Todd Prichard announces run for governor

Announcement highlights education, employment proposals as governor

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

Rep. Todd Prichard’s campaign for Iowa governor started at home in Charles City.

Prichard’s 9 a.m. appearance on Tuesday brought a local crowd of friends, high school students and county Democrats. He made the announcement in Aromas Coffee — a Charles City business previously located next to his own law office on Main Street.

“You guys are our friends. You come to our Fourth of July party, we see you at ballgames, we see you at school events,” Ann Prichard said to the crowd while introducing her husband.

“It’s humbling to see you all on a work day,” she said.

In 15 minutes of speaking, Todd Prichard’s proposals included free community college for all Iowans at one of 15 community colleges across the state.

“This program is something that’s based on what Arkansas has done. It’s an $8 million program, and I think it would be an $8 million program in Iowa. It’s something that we can afford,” Prichard told the crowd. “It’s something that we can’t afford not to do in a more competitive job market, a more competitive economy.”

He also criticized Iowa’s privatized Medicaid initiative, signed into law by Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, and promised to issue an executive order restoring Iowa Chapter 20 collective bargaining rules that were in place before Branstad signed into law new limitations on what public employees could negotiate with employers.

“Governor Branstad and Lt. Governor [Kim] Reynolds, when they were first elected in 2011 — when they took office again — [Branstad] promised 25 percent wage increase for all Iowans,” Prichard said. “Has it happened? No, it hasn’t happened.”

Prichard announced he was exploring a candidacy for the 2018 election in January, and established a leadership committee for a possible campaign in March. The decision was foremost a family decision, he told the Press.

“You’re trying to decide first of all if this is what you want to do as a family, because the family is involved,” Prichard said. “It’s something that we decided we can do.”

“We’ve had some early success fundraising. I’ve built an outstanding staff and team, and media consultants — people that can really help me navigate the ebbs and flows of a campaign,” he said.

With his announcement, Prichard joins a current Democratic field of five other candidates, including the former state party chair, a current senator and three others committed to running against expected Republican candidate Reynolds.

Prichard said his experiences growing up in Davenport and raising a family in Charles City give him an understanding of both urban and rural state needs.

“Do I see the support for a candidate like me? I really do,” Prichard told the Press. “That will be a message that I can bring that no other candidate will be able to bring as effectively, and I think it’s a winning message that I can carry.

“I think the biggest challenge will be demonstrating to Iowans that we can go in a better direction than what Kim Reynolds and the Branstad administration have taken the state,” he said. “That agenda that the Branstad-Reynolds administration has promoted and pushed has really not served all Iowans.”  

Charles City resident Keisha Cunnings, a member of Prichard’s initial leadership committee, said she was excited to see Prichard introduced to Iowans across the state.

“I think it’s something he’ll do well in,” Cunnings said. “Watching him speak — it lit a fire in me like, ‘yes, we can do this.’

“I really think he would make an amazing governor for our state,” she added. “Iowa has been on a straight chart … He cares about everybody. He is for everybody, and that’s different than what we have now.”

From Charles City, Prichard was scheduled to appear at the Cedar Rapids Downtown Public Library and the state Capitol in Des Moines, starting his “Every Iowan Tour” of meet-and-greets through the next week across Iowa.

“We’re going to take this message to the road, and we’re going to fight for Iowans and fight for people like you,” Prichard told the crowd.