Yahoo Autos Meet Iowa City native Adam Zabner, who is running for Iowa House District 90
Adam Zabner of Iowa City is the second candidate to announce he will run for Iowa House District 90 in 2022.
Zabner, 22, announced his candidacy at a virtual launch party in early January. Supporters included former Iowa Democratic Party Chair Sue Dvorsky from Coralville, who introduced Zabner.
Zabner said he hopes to help Iowa attract and retain young residents to strengthen the state's future.
"Our largest export isn't corn or soybeans. It is youth and opportunity," he said.
Zabner is a graduate of Iowa City High School and the University of Chicago, where he completed a degree in neuroscience in December. He is active in Democratic circles, having worked for the campaigns of JD Scholten, Theresa Greenfield, Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, and Georgia Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
He is the second candidate to announce he will run for the northern Iowa City district, joining University of Iowa student Andrew Dunn in the race. State Rep. Christina Bohannan chose to run for Congress in 2022 against U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks instead of seeking re-election.
Zabner said his central idea of retaining young people connects to many of the other issues he supports.
"Though Iowa is positioned to lead on big issues like climate change and COVID-19, and we have an opportunity to rebuild an economy that in many parts of the state has been gutted by the loss of manufacturing and ag jobs, we cannot do it without investing in and retaining our young people," he said.
Zabner said he would like to see Iowa invest more in cleaner forms of transportation, like rail, and invest more in universities like Iowa State, which he said is researching ways to make agriculture more sustainable.
"A lot of it is helped by some of this federal infrastructure spending, and hopefully Build Back Better if it passes. But if we want to lead, we need our own initiatives here," he said.
Zabner's parents migrated from Venezuela 30 years ago and he said it is time to recognize that immigrants, especially Latinos, are becoming a larger part of Iowa's communities.
He said he wants to amplify what is happening to immigrants across Iowa, especially how COVID-19 affected Latino workers in meat-packing plants.
"(Gov. Kim Reynolds) failed to treat them as people. She prioritized businesses and her donors over the humanity of Latino workers," Zabner said.
Zabner said that, while he was proud of the education he got at City High, he is increasingly worried that the quality of education will decrease around the state. He said there needs to be a reinvestment in public education in Iowa and a focus on retaining teachers.
"We need to think about how to incentivize folks to stay, both by making teacher salaries higher but also thinking about college affordability," he said.
Zabner said one of his biggest proposals is that the public universities and the community colleges in the state should be tuition-free if graduates commit to stay in the state for a couple of years.
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House District 90 is one of many legislative races to watch in Johnson County this year after a slew of incumbents decided they would not seek re-election. Besides Bohannan, state Sen. Joe Bolkcom and state Rep. Mary Mascher decided they would retire at the end of this year's session.
Redistricting also brought into play a seat in western Johnson County, House District 91, which also covers all of Iowa County.
State Sens. Kevin Kinney of Oxford and Dawn Driscoll of Iowa County, both of whom have confirmed they will seek re-election, were drawn into the same district, setting up a contested race between incumbents in November.
With the high turnover in the county's delegation, Zabner could join a fresh-faced freshman class of Johnson County legislators in Des Moines for the next session.
"I've been really impressed by Representative Bohannan, and it would really be an honor to follow in her footsteps in that seat," he said. "We haven't had a candidate that looks like me and is my age in a really long time."
Zabner said he thinks his approach would be markedly different from older elected officials, and he believes that could lead to a difference in what issues he is focused on in office.
"Just telling young people in this community that I'm someone who cares about this community. I want to stay. I'm not one of the ones who is leaving, and you have the ability to affect change ... is powerful enough as a message that we can actually change what is going on," he said.
George Shillcock is the Press-Citizen's local government and development reporter covering Iowa City and Johnson County. He can be reached at GShillcock@press-citizen.com and on Twitter @ShillcockGeorge
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa City native Adam Zabner runs for Iowa House District 90 in 2022
