Democrats currently hold just 36 of the 100 Iowa House seats, the party’s smallest contingent in the chamber for more than 55 years. But two and a half months before the November election, the party is already set to pick up one Iowa House seat. Davenport school board president Dan Gosa is the only candidate on the general election ballot in House district 81, covering parts of northwest Davenport in Scott County.
GOP State Representative Luana Stoltenberg won this open seat by eleven votes in 2022, after a controversial series of recounts. She announced in January that she would not seek re-election, and Republicans were unable to recruit anyone to run here. No independent or third-party candidate filed before the August 24 deadline.
The district leans Democratic; according to a map Josh Hughes created in Dave’s Redistricting app, Joe Biden received 53.4 percent of the vote in precincts now part of House district 81, while Donald Trump received 44.5 percent. The latest official figures show the district contains 7,582 registered Democrats, 5,812 Republicans, 9,342 no-party voters, and 173 Libertarians.
Gosa brings a strong resume to the race, having served on the Davenport school board since 2015, the last four years as president. He has led the Quad City Federation of Labor since 2021 and is a member of the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 81.
Speaking to Bleeding Heartland by phone on August 26, Gosa said it was “very humbling” to have people in his community put their trust in him. He said he’s been “tried and tested” during his time on the school board, and promised to continue a transparent and collaborative approach as a state legislator.
Gosa said he’s heard a “wide array” of concerns from voters on the campaign trail this year. Women’s reproductive rights is a “huge” issue, and many are upset about the school voucher program, which diverts public funds to private schools. He also mentioned how Governor Kim Reynolds has centralized power in state government, and policies that have reduced local government revenues. He characterized some of the Republican tax cuts as “defunding the police, fire, and rescue,” which are three of the largest line items in many local budgets.
Despite being unopposed, Gosa plans to keep campaigning as if he were in a competitive race: “I love hitting doors, talking to people.” He said the Scott County Democrats “have been doing a phenomenal job” organizing volunteers, and he wants to help elect other local candidates, along with Christina Bohannan, the Democratic challenger in the first Congressional district. “I’m going to work it just the same as if I had an opponent.”
Public education will be a focus for Gosa as a member of the legislature. In addition to his work on the school board of a district with some 14,000 enrolled students, he also serves on the board of the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency. “Nothing frustrates me more” than when the legislature has missed deadlines for setting state aid for K-12 schools, Gosa told me. “That sets school districts back,” he explained, because districts need to start negotiating contracts and setting their budgets early in the year. It’s hard to plan for the future or hire new staff without knowing how much state funding will be available.
The legislature is supposed to set state supplemental aid for public schools by early February, within 30 days of the governor proposing a budget. This year, the per-pupil figure for Iowa districts wasn’t finalized until Reynolds signed a larger bill overhauling the Area Education Agencies in late March.
As a “big union guy,” Gosa plans to advocate for working families as a state lawmaker. “I think that’s something we’ve lost track of in the state of Iowa,” he told me. It’s apparent to him as he compares conditions here to how workers are treated on the Illinois side of the Quad Cities.
To follow Gosa’s campaign: website, Facebook
