House GOP incumbent would keep focus on schools, taxes

WASHINGTON — State Rep. Heather Hora’s two years in the Iowa House went by fast. Placed on a handful of her personal priority committees — like education, and agriculture and natural resources — she’s played a role in shaping important legislation, and even passed her own bill during her first year in office, something of a rarity for freshmen lawmakers.

The time’s been filled with late nights, long weeks in Des Moines, and countless meetings with other officials. The lawmaking process happens outside of session as well, at facility tours, informal meetups, and trips to school board meetings around House District 92.

Hora’s choice to run for re-election looked much like any other big decision: she sat down with her family members, talked the matter over, and concluded she could continue to balance her obligations as a mother, a farmer and a legislator. With that settled, she put her name on the ballot, where she feels she remains the best pick for voters.

“I’ve lived in this area for my entire life, my family and my husband’s family have been here for 150 years,” she said. “I have children in the public schools, we run a business, and I just have history that I feel like, I know what this district needs.”

Some of her biggest legislative wins include a unanimously-passed bill that cracked down on sexual exploitation of minors, and an income tax reform that set Iowans’ rate to a flat 3.8%. She also highlighted laws that raised the minimum pay for educators, offered financial assistance for families enrolling in private schools and gave school districts more control over money spent on AEA services.

If reelected, Hora said her next term would likely focus less on education administration matters, and more on education outcomes. She expects lots of conversations in the coming years about classroom management.

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“On the education committee, (we spent) I would guess, hundreds of hours we met with superintendents, teachers, parents, and one of the themes that kept coming up was classroom behaviors,” she said. “It may not even necessarily come through as a bill, but we will be having those conversations with the Department of Education.”

The incumbent said she also hoped to continue the state’s momentum on tax cuts, potentially lowering property taxes further.

That runs against the wishes of some local governments, where many officials say they don’t know what else they can cut from budgets without losing necessary services. Hora said she would work with those officials throughout the legislative process, but said there was too much demand for tax relief among voters to do nothing.

“We don’t want to disrupt anything unnecessarily, but we do need to get more money back into Iowans’ hands … those are conversations that’ll have to be had,” she said. “I would say there’s always places to cut services, there’s always places to cut not even a service, but cut somewhere else. It’s about transparency. Where are you spending your money, and where can you spend it better?”

In general, Hora is a devoutly Republican lawmaker. In the last two sessions, she voted in favor of bills limiting abortion, raising penalties for illegal immigration, slashing taxes and banning certain gender-affirming health care for minors.

The candidate said none of her policy positions had changed since taking office, but she remains willing to hear constituents out on any issue.

“You look at the Iowa House, there’s 64 Republicans out of 100, and likely to be more, this session,” she said. “You’re going to govern the way the majority of Iowans see fit that you govern, right? But I think the conversations always should be had. There’s Republicans that have differing opinions, and I think the problem is we don’t have those conversations anymore, it’s more of a fight.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com