Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, Democrat

Beth Wessel-Kroeschell is a Democrat running for reelection to represent District 45 in the Iowa House of Representatives, where she has served since 2005. Wessel-Kroeschell previously worked as an English teacher, doing frequent work for nonprofit organizations before becoming a legislator. Born and raised in Ames, she served on the Planned Parenthood Community Council as chair of the Story County Equal Rights Amendment and as the president of the ACCESS Women’s Shelter. She currently serves on the Human Resources Committee, the Public Safety and Judiciary Committees and the Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee.

Why is it that you’re rerunning for Iowa House? 

I guess there probably are multiple answers to that. It’s always been a true honor to serve the residents of Ames and Story County in the Iowa legislature. Of the 16 years, I think, that I’ve served, only four of those have been in the majority. I think the minority plays a really important role in any kind of legislative process, including telling a different story. I mean, there’s always at least two sides to every issue, but somebody needs to get up and tell a different story. I think that’s really a role that I’ve always played. I’m feeling pretty good that this year we’re going to have majority — the Democrats will have majority in the Iowa house, and therefore I think this will be an opportunity to lead the way to some good legislation that will help expand health care for all Iowans, provide them [with] adequate educational funding for Pre-K all the way through higher education [and] to make sure that we restore trust in our public health system, which I think is a critical issue right now.

One of the issues that is likely to be at the forefront of voters’ minds this year is how to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. What are your thoughts on the response so far and what, if anything, would you like to see change if you are reelected?

I think probably besides the fact that we’ve lost over 1,300 Iowans to COVID-19, one thing that I’m really concerned about is the damage that the current administration has done to our trust in our public health system. When Iowans don’t trust public health, for whatever reason, they don’t follow the directions. They don’t wear a mask, they don’t do social distancing, they don’t stay at home when they should stay at home because the trust just isn’t there. Therefore, we continue to bounce between the red zone and the orange zone, and we are just not getting this under control. I think by making sure that our public health department and its spokespeople are trustworthy, we give trustworthy information to all Iowans. To me, that’s that’s key.

Iowa is a major agricultural producer, and just this summer, the state was struck by both a drought and a devastating derecho. Many experts, including professors at Iowa State, have said these events could be exacerbated by climate change. Do you believe in the accuracy of mainstream climate science, and what policies would you propose or support to address climate change concerns?

This is one of those areas that we just have not had the opportunity to talk about because the Republican Party just has not accepted mainstream climate change data. Yes, I do. I do believe in [mainstream climate change science], I do believe these catastrophic [weather] events that we are experiencing are caused by climate change. I think what we need to do is reduce our carbon footprint, and I’d be willing to work in lots of different ways by creating better opportunities for people, in terms of financial incentives, to use energy-efficient utilities by promoting solar energy and by promoting wind energy. There are lots of different ways we can go about that, and I think it’s time that we look at all of them.

Your district includes Iowa State University, and a significant portion of your constituency are college students. One of the most frequent concerns among college students is the cost of a university education. What would you do in order to help all students be better able to afford college, particularly Iowa State?

My son is in his last year of attending a regents institution, one that I refuse to admit to. So I share the concerns of my constituency that the cost is out of reach for many Iowans. We have some of the lowest investment in our public universities that we have had. Every single other budget this year had a status quo budget from last year, except for our public universities. The three public institutions took an $8 million cut in their revenue stream from the state. So I would start by saying I would make an effort to have a strong investment in Iowa’s public universities. I think this is something we definitely need to turn around today. Also, Iowa’s one of only two states that does not have needs-based scholarships for individuals attending public universities, and it’s time to create needs-based scholarships for those students.”

The Congressional Budget Office has suggested the living wage in Iowa should be around $11. What is your position on the statewide minimum wage increase or on allowing local municipalities to increase it as they see fit?

I would allow local municipalities and counties to increase it as they see fit; however, I have consistently supported a $15 minimum wage.

What other policies would you like to see enacted or change that would benefit students?

Good question. I am always open to listening and hearing from students. I know health care has been a big issue for many students. I’ve talked on campus a lot, and I know students are looking for much more mental health service than what we’ve been able to provide. Certainly, we want to make sure that there are jobs available and that there’s an environment available where young people want to live when they leave the university. We don’t want you to get your degree and then just say, ‘Oh, I’m going to leave because we haven’t been taking care of our environment.’ We don’t have any outdoor recreational opportunities, those are pieces that we need to continue to invest in.

More and more states have decriminalized or legalized cannabis or cannabis-derived products, such as those containing CBD. What is your stance on decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana?

I definitely think we need to decriminalize marijuana. It would solve a lot of the problems. We put people in prison all the time for nonviolent offenses so often related to cannabis use. I have strongly supported medical marijuana, which just has not done a good job of passing in this state. We have probably the weakest medical marijuana bill that we could possibly have. It does very little to help very few people. So by decriminalizing, I think you have the opportunity to expand medical marijuana in an easier format and keep people out of prison who should not be in prison. It would help with our racial justice program because we put too many Black Iowans in prison. We have one of the highest [incarceration] ratios of African-Americans to our whole population, and it’s just absolutely wrong. This is one area where we can definitely help.

Given the demonstrations and riots over the summer following the death of George Floyd and the more recent protests following the grand jury decision in the Breonna Taylor case, do you feel there is a disparity in treatment of people of color by the police? What is your position on calls to defund or reevaluate the role of police, and how do you feel overall about the Black Lives Matter movement?

I’m very supportive of the [Black Lives Matter] movement. I’ve been happy to meet on multiple occasions with representatives from Black Lives Matter in Ames, and also in Des Moines at least once. I do believe there are disparities. I know that there are also some police departments who are trying to do some research and trying to fix those disparities. It is a very difficult problem, and one that we have clearly seen doesn’t just get fixed by educating people, you know? It goes much deeper than that. Decriminalizing marijuana, I think, is one of my policy decisions. Other ones would be to eliminate racial profiling. Last session, we got rid of the chokehold in Iowa. We made that illegal. We also said that the attorney general could investigate police departments when there are questions of this kind of bad behavior.

I believe that we can put our resources into some other programming that would help. It might be in food assistance, in housing assistance, in more human services, certainly in mental health. I do not believe that the police department should be responding to mental health and substance abuse calls. Those should be done by mental health and substance abuse professionals. If you tour any of our prisons, you will find that they are full of individuals with mental health disorders, and that’s got to come to an end. We’ve done a few things, but there’s certainly a whole lot more to do. Education is a part of it, but we know that it goes a lot deeper.

Wessel-Kroeschell is running against Libertarian Eric Cooper, who was not available for immediate response for a candidate profile.

More information on Wessel-Kroeschell and her platform can be found on her website.