling at my TV set and like my son was a year old.

And as a mom, I stopped and said, this is not healthy behavior, nor is it good motherly behavior to be screaming at the TV set. But it was over something that the president at that time said, and I can't even tell you what he said, but I was furious. I was furious because it was not how democracy is supposed to work.

And so I decided, well, then I have to get involved. And I went out and started, you know, you had to go buy magazines to read up on the candidates. And so I bought a bunch of magazines and started reading.

And I showed up at caucus, nobody had called me. And I just showed up on my own and got involved. And that is how I got into politics.

That was that experience. And I volunteered through most of the next cycle. And then at the end of the, near the end of the campaign, the Dukakis campaign said that they would pay me for all the fieldwork I was doing during the caucus, because I was running a phone bank, running a business and running a phone bank for the campaign six nights a week for 12 solid weeks.

And so anyway, that, does that answer what you were wanting to hear?

Yeah, it sure does. Is there a mentor along the way you'd like to acknowledge?

Oh, there are so many. There are so many.

There are so many people who have been helpful. And I mean, that's the beauty of democracy. People come forward and say, you know, I, I like what you're doing, let's do it better.

So it'd be a long list. I mean, there's different things I learned from different people. Leonard Boswell, Leonard Boswell was the best retail candidate ever.

And so, you know, I'm, there are days I'm okay, I'm going to go be doing this, got to go be Leonard, you know, got to work that line. Leonard loved a long food line. He would go to where the people were picking up their trays and work his way back that way.

And, and it was, he got to have conversations with people without interrupting them when they were eating and all that kind of stuff. So Leonard was great retail. Um, Maisie Hirono. Oh, wow. She, she's amazing. I worked, I ran her first race in Hawaii.

I joked near the end, I was brought there because they needed to make change to how politics were being run there because they were, the Democrats had lost for the first time two years before. And Maisie had been running, she'd been Lieutenant Governor, was running for Governor and she lost. And, um, so they needed to make a change.

And, uh, and so that's what I did. And see, I have to watch myself because I give long answers, Bob. But I mean, like, I just, I learned different, I learned different things.

Even Mike Franken working in, in, um, Omaha, these last two, six months ago, you know, I went in 92 days, we had to build that campaign because nothing had been done beforehand because the Biden campaign wasn't approving for the guy who was the state director to actually start moving. And so he was sitting there waiting for the approval. And so then Kamala became the campaign.

And so then I got hired and I was hired to do the coordinated campaign over there. So I'm just doing, I mean, like, um, they're just, there's so much learning that goes on in campaigns. It's crazy.

And I'm sure that you bring it, this learning to your campaign. And I'm going to just say something to me, it looks like Iowa is broken. I just showed you something that on KCRG that a report ranks Iowa as the state with the worst economy. Iowa has the worst economy, according to this study. And there's some pretty bad, poor states with poor governance and we're the worst. So it was broken. How are you going to fix it?

First of all, I have to read the study to even know what they're saying. So the truth of the matter is, Bob, I think one of the biggest problems we have is that we have a governor who thinks that everything she wants is what should be done, whether or not it's for the good of the people of Iowa or the state. I don't think that way.

And so it's going to be breaking down the pieces of the problem, bringing in the experts, having conversations, having conversations with anybody who needs to be at that table and making sure that we get, um, we get to where they're build consensus and actually solve problems. Cause that's how democracy is supposed to work. So to say, I would have an answer on any of this stuff, I have some ideas, but I don't have, I can't say to you, this is a definitive answer.

If I did, I'd be lying to you.

Well, and that's why do we expect our leaders, the people we elect to know it all? I just think that that's a false expectation. But then there's the leaders that come in and say, and tell us, hey, I know it all. You just have to listen to me. And so it's a top down kind of thing, which is exactly what Reynolds did. And you're proposing a sort of a bottom up kind of thing.

Absolutely. It's the only thing that's going to work.

So it's not about you. It's about us.

Absolutely. Um, and the, the thing I would say, I got asked a question earlier today, this way, the question was, what do you think the people of Iowa want to hear from their next governor? And I said, I don't think that's the right question.

I think the question is, what do the candidates for governor need to hear from the people? That's the right question. And that's the question I'm going out and asking all over the state as a process. I'm doing a very different kind of campaign, different than anything I've ever run as a campaign manager.

And so it's going to be, it's, I think it's going to work. We tested, we did a test down in Wayne County and got very favorable responses. Um, and I feel comfortable now that going out and doing it, we can, we can have an impact with people.

So we're going to be all over the state a lot. Um, and, um, eventually we'll hit all 99 counties, but I'm really breaking it down by the community college districts because my experience in Mason City with community college is to recognize that they create a cohesion within that set of counties that there's, there becomes a lot of common ground. And, um, so I want to, you know, be mindful of, and they're a part of our state government.

So I want to be mindful of that as I'm out and around. So we'll be going to every community college district once a quarter. Um, and that's every other week on the road and doing meetings that start like this:

Hi, I'm Julie. I've applied for the job of governor and you guys are the decision makers. So I'm here to have my first interview with all of you.

And then I have a process that will follow, which is, you know, can't take the teacher out of the person, but, um, is education is giving them a worksheet and asking them to fill it out personally. And I get to keep those worksheets. And James is going to get to build the database where we're going to take all that information and store it and also turn it around so people can see what's, what's going on in every part of the state as we make the rounds.

Um, and so we'll do four of those.

Okay. Very interesting. Then the community colleges do play those roles.

They do.

Intellectual center, economic center.

Very much so.

Okay. Any other aspects of the campaign you want to share?

Oh, in terms of what we're going to do?

Yeah.

Okay. So yeah, I can tell you.

Just quickly.

Yeah. Uh, they fill out the worksheet. Um, then, um, after they're done filling that out, small groups discuss, and then come back together, report out to the larger group.

And then they get to interview me at that point. So I do that first and I don't tell them my issues that I personally feel are the big ones until after they've done theirs. Cause I don't want to influence their decisions.

I don't want them to think they got to, you know, appease the teacher. Um, cause there are no right answers. Uh, I want to hear what they are concerned about.

And then, um, and, and we did it in Wayne County, that discussion. I also did an evaluation at the end about what, about each aspect of the program and what they liked and didn't like. And pretty much it was a positive review overall.

Um, there was one person who wrote in their notes. I feel like I've been heard for the first time. And, um, the other person came up to me and she said, I liked all of this process, but what I liked was actually discussing with my neighbors these issues and how it impacts all of us here and to share my concerns so that they know that there's maybe another part of it that matters.

And so that's something I'm going to be passing on to existing elected office holders, party leaders, you know, everybody should be doing something like this. And I will be terribly pleased if by primary day next year, there's a whole bunch of campaigns doing something like this.

So your opposition right now is current auditor, Rob Sand, well-recognized, good name recognition. I'll also say he's a friend of mine. And that, um, lots of money running a campaign. Why enter when you, I mean, it's a formidable foe.

He's got a lot of money and that, that allows him to buy resources and all that's all true. Having a lot of money doesn't necessarily mean you win. There's a lot more to it.

And I think given what I learned last fall, working on the campaign in Omaha, because I sat in on all the battleground state calls, I came to recognize that we're, we're, we are broken. We are measuring all the wrong things. And, um, and we have to do something completely different, which is why I'm in here doing this.

Um, and Hey, if what I achieve is Rob Sand is a better candidate coming out of the primary, I can live with that. Um, and if I beat him, I can live with that too.

So if people want to help make donations, volunteer, I presume you need all of that.

Yes.

Where do they go? juliestouchforallIowans.com. You can sign up for an interview session there. You can sign up to volunteer.

You can donate, um, you can get engaged in whatever way you want.

So anything else you want to share with the listeners, the readers, something that I might not have known enough to ask or thought of?

So I have four issues. First is clean water.

Part of that is let's, for goodness sake, let's get that constitutional amendment from 2010 operational so that we have resources to do that. Second is public schools. And these are not first, second, third.

These are like the four that I have. Then it's healthcare. Um, healthcare, it, it has three subsets to it.

Number one, the cancer rates in the state. Um, there's a lot that's going to have to be done to recognize that to an healthcare women's health. Um, we're going to be an OBGYN desert here very shortly.

Um, and that's a problem for all women and not just women seeking abortion care. Um, and then third in there is the nursing home situation in the state. It's very egregious.

Uh, and then the last one is eminent domain and eminent domain and the abuses that are going on with using, taking private land for private companies. That's just not right in my opinion.

Well, thank you.

You're welcome.

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