Julie Stauch announces her campaign for Iowa governor

The West Des Moines Democrat wants voters to ‘interview’ her and present their priorities By Erin Murphy,

Gazette Des Moines Bureau WEST DES MOINES — Julie Stauch wants Iowa voters to interview her as she seeks to become the state’s next governor.

Stauch, a Democrat from West Des Moines, announced her campaign for governor May 27.

“Iowa has a lot of problems, and I’ve spent my whole career solving problems in a lot of different places,” Stauch said in an interview. “So I’ve applied for the job.”

Iowa will have an open-seat campaign for governor in 2026. Incumbent Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican who has held the office since 2017, announced earlier this year that she will not seek re-election next year.

Stauch is the third Democrat to formally announce her candidacy for governor, following state auditor Rob Sand. Stauch filed her candidacy with the state in April and publicly announced her campaign Tuesday.

Republican former state lawmaker Brad Sherman has announced his campaign for governor and filed with the state. Western Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra has formed an exploratory committee while he mulls a run for governor, and a few other Iowa Republicans have said they are considering a run.

Stauch said she plans to campaign across the state and in that process will engage Iowans to learn their priorities. Stauch said her campaign events will include Iowans developing a list of priorities and then discussing them in small groups before sharing that information with

Stauch. Stauch’s campaign website includes a resume and cover letter to Iowans.

“Basically, what I’m doing is I’m running as, ‘Hi, I’m Julie Stauch. I’ve applied for the job of governor, and I’m here to talk with you, the decision-makers, about who your next governor is,’” Stauch said. “And I have a structured conversation format.”

Stauch has been president and CEO of her own consulting firm since 2011. Prior to that, she worked for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.

Stauch also has extensive campaign experience in Iowa, including work on Democratic caucus campaigns for Pete Buttigieg, Bill Clinton and Michael Dukakis. She was campaign manager for Democrat Mike Franken’s U.S. Senate campaign in 2022, and worked on the Leonard Boswell for Congress campaign in 2002.

Stauch also, according to her resume, worked on inaugural events for Bill Clinton and Tom Vilsack, and worked on the 1996 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and inaugural events for governors in Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Among the issues Stauch wants to address as governor are clean water, public schools, health care — including cancer rates, women’s health and nursing homes — and eminent domain.

Stauch said she will not be able to compete with Sand’s fundraising in the Democratic primary, but said she is running a different kind of campaign than Sand.

Sand raised $8.4 million in 2024, before he announced his decision to run for governor; of that, $7 million came from his wife and her family. Sand’s campaign said it also raised another $2.25 million in the first 24 hours after his campaign announcement and said none of that was from family.

“Having worked in them, I’ve watched campaigns often not use money well. So I know that having money is not an assurance of a win. It does make things easier, but it doesn’t mean you win,” Stauch said.

“So I’m not really competing with (Sand) on money. I’ll never be able to do that because I don’t have millionaires in my family,” Stauch said. “But I will have money (and) resources. And I am going to beat him on the messaging and on how I’m connecting with the voters.”

“I’m not really competing with (Sand) on money. I’ll never be able to do that because I don’t have millionaires in my family.”

In Iowa’s 2026 elections, the party primary is June 2 and the general election in Nov. 3.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

Original article from The Gazette