To our friends and supporters,
While our campaign for the Iowa House of Representatives in District 87 fell short, the campaign to uplift rural Iowa continues. Southeast Iowa deserves excellent schools, vibrant and growing communities, good jobs with good pay, clean water, safe care centers, affordable and habitable housing, first-rate local health care and clean and inviting parks and public lands.
Cities have these things. We can too.
We’ll call out politicians whose proposals and votes fail to meet these needs – or actively damage rural Iowa. We’ll be there when they cut taxes for the richest Iowans and give peanuts to the rest of us. We’ll tell you when they chase phantom threats rather than real, deep-seated problems.
We didn’t fail. Even those who voted for someone else now know the consequences and will watch for what we warned about, Change is coming – it just may take time to arrive.
Stay with us.
Standing for Issues Iowans Care About
- Fund our public schools at levels that help students thrive
- Reverse or reduce the private school voucher giveaway
- Support area education agencies (AEAs) that provide critical services to rural public school students and teachers
- Protect our freedom to read what we want, love who we want, be who we are, and control our reproductive health
Connect with our Campaign
About Tom O’Donnell
Tom O’Donnell grew up with his 13 siblings in an Iowa town of around a thousand people. His father was a carpenter, and his mother was a homemaker and postal clerk. Tom pumped gas, set hotel meeting rooms and did other jobs to pay his way through Iowa State University, with help from federal grants. He started working for newspapers at 17 and spent more than 20 years as an Iowa reporter and editor, including almost 16 years with the Des Moines Register covering diverse subjects, including higher education, crime, courts, business and research. Tom next focused on science, first as a freelancer focused on plant biology, and then 16 years at a nonprofit company where he wrote about supercomputing applications, physics and nuclear science.
Tom and his wife, Paula Mohr, live in her childhood home in rural Keosauqua. He serves on the Bentonsport Improvement Association board and helped Van Buren County Conservation win a $1.6 million grant to rehabilitate the historic Bentonsport Pedestrian Bridge over the Des Moines River.
Tom is a board member for the Rural Restoration Project, a non-profit that seeks to build economic and social opportunities in the 5 counties of Iowa Senate District 44. He is the secretary of Science Iowa, a nonprofit that promotes science in the public interest, publicly supported research and evidence-based policy.
Watch the 2024 Candidate Forum
Listen to Tom speak about issues important to Iowans
Tom Interview with Ottumwa KBIZ Morning Show with Ellis Codjoe
Read Tom’s Reporting on Current Issues in Iowa
Tom in the Press
Shipley, O’Donnell battle for District 87 votes
Shipley, O’Donnell battle for District 87 votes
When asked to respond to just about every question during a legislative forum for Iowa House District 87 last week, Democrat Tom O'Donnell's running theme centered on one thing: education. Read more
Upcoming Events
Yard signs are here!
Starting October 1st, pick yours up at the Jefferson County IA Democrats office in the Orpheum Theater in Fairfield, IA.
Tuesdays & Thursdays 4:30-7pm
Saturdays 10:00am-12:00pm
Get Involved
Connect with our Campaign
Don’t Forget to Vote!
Early voting starts October 16th 2024
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