Iowa — 2nd District

A community organizer, folk musician and former Bernie Sanders staffer is mounting an independent campaign for Congress in northeast Iowa's 2nd District.

Dave Bushaw a 31-year-old from rural Hawkeye, launched his campaign Nov. 12, calling for universal health care, a resurgence of American manufacturing and national ballot initiatives.

In an interview with the Des Moines Register, Bushaw said Congress is ideologically divided and "unwilling to work with each other" and "we need an independent voice to shake things up a little bit."

"Really what’s driven me to hop into this race is just the disregard, the neglect, the abuse of the working class folks here in Iowa by the two major political parties," he said.

Bushaw said if elected to Congress he would push for universal health care and abolish premiums, copays and deductibles.

"In my mind those are private taxes that you as a citizen are demanded to pay to remain a healthy, functioning and productive member of society," he said. "The problem with those private taxes — premiums, copayments and deductibles — is that you don’t actually get to see where your money is going. It goes to pay for staff that your doctor has to hire to negotiate with health insurance companies who have to hire staff to negotiate with your doctor’s negotiator."

Bushaw criticized both political parties for their handling of the federal government shutdown, where Democrats unsuccessfully sought to push Republicans to extend some expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies. He said Congress should have sat down to negotiate a "bipartisan solution for health care."

"We have to ask the question: Why are people’s premiums going to double and triple and in some cases quadruple?" he said. "What that tells me that my tax dollars and our government system of subsidies and tax breaks is heavily padding the idle rich and the insurance companies."

Bushaw said the country is facing a housing crisis, which he said is being driven by private equity firms purchasing single family homes. He said those firms need to be broken up to help create a fair housing market.

And Bushaw said he wants to see renewed government investment into domestic manufacturing.

"I’m not against tariffs," he said. "But with tariffs and saying we’re going to impose costs on bringing some of these things into this country, we have to couple that with a insurgence from the government into manufacturing and production in the United States again."

He said he would push for legislation allowing for national ballot referendums so voters could bypass Congress and directly weigh in on issues from marijuana to term limits to abortion rights.

"I demand that we trust the American people that if there’s enough signatures gathered in each state, we propose national ballot referendums where we decide once and for all on some of these political footballs that have been tossed back and forth between the two parties for decades with no real resolution," he said.

Bushaw spent five years as an organizer for United Today, Stronger Tomorrow, where he focused on "watchdogging" COVID-19 recovery spending at the state and local level. That included pushing for broadband funding, fighting against using federal funds to buy a ski hill in Pottawattamie County and helping block funding from being used to build a new jail in Woodbury County.

"I’m less concerned about the ideological battles and more concerned about real, deliverable gains where people can look out their window or look when they’re walking down the street and say, 'I organized and I got that. What else can we get for our community?'" Bushaw said.

He grew up in West Union where he held jobs detasseling corn and working in a chicken hatchery and meat processing plant before purchasing his own farmland.

During the 2020 election cycle, Bushaw worked for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign as a rural field organizer in Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina.

He's also a folk musician who plays guitar, banjo, ukulele and harmonica at union picket lines around the country and he credits folk music and its association with the labor movement for inspiring him to get involved in politics.

The 2nd Congressional District covers 22 counties in northeast Iowa, including the cities of Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Waterloo and Mason City.

Bushaw joins a crowded field of candidates vying for the seat, which is open following U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson's decision to run for Iowa's open U.S. Senate seat.

State Rep. Lindsay James, D-Dubuque; former Cedar Rapids nonprofit leader Clint Twedt-Ball; former Kirkwood Community College Dean of Nursing Kathy Dolter; and hotel manager Guy Morgan are competing for the Democratic nomination.

State Rep. Shannon Lundgren, R-Dubuque; state Sen. Charlie McClintock, R-Alburnett; and former state Rep. Joe Mitchell of Clear Lake are seeking the Republican nomination.