A Democrat who has worked behind the scenes on many campaigns has launched her own campaign for governor. Julie Stauch of West Des Moines said Iowans are "disgusted” by the state’s elected leaders.
“Everything’s really broken and it needs to be fixed, and I’m a problem solver. It’s what I’ve done in everything I do,” Stauch told Radio Iowa. “We have a governor and a Legislature that, for the last at least seven years and maybe 15, think their job is to create problems for the people of Iowa. I want to come in and solve problems for the people of Iowa.”
Stauch was the Iowa political director for Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 Iowa Caucus campaign and the campaign manager for Mike Franken’s U.S. Senate campaign in 2022. She has posted a resume and cover letter online to mark the start of her own campaign. Stauch said voters “do not trust” either party right now and she’s promising to be “a careful listener.”
“They want the candidate to hear them, and that’s what’s not going on,” Staunch said. “So I’m planning to be on the road a lot, to be out there to hear the people of Iowa and my motivation is to understand what they want and to then go to work, just like any of the clients that I’ve had, and help solve the problems that are most important to them.”
Stauch said she has drawn on her past experience as an elementary school teacher to think about the kind of meetings she will host over the next several months. She plans to hand out worksheets and have audiences break out into discussion groups to review the state’s top issues.
Stauch will be competing against State Auditor Rob Sand for the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor. Sand, who launched his campaign three weeks ago, raised $8 million last year and over $2 million from donors in all 99 counties during the first day he was officially a candidate for governor.
Stauch dismissed the idea that level of fundraising is an obstacle for her campaign.
“Right now, I think his money is his message,” she said.
Sand’s wife and her parents donated about $7 million to his campaign in the past year.
“Let me be clear, there are no millionaires in my family, so I can’t raise money quickly. But I’m going to raise money and I’m going use it in a different way than campaigns have traditionally been using it,” Stauch said. "Stay tuned America, or stay tuned Iowa, and see how that all turns out.”
Stauch indicated that as governor, she would lead Iowa to address Iowa’s cancer crisis and water quality issues, repeal Iowa’s education savings account program that provides state funding for private school tuition, and focus on women’s reproductive health. Over a decade ago, Stauch was chief public affairs officer for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.
Stauch also said the state should ban the use of eminent domain to seize private land for a private company like Summit Carbon Solutions.
Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds announced in April that she would not seek reelection. An eastern Iowa pastor, a member of Iowa’s congressional delegation and a state senator from central Iowa have taken steps to start campaigns for the Republican Party’s 2026 nomination for governor.