Driven by public service, Matt Blake aims for education, reproductive rights reset in Iowa Senate race

When Matt Blake moved to Urbandale, he got involved in the community almost immediately and volunteered to help with the annual 4th of July parade. Within a few months, he’d been appointed the leader of the organization.

A few years later, he was inspired to run for Urbandale City Council.

“I’m a big believer that you should dedicate time to your community,” he said. “When I was on council, I really focused on trying to do good things for my community.”

On the Urbandale City Council, he helped create a crisis service team to go out with police officers when they answer mental health calls or substance abuse issues. He also helped create a guaranteed family leave policy for city employees, expanded the city’s use of solar panels, and helped change rules to allow backyard beekeeping and chicken coops.

Blake is also an attorney and Judge Advocate (JAG) officer in the Iowa Army National Guard. With all of that experience, he wants to help solve his community’s problems on a bigger scale because he thinks the state could do a better job of working for Iowans.

“I think my community needs my voice at a higher level, because this state is not living up to what people expect when it comes to living in Iowa,” he said.

Private school vouchers and Iowa’s near-total abortion ban are the main issues voters mention when Blake talks to them. Voters tell him that the current Iowa Legislature has gone too far.  

“A lot of the folks that I talk to are just upset about politics generally,” Blake said. “They are upset about the direction of the state. They are upset about public education. They are upset about reproductive freedom. They don’t like where this is going.”

Blake is running on ending the voucher program and investing state money in public schools, getting rid of the abortion ban, and working with farmers to improve water quality in the state.

His opponent State Sen. Brad Zaun voted for the voucher bill and the law that bans abortion before most people know they’re pregnant.

“I have had Republicans who have come up to me and said ‘we generally don’t vote Democrat, but because of the voucher bill, because of the way [Republicans] treated public education, we’re going to switch our vote over to you,’” Blake said.

Zaun himself has stirred up significant local controversy in recent years, threatening local teachers at a Johnston meeting that they’d go to jail over what books were allowed in the schools. The longtime senator has also embraced much of the far-right fringe’s issues in recent years—in 2023, he introduced legislation to defend violent Jan. 6 insurrectionists, calling for the arrest of the officials in charge of their detainment.

With Zaun serving in the Iowa Senate since 2005, Blake said voters seem to be ready for a change. Especially since Zaun has supported unpopular legislation.

“A very, very common refrain that I hear at the doors is, ‘oh, I used to like him’ or ‘I used to vote for him, but not anymore,’” Blake said.

Overall, many voters tell Blake they don’t recognize Iowa as the same place they grew up.

“I think the current policies are just eroding that very identity of what it means to be Iowan,” he said.

He traced that to culture war issues like book bans, abortion bans, attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, and attacks on public schools.

“There’s not one single thing that’s a cure-all for solving this crisis. There’s not one single bill that’s going to bring Iowa back. It’s an entire approach that is focused not on grievance, not on fear, not on trying to race to the bottom,” he said. “What we need to be focusing on is what creates the best quality of life for Iowans.”

Every now and again, voters also bring up layoffs and factory closures, the lack of child care, and the number of young people who are leaving the state—often because of those culture war issues.

To Blake, fixing the problem means refocusing on Iowans and returning to Iowa’s history of promoting and supporting good schools, good jobs, and good people.

“Those three core principles should be our guiding light,” he said, “and I think all three of them are being overshadowed by the culture and policies that are being brought up by the current Republican administration.”

Matt Blake at a glance 

Name: Matt Blake

Position: Iowa Senator for District 22

Residence: Urbandale

Education: University of South Dakota, Drake University Law School

Experience: Urbandale City Council (2019-2023)

Family: Wife, a son and a daughter 

What he likes to do with (limited) free time: mostly spend time with his kids, but also watch movies, cycle, play video games (Baldur’s Gate, Fallout, Skyrim), listen to audio books