TAMA — A crowd of around 100 interested spectators from around House District 53 filed into the Tama American Legion on Monday night to hear from incumbent Rep. Dean Fisher (R-Montour) and challenger Tommy Hexter (D-Grinnell) during a forum sponsored by the local chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and moderated by Joanna Hofer.
Fisher, 68, is a local native and Class of 1975 STC graduate who spent most of his professional career in engineering, and he was first elected in 2012. Hexter, 24, grew up in Virginia and moved to the state to attend Grinnell College. He now serves as a rural organizer with the Iowa Farmers Union and runs his own nonprofit, Grinnell Farm to Table.
After taking the time to introduce themselves and their credentials, the candidates discussed several agreed upon topics with a three minute time limit and the option to present a one-minute rebuttal after they had spoken.
The first was gender identity, and Hexter had the opening words. He said he was discouraged by recent legislation targeting transgender and nonbinary Iowans, and he wanted them to know they should feel welcome in the state without being described as mentally ill or “fallen from the grace of God.” Hexter highlighted Fisher’s efforts to remove gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act and noted that although they are both Christians, they see the issue quite differently.
“When I read the Bible, I see that Jesus always sides with those who are vulnerable. He sided with prostitutes, with beggars, people with leprosy, and people who were targeted by those in power,” Hexter said. “And when I look at what’s happening with transgender people in Iowa, they are being targeted. They are dealing with abuse every day in our dialogue. They’re dealing with hatred that comes from a place that I don’t know. I don’t understand why we have to target people for being who they are.”
In his response, Fisher took issue with Hexter “putting words in his mouth” and provided a brief history of the gender identity clause in the Civil Rights Act, which was added in 2007, and expressed his view that individuals claiming to be the opposite of their birth gender violated the rights of others through their participation in women’s sports and the use of women’s restrooms.
“That’s not right. It’s not decent, and it’s harmful to women. It’s taking away their right to be safe and secure in their own personal space,” he said.
In his rebuttal, Hexter said Iowa has one of the lowest transgender/nonbinary populations in the entire country (about three out of every 1,000 people) and felt it didn’t deserve the attention that other issues like health care, public schools and rural development should garner. Fisher replied that it’s a topic he frequently receives calls about — citing a recent controversy at the Forest City YMCA over bathroom usage — and the complaints have driven his push to strike gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act.
On abortion, a predictable partisan divide emerged between the two. Fisher reaffirmed his strong pro-life positions and support for Iowa’s Heartbeat Bill, which bans most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy but also allows exceptions for medical emergencies, rape and incest.
“A simple issue is this. The Democrats don’t dare acknowledge that there is actually a baby in the woman’s womb. It’s a human being. It’s a baby,” Fisher said. “They’re too afraid to address that simple issue that the baby is a person too. They’ll talk all the way around it about a woman’s choice and so forth, but they don’t seem to ever acknowledge that there’s a human being there.”
Hexter, by contrast, argued that criminalizing abortion demonizes women and health care professionals, describing the procedure as “excruciating” and “a last resort” in many cases. He also pointed to polls showing that about 60 percent of Iowans support abortion rights even as Republicans currently hold huge majorities in both chambers of the state legislature, the governor’s office and all six federal seats.
“People on both sides of the aisle believe that women should have access to reproductive health care, and there’s reasons why. One, this ban will not stop people from getting abortions. They will either do it in unsafe ways, or they will leave our state and do it elsewhere. Abortions are going to happen. They’ve been happening for thousands of years,” he said. “Two, this puts doctors in an incredibly unfair situation deciding what is a medical emergency. It doesn’t make it clear what a medical emergency is, so now a doctor has a dying woman in front of him and he has to decide, ‘Can I do this abortion or not? Is it medically necessary?’”
He also contended that Iowa’s strict abortion laws are discouraging OB/GYNs and medical providers from practicing in the state. People are fundamentally good, Hexter said, and attempts to restrict abortion and remove transgender individuals from the Civil Rights Code underlie a belief that they are bad.
In his retort, Fisher felt it was ironic that Hexter had mentioned abortion restrictions as a deterrent to people who want to start families in the state and argued that the “excruciating” pain a baby feels during an abortion should also be taken into consideration. As a Catholic, Hexter said he believed in the sanctity of life from the moment of conception but didn’t feel the government should come between a pregnant woman and her doctor in making a difficult decision.
On the budget and taxes, Hexter pointed to the state’s current $2 billion surplus and argued that just as overspending and going into debt is fiscally irresponsible, so is underspending.
“We can’t be so frugal with our budget that we are forgetting to fix the leaks in our roof. The current government seems to be saving up money for a rainy day, and folks, let me tell you, the rainy day is here,” he said. “It really is. Iowa needs investment again.”
The funds, he added, should be used to address health care, EMS services, food insecurity, preschools, bridges and infrastructure, public education and water quality, and Hexter felt 90 to 95 percent of each year’s budget should be spent by the legislature.
Fisher, on the other hand, criticized Democrats for overspending before the Republicans gained the “trifecta” in the 2016 election and said the legislature is spending about 89 percent of the revenue, allowing them to build a “nest egg,” which is in turn being used to cut taxes. Effective Jan. 1, 2025, a flat income tax rate of 3.8 percent will be implemented across the state.
The last time public schools actually saw a funding cut, Fisher said, was when Democratic Gov. Chet Culver held office back in 2010.
“The bottom line here is Republicans have been very responsible in controlling their spending. It’s helping Iowa grow and helping us become a destination state by lowering your taxes. People move to a state that has low taxes,” he said.
In his response, Hexter made the case for offering tax breaks and incentives to small businesses and small farmers as opposed to large corporate projects like the Iowa Fertilizer Plant, which has since been sold to the Koch Brothers after going out of business. Fisher said there are ample resources available for small businesses through the Choose Iowa initiative, specifically for small-town butcher shops, as well as efforts to attract larger employers.
Despite their disagreements on the first three issues, Hexter and Fisher found themselves striking a harmonic chord on the controversial topic of the proposed CO2 pipeline and eminent domain. Both oppose the project and especially the use of eminent domain to benefit a private company.
“There’s no market for this stuff. It’s a completely government fabricated Ponzi scheme as far as I’m concerned. It just needs to go away, and part of the foolishness of it is that there are better uses for CO2,” Fisher said, noting that a company in South Dakota is already working on converting the gas into methanol that powers freight ships.
Hexter said the Iowa Farmers Union had worked with Fisher on the issue and called it “unifying” among Iowans, also describing it as a “scheme” to profit off of a federal tax credit that shouldn’t exist. He added, however, that many Republicans in the Iowa legislature do support the proposal and called it a “canary in the coalmine” for the larger issue of the ethanol industry struggling to remain viable.
Hexter instead advocated for diversifying crop production in Iowa, growing hemp and investing in state conservation programs.
“This issue really is a sign that the ethanol industry is going downhill, and we need to start looking forward,” he said.
According to Fisher, legislators are already looking into other uses for corn and its byproducts and offering tax credits to do so. Hexter added that farmers’ margins are getting thinner while the companies supporting corn and soybean production continue to get richer.
On education, Hexter felt more funding should be set aside for public schools especially as districts both large and small continue to make budget cuts, with some even going down to a four-day week. While he understood the intention of the Area Education Agency (AEA) reform bill and giving districts more money in their general funds, Hexter also worried that it could lead to difficult decisions for small districts like choosing between mental health funding and keeping the band going.
Hexter, who attended a private school through fifth grade, also took umbrage with the state’s new Education Savings Account (ESA) system that provides taxpayer funding for families who wish to send their children to nonpublic schools.
“I don’t think that public money should ever go towards a private institution. This is the same logic that we follow when talking about the CO2 pipeline. We have recognized that the CO2 pipeline is not a public good, and therefore, it should not be backed by the public to support private gain,” he said. “We need to follow that logic and realize that we should not be using public dollars to fund private schools.”
Fisher, who is a founder and board president of the yet-to-be-opened Tama-Toledo Christian School, said AEAs were not getting the desired results while spending wastefully, with their chief administrators often pulling salaries of over $300,000 annually. On the ESA issue, he felt that the vouchers provide more opportunities for lower-income families.
“I don’t see how forcing low-income families to go into the public schools serves anyone well if what they really want to do is go to a private school, a Christian school or whatever,” he said. “So I fully support all of our education options. I support our public schools, I support open enrollment, I support charter schools, I support home schools, and I support our private schools.”
Hexter countered that 42 counties in Iowa have no private schools, and the schools themselves are not required to accept all students. He also advocated for keeping an income cap so that wealthy individuals could not benefit from the program. Millionaires, Fisher replied, also have the option to attend public schools, so he didn’t see what the difference was.
The final agreed upon topic of the night was water quality and the environment, and Fisher, who serves as the chairman of the House Environmental Protection Committee, said the voluntary Nutrient Reduction Strategy is already paying dividends but needed more time to fully work. He said he was “disgusted” by Democrats who describe Iowa as a “dirty, polluted” state.
“We’re not. We’re a very clean, very beautiful state, and it just makes no sense to be talking Iowa down so badly publicly,” he said.
Fisher also expressed concern about Democrats’ efforts to ban Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), ban plastic straws, “guarantee” pure water and mandate certain agricultural practices. Hexter said the environment was the reason he initially got involved in Iowa politics and shared a few key facts: the state has the most altered landscape in the world due to agriculture, the average amount of topsoil has declined from 14 inches to four inches between 1850 and 2020 and over half of all waterways in the state are considered impaired.
CAFOs in Iowa, Hexter said, produce the equivalent manure of 110 million humans annually, and the bills Democrats have proposed would only place a moratorium on the construction of new sites.
“One of the biggest things I hear when I go to the doors is concern about the cancer rates, and if we think that the cancer rates are not rising because of the agricultural industry that we live in, we’re misled. We need to start addressing this in serious ways,” he said.
His suggestions included paying farmers to install riparian buffers, funding research on chemical free production methods, investing in state parks and creating a “habitat corridor.” He asked Fisher what he has done and what he plans to do to address the issues.
The incumbent replied that they are already taking steps and said the rivers and lakes are not “filthy” as some in other states are.
“We need to stay the course,” Fisher said.
In his final retort, Hexter asked the audience who thought Iowa was clean, beautiful and pristine, and on the other hand, who thought there were environmental concerns, which seemed to split almost evenly based on the number of hands raised for each.
“We need to start taking these things seriously. There is science behind it. I’m not talking about penalizing farmers, but I’m talking about recognizing the challenges that we have and taking environmental protection seriously,” he said before taking a shot at an initiative Fisher has proposed. “Raccoon bounty programs are not gonna cut it for environmental protection in our state. We have very serious concerns.”
From there, the candidates took questions on three topics they did not have time to prepare for — how the state should oversee the ESA program and private schools, book bans in schools and healthcare access in rural communities like Tama-Toledo.
Hexter said he would push for a complete repeal of the voucher system, calling it “fraudulent,” but if it continues to exist, he would advocate for an income cap to qualify and requiring private schools to accept all students. Fisher felt parents would hold the schools accountable with their dollars and said private school students still have to participate in the same state testing. On the income cap proposal, he asked if the same criteria would be applied to public schools and described the system as “a great equalizer.” Hexter argued that pitting public and private schools against each other would make both weak, while Fisher believed it would make them stronger due to the healthy competition.
The book ban discussion prompted Fisher to welcome a member of the audience forward after he agreed to read a “pornographic” passage from the novel “Push” by Sapphire – the reader ultimately failed to make it to the objectionable passages before the time clock expired. The representative also accused libraries in places like Iowa City of using bookmobiles to provide said content to students in defiance of the new state law.
“Point made. He wouldn’t read it,” Fisher said.
Hexter contended that classics like “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” “1984” and “Slaughterhouse Five” had all wound up on banned book lists and felt laws like the one passed in Iowa were more about fear mongering and censoring unpopular ideas than keeping sexual content out of schools.
“These are books that you read when you went to school. Are you worse off for it? These are things that are important for children to read, and they should have access to books,” he said. “Censorship is a sign of a government that is trying to control its people to think a certain way, and we need to make sure that we have the freedom to read the books that have made us a great nation.”
Fisher disputed the assertion that “Huckleberry Finn” had been banned, and Hexter encouraged those who wanted censored libraries to send their kids to private schools. Hexter called for incentives to bring doctors, mental health providers and dentists to rural Iowa.
“Rural people are just as important if not more important than city folk. We live out here, and it’s not easy. And we provide food for the world. We do all this, and we deserve to have that kind of care,” he said. “And so our state needs to go above and beyond in incentivizing health care providers because that’s just the only way that we’re going to bring those providers to Iowa.”
In response, Fisher said steps have been taken to address mental health and bring psychiatrists to the state, but no one can be forced to move anywhere at the end of the day. Citing the fact that a physician only visits the clinic in Tama-Toledo once a week, Hexter made the case for more economic development funds being put toward these types of services.
After mistakenly declaring the debate over, Hofer realized she had forgotten to give both candidates their closing statements and welcomed them back to the stage. Fisher cited his strong conservative voting record and values as the primary reasons he deserves another term, and Hexter touted his fresh perspective as a member of Generation Z — he could become the first representative under the age of 30 serving the district since 1866 — in asking for the votes of those in the audience. He conceded that Democrat has become a “bad word” in rural Iowa but pledged to be a representative for all constituents across the political aisle if elected.
He also praised his opponent and spoke fondly of the relationship they’ve forged working together at the statehouse and against each other on the campaign trail.
“I hope that, as a community, we can continue to have important civic dialogue about the issues that are impacting our communities, come together (and) realize we’re all Iowans at the end of the day. Thanks for coming,” Hexter said.
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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.