Sarah Smith (Iowa)
Sarah Smith (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Iowa House of Representatives to represent District 53. She lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Biography
Sarah Smith was born in Davenport, Iowa. She obtained a bachelor's degree from Luther College in 1998. Her professional experience includes working as the director of outreach programs and events in the office of Community Enhancement and Engagementat at Grinnell College. Before that, she was the executive director at Imagine Grinnell.[1]
In the community, Smith has served in the following capacities: board of trustees member for the Unity Point Grinnell Regional Medical Center, board member for the Grinnell Newburg School Foundation, board member for the Grinnell Booster Club, vestry member at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, head girls swimming and diving coach in the Grinnell Newburg School District, and head swim coach for Grinnell Tigersharks. She was previously a member of the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union Swimming and Diving Advisory Committee, the president of Grinnell Newburg Dollars for Scholars, the president of the Grinnell Newburg PTO, and the chair of the Vote Yes school bond committee.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: Iowa House of Representatives elections, 2022
General election
General election for Iowa House of Representatives District 53
Incumbent Dean Fisher defeated Sarah Smith in the general election for Iowa House of Representatives District 53 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Dean Fisher (R) | 56.6 | 6,935 | |
| Sarah Smith (D) | 43.3 | 5,310 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 14 | ||
| Total votes: 12,259 | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 53
Sarah Smith advanced from the Democratic primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 53 on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Sarah Smith | 99.7 | 1,477 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.3 | 5 | ||
| Total votes: 1,482 | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 53
Incumbent Dean Fisher defeated incumbent David Maxwell in the Republican primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 53 on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Dean Fisher | 62.3 | 1,420 | |
| David Maxwell | 37.6 | 857 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.2 | 4 | ||
| Total votes: 2,281 | ||||
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2020
See also: Iowa House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for Iowa House of Representatives District 76
Incumbent David Maxwell defeated Sarah Smith and Kamal Hammouda in the general election for Iowa House of Representatives District 76 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | David Maxwell (R) | 58.1 | 9,760 | |
| Sarah Smith (D) | 38.6 | 6,491 | ||
| Kamal Hammouda (Kamal Hammouda For Iowa House) | 3.1 | 522 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.2 | 29 | ||
| Total votes: 16,802 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 76
Sarah Smith advanced from the Democratic primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 76 on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Sarah Smith | 99.5 | 2,585 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.5 | 12 | ||
| Total votes: 2,597 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 76
Incumbent David Maxwell advanced from the Republican primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 76 on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | David Maxwell | 99.0 | 2,577 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 1.0 | 26 | ||
| Total votes: 2,603 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
To view Smith's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Sarah Smith did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
Sarah Smith completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Smith's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I have always worked on finding common ground when solving a problem. Whether that be in my former position at a local non-profit, Imagine Grinnell as an executive director, as the chair of the vote yes school bond committee, and now at my current job at Grinnell College. I have always and will continue to work on finding ideas from anywhere in a community and focus on making sure that all voices are included and heard.
- Fully fun public education and create equal funding for rural school districts
- Ensure accessible and affordable healthcare for all Iowans
- Investing in renewable energy and sustaining our environment for future generations
Iowa ranks near the bottom of all states in access to mental healthcare access. We need to increase the number of providers and facilities across Iowa to ensure everyone can get help when necessary. In our area several services have come and gone leaving our communities with fragmented mental healthcare services. Mental healthcare will be one of my top issues in the legislature; it's too important to ignore. I want to improve access to mental health services for our rural communities.
I have always worked on finding common ground when solving a problem. Whether that be in my former position as Executive Director at Imagine Grinnell, working on the school bond, and or now at my current job at Grinnell College, I have always and will continue to work on finding ideas from anywhere in a community and focus on making sure that all voices are included and heard.
I'm running for the Iowa House to be a voice for everyone across our district and state. I have always worked on finding common ground when solving a problem and believe that the right decision, an informed decision, is made by listening to both sides of an issue. Over the past months, I have watched our current leadership and now more than ever, we need fresh ideas at the Statehouse for paid sick leave, supporting small businesses, farmers and non-profits, affordable and accessible healthcare, increased mental healthcare access, increased funding for our public schools, internet access to all of Iowa, and jobs that pay a living wage. I have had a great deal of experience learning to listen, consider, and support the voices of others. Iowa can rise out of this pandemic and derecho stronger, but we are going to need innovative, forward-thinking ideas, like mine, to get there.
I believe that public schools and community colleges are the cornerstone of rural communities and are an investment in all of our futures. Everyone is better off when our public schools and community colleges succeed. We need strong schools to attract and retain young families and businesses. We need to increase school funding to be at least at the current school inflation of 3-4% which will be a step in the right direction to supporting our teachers. With the low SSA percentages schools have also been forced to delay technology upgrades and reduce opportunities for students.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
Footnotes
