Julie Russell-Steuart served two terms as chair of the Iowa Democratic Party’s Disability Caucus (2020-2024) and is a disability rights advocate, rural organizer, and artist creating community and power through creativity. Founder of Power of the Press Iowa printing workshops. IGs @Caveworks and @PowerofthePress

Organizing, as I define it, is the practice of bringing people together in solidarity for mutual benefit. The Iowa Democratic Party’s current chair, Rita Hart, recognized in her action plan that this is the keyword going forward for Democratic success: “The first goal for all organizing in 2025 should be more people doing more things—rural, urban, suburban—everywhere.”

This is a belated goal, honestly. The IDP had no dedicated, paid organizers on the ground in the last election cycle, and it was a consequential decision on resources. I got emails from the party asking for donations of $2.00, $1 per targeted race and every time I thought, “Why can’t we ask for four bucks to send the second and fourth Congressional districts a dollar each too? Why is my state party laser focused on complying with national Democrats’ goals, instead of Iowa Democrats’ actual organizing needs?” 

I don’t know about you, but I found those emails disappointing. They represented lost opportunity and misplaced loyalty.

Tim Winter, who is running for state party chair, is a former corporate executive in agribusiness and chaired the State Convention Arrangements Committee (which put on the Iowa Democratic Party’s 2024 state convention). He was chair of the State Central Committee’s Small Dollar Donor Work Group (fundraising small dollars), currently leads ProIowa 24 (Progressive Rural Optimists), and is a former chair of the Boone County Democrats. He was also a rural constituency caucus chair. He would bring a wealth of structural and rural organizing experience to the job at a critical time, and I support him for a host of reasons.

Democrats in Iowa need more self-determination at this juncture, not less. We need more investment supporting local organizing. We have so many talented young activists, organizers, and SCC members with depth to serve as the foundation. But we need leadership that recognizes and enables this with a solid plan. We don’t need to shrink the SCC’s governing body’s role and hand it over to a steering committee again, as Chair Hart maintains. We should expand and take advantage of the seasoned, and strong volunteer Democrats in it.

Tim Winter has the right leadership and the right plan for this. It asks a lot of SCC members, but it’s backed up by the bylaws, which in part tells members that their role is to “Develop, review and approve a Strategic Plan to meet the organizational goals.”

It’s time to utilize this energy, not reduce its power by hiring outside consultants to craft a plan—as Jack Hatch and others suggested in a recent message to SCC members. We have a governing body in the SCC that can do the work, when supported by a solid party infrastructure and reasonable and clear expectations. Plus, committees can bring in activist, expert, and stakeholder community members’ voices to help. I personally know an amazing young woman anxious to use her deep expertise in leading text banking for Iowa candidates. 

We can look to measurable Democratic organizational successes in Wisconsin and North Carolina for a template. It will not happen overnight, but the work of building community around shared values needs to start at the grassroots level. Especially as we begin to talk with our Republican and independent neighbors to find out if we can align on what we need to live here in Iowa.

There is no substitute for knowing and caring about your community, no matter what your party affiliation is. I know a leader like Tim Winter can spearhead our long-overdue year-round party organizing and regain our focus, now that we are no longer enjoying first in the nation status with the Iowa caucuses.

It seems clear that Chair Hart will continue to push non-working solutions like the Ambassador Program or even reviving “the Democratic County Elected Officials Organization, and the Association of Democratic County Executives” solely to offer a non-voting SCC seat to the elected representative of such. It seems a convoluted way to hear from “on-the-ground voices” as she states, when the task at hand is to broadly gather and represent more voices with effective organizing.

I spoke with Tim Winter this week about the leadership role constituency caucuses play as both regular voting SCC members and leaders advancing their constituencies’ interests. When I was disability caucus chair, he attended some meetings of our caucus and supported my efforts on accessibility. I considered him an ally of our caucus. We talked about constituency caucuses and how having representation on the organizing committees will be important.

I will remind you that the IDP’s steering committee, which Chair Hart formed two years ago, did not extend invitations to the caucus leadership to be part of it, despite having a model to follow from the Nebraska Democratic Party, whom we met with in advance of the vote on the steering committee.

I’m confident Tim Winter recognizes the leadership value represented by the diverse voices of the IDP’s fourteen constituency caucuses, and will not push aside their input.

I believe in Iowa’s self-determination and independence as a state. I believe in you, SCC members and in the experience and passion you bring to the role of guiding the party. It may look messy at times, but with Tim Winter’s capable leadership, we will courageously and from the ground up, find our way through resilience and growth.

Please cast your vote for Tim Winter.