Amber Gustafson Runs Against Republican Sen. Jack Whitver

Caption: On left, Sen. Joe Bolkcom; on right, Democratic candidate Amber Gustafson, who is running against Republican Sen. Jack Whitver of Ankeny, at the January 4th, 2018 Women in Leadership fundraiser at True North on First Avenue SE in Cedar Rapids, IA.

My husband and I met Amber Gustafson January 4th at the Women in Leadership fundraiser in Cedar Rapids. Last night we got to hear her campaign speech, her life story and why she has a passion for running at Harry and Nancy Oltoff's house in Iowa City.

I was mesmerized by Amber's life story, which chronicled the farm crisis of the 1980s, during which her family lost their farm while she was still a child. Her father developed a serious case of major clinical depression and had a hard time coming back from the loss of his farm and his way of life. He died when she was 13. With help from her community and generous strangers, Amber rose from poverty to a college education. She noted that much of the help available to her then is no longer as available to kids who are the age she was then in these days now.

She benefited from a program like the Youth Opportunity grants that helped me when I was a teenager in the 1960s. I can't remember the name of the organization that helped her, but it was similar, and she was able to earn money like I did. She got a scholarship to college, just as I did, and cobbled together enough loans and grants to make it through, or she wouldn't have gone to college.

Her opponent, Sen. Jack Whitver, is part of the Iowa Republican majority that is cutting funds to community colleges, universities, and increasing the cost of both for students, putting higher education further out of reach for Iowa students. It really doesn't make sense that Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds is calling for technical training to create skilled workers for the corporations she's giving big money to to lure them here while she and Republican legislators are quadrupling funding cuts for community colleges and universities. Universities bring in millions and millions of dollars in grants and research funds. There's talk, and then there's action, and the two don't match up.

I remember when I found out in the past year that University of Iowa students are visiting the food pantry at the Iowa City Crisis Center. I remember visiting an Iowa City restaurant and watching the help hungrily eating huge meals at a discount provided by management. I began to wonder about hunger among college students. Increasing tuition will only made that problem worse. More students won't be able to go to college at all.

Amber Gustafson is a leader of Moms Demand Action on Gun Sense in America, which was founded the day after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on December 15, 2012. In December 2013, Moms Demand Action on Gun Sense in America merged with Mayors Against Illegal Guns to form Everytown for Gun Safety.

A candidate who cares about gun sense in Iowa is important, because Republicans like Iowa Rep. Chip Baltimore, who was recently picked up for drunk driving while carrying a weapon under the seat of his vehicle, watered down the law 10 months before that made drunk drivers forfeit their weapons if they were caught drinking while driving. So now that he's been caught driving drunk with a weapon, he gets to keep his weapon. I have a real problem with that. Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson does too. He doesn't think an alcohol-impaired driver should have a gun.

Amber Gustafson knows it takes a village to raise a child and we need common sense on gun laws. I couldn't agree more, and I support her candidacy wholeheartedly.