Christie Vilsack

Political party: Democrat

Born: 1950

Family: Husband – Tom Vilsack.  Two children.

Alma Mater: Kirkland College in Clinton, N.Y. University of Iowa (M.J.).

Occupation:

Vilsack was a middle school and high school teacher for 18 years teaching language arts and journalism. She taught for six years at Iowa Wesleyan College teaching journalism and English. She was also a reporter and columnist for the Mount Pleasant News.

Political experience:

Vilsack served as Iowa’s First Lady from 1999 to 2007.

Abortion

Vilsack is pro-choice, but is a strong supporter of teen and unplanned pregnancy prevention programs.

Same sex marriage

She is a supporter of same-sex marriage.

Agriculture and Energy

Vilsack supports the Farm Bill and others like it for Iowa’s farmers. She would like to increase land conservation methods that are convenient for farmers and would like to increase the development of new bio-fuels markets.

Vlisack would also like to create new programs as incentives to beginning farmers and veterans. This includes tax credits for landowners selling land to new farmers and veterans as well as preferential loan programs.

Healthcare

She supports the Affordable Care Act, but would like to further reform it to control rising premium costs. Vilsack would also like to give additional tax credits in support of small businesses and would like to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices in hopes that it lowers prescription drug costs.

Immigration

Vilsack believes in a “path to citizenship” but also feels that those who have come to the United State illegally should, “go to the back of the line and pay a fine.”

Economy

Vilsack wants to improve the economy by cutting “out-of-control” spending and to due this she says that government “waste, fraud and abuse” need to be taken seriously and controlled.

To do this she would like to create permanent inspector generals in every federal department and “streamline” government databases to make them more transparent and efficient.