Iowa

Meet the two candidates in Iowa Senate District 14: Mark Hanson and Sarah Trone Garriott

Published

2 years ago

May 22, 2024

Meet the two candidates in Iowa Senate District 14: Mark Hanson and Sarah Trone Garriott

One Republican and one Democrat are seeking their party’s nomination in the June primary election for an Iowa Senate seat in Dallas County.

Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-West Des Moines, is seeking reelection after being elected in 2020 and 2022. She is uncontested for her party’s nomination.

Republican Mark Hanson, a member of the Dallas County Board of Supervisors, is the only candidate seeking the Republican nomination.

Iowa Senate District 14 includes Waukee, Adel, Van Meter and parts of West Des Moines and Clive in Dallas County.

To help voters, the Des Moines Register sent questions to all federal and Des Moines area legislative candidates running for political office this year. Their answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

The primary election is scheduled for June 4 ahead of the Nov. 5 general election.

More: Early voting has started for Iowa’s June 4 primary election. Here’s what you should know:

Who is Mark Hanson?

Age: 67

Party: Republican

Where did you grow up: I grew up in Rosemount, Minnesota, a small town just 15 miles south of the Twin Cities. My Iowa connection began when I met my wife, an Iowa native and Dallas Center-Grimes school alum. We met while living in California but chose to build a life in Iowa because of the great public schools, safe communities, strong economic opportunities and exceptional quality of life.

Current town of residence: Waukee

Education: I graduated cum laude from Minnesota State University at Mankato with a bachelor’s degree and also earned a Certified Association Executive (CAE) certification from the American Society of Association Executives.

Occupation: For the past 19 years, I have served as county supervisor for the Dallas County Board of Supervisors representing the citizens of Dallas County. I also have served as executive director for the Iowa Association of Area Agencies on Aging, vice president of membership for the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, and as an association executive with Smith Bucklin in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Political experience and civic activities: I have had the honor of being elected Dallas County supervisor since 2005, helping lead the county through extraordinary growth. Dallas County remains one of the fastest growing, best-managed counties, and the county property tax remains among the lowest in the state. I serve on the boards of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, Greater Dallas County Development Alliance, Dallas County Historical Preservation Commission, New Opportunities, and North Raccoon River Watershed Management Coalition. I am also a member of Lutheran Church of Hope, serving as a Hope Kids youth leader since 2004.

Who is incumbent Sarah Trone Garriott?

Age: 45

Party: Democrat

Where did you grow up: I grew up in Cloquet — a small town in northern Minnesota

Current town of residence: West Des Moines

Education: Bachelor’s degree in history, 1999, The College of St. Scholastica; Master of Theological Studies, 2003, Harvard Divinity School; clinical pastoral care residency, 2005, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital; Master of Divinity, 2008, The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

Occupation: Ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, serving as coordinator of interfaith engagement for the Des Moines Area Religious Council Food Pantry Network. I provide education about poverty and food insecurity, work with the diverse religious communities of the Des Moines metro to build relationships and understanding, preach and lead worship at congregations throughout Iowa.

Political experience and civic activities:

Engaged parent of two public school students
Elected to serve in Iowa State Senate in 2020, 2022
Senate committees: commerce, education, health and human services (ranking member), natural resources and environment, rules and administration
State boards and commissions: Child Care Advisory Committee, Council on Health and Human Services, Human Rights Board, Mental Health and Disability Services Commission
Clinical Pastoral Education Professional Advisory Group, 2019 to present
Board of Directors Luther Park Senior Living Community, 2015-2019
Dean of Southeastern Iowa Conference of ELCA, 2015-2017

What would be your top issue should you be elected?

Hanson: Iowans can count on me to work hard on issues that people care about. My No. 1 priority is helping Iowa families and ensuring the state continues to provide a promising future for future generations. I will advocate for policies to strengthen Iowa’s educational system, economy and way of life. We need to ensure our schools are strong, teachers valued, tax burdens reduced, communities safe and we have improved access to health care, mental and behavioral health services and step up support for Iowa seniors. Most importantly, I will listen to all Iowans, deliver on their priorities and serve as their voice.

Trone Garriott: Public education: Iowa needs legislators who will listen to parents, students, educators and staff so that we can craft policy to support thriving schools and dedicate the funding necessary to ensure excellent education.

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

Hanson: Education is the bedrock of our communities and the cornerstone of a thriving economy. The quality of Waukee schools was a top reason we moved to Waukee to raise our family nearly 24 years ago. As the son of educators, I care deeply about the quality of education in Iowa and believe supporting our schools is paramount for the betterment of all children and communities. I will champion education through supporting policies to reduce class sizes, improve student achievement, reward great teachers and ensure children in Iowa have the best opportunity in the nation to learn and thrive.

Trone Garriott: Make funding public schools the priority for our state again. For 10 years we have seen increases that fall below rising costs, resulting in an effective cut each year to our public schools. As a result, school districts have not been able to pay competitive salaries for educators or staff, class sizes are increasing and programs are being cut. Restore funding to the Area Education Agencies. The governor’s AEA bill has already harmed valuable services for our public schools, forcing cuts to services and leading to mass resignations of talented AEA staff. As one of my Republican colleagues said, “No one wanted this bill,” and next year the Legislature can fix the mess it has created.

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?

Hanson: As a state, we must continue looking for ways to help Iowa’s working families and give Iowans tax relief, while also advancing policies that create jobs, foster quality schools, create better access to mental health services and support public safety and law enforcement. I am committed to policies that ensure Iowa is the best place to live, work and raise a family. We must make Iowa more competitive by enacting property tax reform to keep families in the state and attract new businesses to start or relocate here.

Trone Garriott: Iowa’s tax policy needs to be fair. In recent years we have seen cuts that benefit the wealthy and corporations the most, shifting the burden to the Iowans who can afford it least. Working families like mine haven’t seen any noticeable benefit of recent tax policies, but we do see our local schools struggling, roads and bridges falling apart, public safety understaffed, rivers and lakes untouchable, and costs for everything from food to housing to health care increasing. Our state can better pay for vital services if tax cuts are targeted to those who truly need the relief.

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

Hanson: I will prioritize school safety and work toward additional measures to address security at schools across Iowa. This includes policies for greater mental health support, building upgrades, threat assessment, safety plans and incident command drills. I encourage continued taskforce collaboration between parents, educators, school leaders, law enforcement, Iowa Department of Public Safety, Department of Education and Homeland Security/Emergency Management to further improve safety and security standards of schools. Nothing is more important than Iowa students and teachers having a safe environment. One of the government’s constitutional mandates is the safety and security of our people.

Trone Garriott: Our schools need mental health resources in the building to prevent violence before it happens and flag concerns before it’s too late. It’s time to ensure that there are more caring, skilled adults in schools to give students the support and interventions they need. With nearly $3 billion in surplus, our state has the resources to increase the number of mental health providers in public school buildings.

What next steps do you believe the Iowa Legislature should take when it comes to abortion?

Hanson: This is a sensitive issue that requires compassion and a balanced approach that upholds the rights of women and values human life. This encompasses exceptions for women who are faced with heartbreaking decisions, makes IVF treatments available, expands access to women’s health care information, services and contraceptives and enhances the quality and availability of prenatal care services.

Trone Garriott: The next step Iowa legislators should take is to listen to the public and health care providers. We’ve seen the majority pass legislation on reproductive health care and abortion that do not include accurate medical terms. Iowa has the fewest OB-GYNs statewide and legislation that threatens a physician’s ability to provide standard of practice patient care is making the problem worse. This year families undergoing IVF watched in horror as an extreme personhood bill moved forward, threatening a life-giving medical procedure. Iowans overwhelmingly support access to birth control, yet we have not seen legislation to protect or improve access. It’s time for legislators to listen and do better.

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Iowa

Iowa House OKs ‘3 strikes’ bill with 20-year prison terms. What to know

Published

11 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Iowa House OKs ‘3 strikes’ bill with 20-year prison terms. What to know

Iowans who commit multiple serious crimes would face a mandatory 20-year prison sentence under a “three strikes” bill passed by House lawmakers.
Republicans said the bill would keep Iowans safe and “prioritize victims and public safety over criminals.”
A nonpartisan state agency says the bill would disproportionately impact Black Iowans and could require the state to spend millions to build a new prison.

Repeat offenders convicted of multiple serious crimes would receive a mandatory 20-year prison sentence under a bill passed by House lawmakers.

House lawmakers debated for more than an hour about high costs, lack of prison space and the bill’s impact on Black Iowans before voting 68-23 to pass House File 2542, sending it to the Iowa Senate.

Seven Democrats, including Minority Leader Brian Meyer, D-Des Moines, joined Republicans in voting in favor of the bill.

“It will put public safety first,” said the bill’s floor manager, Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison. “It will ensure that the debt to victims and society is paid. It will prioritize victims and public safety over criminals. It will establish real and effective deterrence that is nonexistent in our current system. It will reduce chaos and violence in our society.”

Here’s what to know about the bill.

What would the House Republican three strikes bill do?

Iowans who accumulate three strikes would face a mandatory 20-year prison sentence, with no parole, under the bill.

That would replace Iowa’s current law that says habitual offenders must serve a minimum three-year prison sentence before they are eligible for parole.

All felonies, as well as aggravated misdemeanors involving sexual abuse, domestic abuse, assault and organized retail theft would be considered level-one offenses that are worth one full strike.

Other aggravated misdemeanors, as well as serious misdemeanors involving assault, domestic abuse and criminal mischief would be considered level-two offenses worth half a strike each.

Lawmakers amended the bill to remove theft, harassment and possession of a controlled substance from the crimes that would count toward a person’s strikes.

And the amendment specifies that the bill would only apply to convictions that occur beginning July 1, 2026.

If someone is arrested and convicted of multiple offenses, only the most serious charge would count towards the defendant’s strikes.

Convictions would not count toward someone’s total if more than 20 years passes between a prior conviction and their current conviction.

Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to say that only a violent crime would qualify as someone’s third strike, but Republicans rejected the amendment.

“The bill still scores murder, felony embezzlement and felony theft the same, even though they are very different crimes,” Wilburn said. “One point is one point and three gets you 20 years with no ability for parole or judicial discretion.”

Holt said the legislation leaves room for judicial and prosecutorial discretion.

“There are deferred sentences, there are plea bargains,” he said. “There is plenty of opportunity for grace and judicial discretion in the legislation that we are proposing.”

Bill could cost millions, require Iowa to build a new prison, agency says

A fiscal analysis of the bill by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency said it could cost Iowa nearly $165 million more per year by 2031 based on the cost of housing inmates for longer prison stays.

FY 2027: $33 million
FY 2028: $66 million
FY 2029: $99 million
FY 2030: $132 million
FY 2031: $164.9 million

The agency said if the bill had been in effect between fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2025, there would have been 5,373 people who qualified for the 20-year mandatory minimum sentence.

“An increase in the prison population due to increased (length of stay) will require the DOC to build additional prison(s),” the agency states. “The size, security and other features that a future prison may require cannot be determined, but costs would be significant.”

The analysis noted that South Dakota appropriated $650 million last fall to build a 1,500-bed prison.

As of March 1, the Iowa Department of Corrections’ website describes the state’s prison system as being overcrowded by 25%, with 8,705 inmates compared to a capacity of 6,990.

The Office of the State Public Defender could see a projected cost increase of $1.6 million due to an increased number of trials resulting from the legislation.

But the agency’s estimates come with a caveat — the Department of Corrections did not respond to its requests for data.

“The LSA has not received a response to multiple requests for information from the DOC,” the note states. “Without additional information, the LSA cannot estimate the total fiscal impact of the bill.”

Holt called the fiscal note “an embarrassment to the Department of Corrections” and “an agenda masquerading as math.”

“It is clear, in my judgment, that because they did not like the legislation they went all out and extreme to create a fiscal note that cannot be taken seriously in its assumptions,” he said. “It assumes that nothing will change, that there will be no deterrent factor and that the numbers will continue as usual.”

Black Iowans would be disproportionately impacted by the law

The Legislative Services Agency analysis says the bill “may disproportionately impact Black individuals if trends remain constant.”

Of the 29,438 people convicted in fiscal year 2025 of felonies and aggravated misdemeanors that constitute a level one offense under the bill, the agency said about 70% were White, 22% were Black and 9% were other races.

Iowa’s overall population is 83% White, 4% Black and 13% other races, the agency said.

It’s not clear how the bill’s impact would change to account for the House amendment removing some crimes from counting towards the three strikes.

“Expanding three-strike laws will intensify disparities — and that’s what this statement shows — by mandating longer sentences, limiting judicial discretion,” Wilburn said. “We already have a habitual offender statute. We already have one in place. We have a 10-year low in recidivism in our correctional system.”

Rep. Angel Ramirez, D-Cedar Rapids, said California’s three strikes law, passed in the 1990s, worsened racial disparities, and “Iowa is about to repeat the same mistake.”

“I urge every member here, do not pass legislation that our own minority impact statement tells us will deepen inequality in our state,” Ramirez said.

Holt said minority communities in Iowa are impacted by crime and that the legislation “will make citizens of all colors safer.”

And he said the minority impact statement “tells only one side of the story, doesn’t it? It tells the criminal’s story. What about the victim’s story?”

“What about the mother who will continue to tuck her kids in at night and read them Bible stories because she never became the next victim of a violent career criminal?” he said. “Where is that data point in the minority impact statement?”

House lawmakers also approved separate legislation that would increase Iowa’s statewide bond schedule, Senate File 2399.

That bill passed on a vote of 74-19.

Iowans could see more information on judges’ rulings

Iowans would have access to more information about judges’ rulings ahead of the state’s judicial retention elections under a separate measure, House File 2719, which passed on a 73-19 vote.

The Iowa secretary of state’s office would be required to publish information including:

The percentage of cases in which the judge set a bond amount lower than the state’s bond schedule
The frequency that the judge releases someone on their own recognizance for a violent offense compared to a nonviolent offense
The frequency that the judge’s final sentence is lower than statutory recommendations or a prosecutor’s recommendations
The number of times the judge issues a deferred judgement, deferred sentence or suspended sentence
The number of times the judge’s rulings are reversed on appeal due to abuse of discretion or error of law
The average time it takes the judge to rule on a motion or case
The number of cases the judge has resolved compared to the number of cases on the judge’s docket

The data would have to be displayed with a five-year trend line beginning five years after the bill takes effect.

The Secretary of State’s Office would also be required to maintain a searchable database of all judicial opinions and orders for the judge’s current term and the preceding six years. The decisions would be redacted when appropriate.

And judges would have the opportunity to write a 2,000-word personal statement on their judicial philosophy or data trends present in their rulings.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller.

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Iowa

Man sentenced for killing 4 people appeals his sentence to the Iowa Supreme Court

Published

23 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Man sentenced for killing 4 people appeals his sentence to the Iowa Supreme Court

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Luke Truesdell’s attorney has filed as of Sunday to appeal his sentence to the Iowa Supreme Court.

Truesdell was sentenced last week to three consecutive life sentences plus 50 years for the deaths of four people killed in rural Linn County.

A jury convicted Luke Truesdell, 36, in November on the first-degree murder of Brent Brown, 34; his girlfriend, Keonna Ryan, 26, of Cedar Rapids; and Amanda Parker, 33, of Vinton. They also found him guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Romondus Cooper, 44, of Cedar Rapids.

His attorneys previously argued multiple reasons for a retrial that could potentially be brought up again.

They said that one juror was overheard talking about news on the case.

They also said the prosecutors inflamed the jury, rather than focusing on the facts.

His lawyers said there is no direct evidence that Truesdell committed the murders.

Truesdell’s defense also pointed to Truesdell’s father, Larry Tuesdell, who was found covered in blood at the scene but never fully investigated. Authorities have not been able to locate Larry.

The state disagreed, citing overwhelming evidence including DNA on the murder weapon, eyewitness testimony and video of Truesdell entering the garage where the four people were found dead.

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Iowa

2026 Iowa high school boys basketball state tournament brackets, schedule

Published

1 day ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

2026 Iowa high school boys basketball state tournament brackets, schedule

The Iowa high school boys state basketball tournament is just around the corner and the full field has now been set.

By March 13, four teams will be crowned state champions and there are plenty of worthy squads vying for the title. On Tuesday, the final brackets were released and we now have a clear picture of the eight teams in each class hoping to take home the trophy.

Here’s a look at the first-round pairings and the full state tournament schedule for next week’s IHSAA action.