Democrat from Altoona running for Iowa House District 40
A Democrat from Altoona has announced her candidacy to challenge an incumbent for a seat in the Iowa House.
Heather Sievers, a statewide community advocate who works in the health care field, declared her candidacy Thursday for Iowa House District 40, which includes Altoona, the far northeast corner of Des Moines, a residential portion of southern Ankeny and sections of unincorporated Polk County, such as Norwoodville, Berwick and the area around Saydel High School.
Sievers officially filed March 6 for the June 4 primary election. Incumbent Rep. Bill Gustoff, a Republican elected in 2022, also has filed to run. No other candidates have filed as of Thursday afternoon.
“I have learned so much from listening to people and advocating for families like mine across the state. I have seen how the current political landscape has hurt Iowans and continues to create more divisions among us. It’s time for new leaders at the State Capitol who listen to Iowans and make positive change,” Sievers said in a statement. “My goals are to ensure that the voice of the community is heard, to reduce this political divide in our people and focus instead on protecting rights and improving quality of life for all who live here. I will always choose our people over politics.”
Sievers previously worked as a nurse and now works in the health care field with a focus on quality patient care, transformation and innovation, according to a news release.
Sievers, who has a child with rare disabilities, is also the founder of Advocates for Iowa’s Children, a statewide group that advocates for better services for Iowa’s most vulnerable citizens.
In the release, Sievers said this isn’t the Iowa she grew up in.
“We need to stop underfunding our educators and public schools so we can move back into top-of-class education as we used to be in Iowa,” she said.
“We also need to raise wages, find solutions to Iowa’s critical workforce shortage, and reduce taxes for people, not just corporations and the special interests.”
Sievers lives in Altoona with her husband, Britt, and daughter, Rowan. She graduated from Adel De Soto Minburn High School and has a dual master’s degree in counseling psychology and clinical nurse leadership from the University of Iowa.
The winners of their party’s nominations in the June 4 primary election will run against each other in the Nov. 5 general election.
Gustoff won the 2022 election with 49.8% of the vote to Democrat MacKenzie Bills’ 46.5% and Libertarian Jeni Kadel’s 3.7%.