Morgan Kent Molden is a Johnston parent and former resident of Urbandale and Grimes. -promoted by Laura Belin

Iowa — and the country — is suffering from a leadership deficit.

In this election, we can send a clear message.

In Iowa House district 39, first-term State Representative Karin Derry has shown integrity in leadership where others have not.

Derry won her 2018 seat with sweat equity, years of built-up community engagement and upfront honesty that she carried from one door to the next and onto countless phone calls. Once in her seat, she continued her community engagement and has held regular listening posts to hear from — and fight for the needs of — constituents.

Derry answers to an increasingly diverse constituency with nuanced views on big matters — public education, healthcare access, climate opportunities, social and racial inequities, maintaining apolitical courts — the list could go on. Her background as an attorney, longtime Johnston parent and resident, union family, and recent breast cancer survivor gives her the insight and empathy great leaders need to inspire confidence and competence.

Derry’s 2020 opponent is more of the same outdated Republican candidate template we just moved on from: Eddie Andrews.

Let’s take a look at how his campaign presents him to voters.

Andrews’ curious entrepreneurial universe

Andrews shares on his website and all over his candidate literature that he’s an entrepreneur.

The status of Andrews’ businesses is a mystery — his website, LinkedIn and Facebook pages are ambiguous and lack any real information. What’s not ambiguous is that his company had more than 200 complaints filed against it for violating Iowa’s Consumer Fraud Act, according to Iowa Courts Online*.

It doesn’t inspire confidence.

Iowa’s attorney general investigated Andrews’ company and found the company didn’t show proper stewardship with customers’ money, with the investigation concluding the company didn’t make applicable refunds and withdrew customer money without permission.**

How could we trust him with taxpayer money?

Andrews is not a middle-of-the-road guy

When I talk to people who’ve chatted with Andrews about this seat, they say he seems moderate.

He’s not.

On women’s healthcare access and autonomy, he calls himself “100% pro-life” with “no exceptions” on video — not for the life of the mother, not for fetal abnormalities that are incompatible with life, nothing.

It’s a stance that only 12 percent of Americans agree with.

Does he get what that means? For me, it would mean a life-threatening pregnancy would leave my three daughters motherless — with me dead or in jail.

I bet that didn’t come up a lot at the doors he knocked.

On the LGBTQ community, he laments that people find his beliefs on gay people to be hateful, while in the same sentence he likens them to criminals: “You don’t hate bank robbers, you just hope they repent.”

Hate the sin, love the sinner? It still has the word hate in it, and it applies to something in them that was fearfully and wonderfully made that way.

On funding education, he’s for school choice, which is code-switch for diverting government funds away from our high-performing Johnston, Grimes and Urbandale public schools and redirecting it to nonpublic schools.

This is a Betsy DeVos talking point that isn’t popular among educators.

On his self-described crusade for mental health reform — I agree, which is why I’m voting for Rep. Derry. Iowa is in a crisis, and families are suffering. We need more funding and more availability. Rep. Derry and the House Democrats are leading the battle to get funding that would address meaningful mental healthcare reform in this state. It’s badly needed, and it ties into the larger healthcare debacle that is privatized Medicare, something the Republican legislature has refused to remedy.

Karin Derry is the clear choice

I’m not a fan of tearing people down, and I admire those willing to serve their communities. But who we vote for should come down to facts, trust and beliefs.

Eddie Andrews hasn’t made a convincing case for himself, and what he hasn’t shown is as troubling as what he has.

I’ve been represented by enough Republican legislators to know I don’t need another one who campaigns on one thing only to bring unvetted priorities to the Capitol.

Register to vote, and get it done to protect this seat.

Vote for Karin Derry for State House District 39.

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*Case #EQCE047094
**Consumer Protection Report, Sept. 1, 2003

Editor’s note: Bleeding Heartland previewed the House district 39 campaign in January and discussed the race more recently here.