Peggy Huppert retired in 2023 following a 43-year career with Iowa nonprofit organizations, including the American Cancer Society and NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness) Iowa. She is a board member of LIFT Iowa and a long-time progressive political activist.
In September 2023, about 30 longtime Iowa Democrats came together on a Sunday morning to share their grief and anger about the political state of their world. Although they suspected things would get worse before they got better—they could not have predicted how very much worse—most are optimists by nature and, as such, desperately sought a path forward. And they found it.
In that room on that day, LIFT IOWA PAC was born.
The idea behind LIFT IOWA is not new, but it had not been attempted in Iowa in a while (really, since Senator Tom Harkin was in office). There was unanimous agreement the Democratic Party bench was weak. Very weak. Little attention had been paid to recruiting, cultivating, and supporting candidates for local office—city, county, and school board. The other side had been doing the work, and it showed. Not only were they running for and winning local races, those local elected officials were stepping up to run for legislative and even statewide offices.
LIFT aims to change that. Recognizing that launching a brand-new political group in a pretty bleak landscape wouldn’t be quick or easy, we were intentional in organizing ourselves and setting our priorities for the first eight months. We embarked on a two-year pilot program—county races in 2024 and city/school board races in 2025.
We laid out a strategy of where and how to target races and what kind of help we could offer selected candidates. We developed materials explaining who we are and what we planned to do. We all gave money. Then we identified nearly 100 potential donors to the cause and started visiting with them in person last summer, raising nearly $160,000 in just three months.
LIFT backed five candidates for county office last year covering all four Congressional districts. Although none of them won, most outperformed the top of the ticket and one came within 99 votes of winning. We learned important lessons, which we are incorporating into our work this year on nonpartisan races across the state.
LIFT does not give money directly to candidates. Instead we fund things like mailings, radio ads, and social media messaging—basic campaign tools that can be financially out-of-reach for many local races. Although we have one paid staff person, the majority of the money we raise supports promising candidates whom we have vetted.
But the real value of LIFT is found not in money, but people. Our current board of 30 experienced Democratic elected officials, staffers, and organizers has more than 1,000 years of collective political experience in races ranging from school board to president.
Each candidate we support works with a mentor team made up of board members meeting regularly (usually weekly) providing advice and encouragement. We help with basics like setting up websites and ActBlue accounts, as well as providing strategies for field and fundraising. We aim to develop standardized online trainings by experts in different areas for candidates and their volunteers.
One of our biggest cheerleaders is the man who did this hard work himself and understands its value: Senator Tom Harkin. Not only are Tom and Ruth Harkin among our top donors, Tom has agreed to headline house parties in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids at the end of August to help us spread the word and gain additional support.
Because filing deadlines for city and school board offices are not until late August to mid-September with the election November 4, our mentoring and support time frame will be very compressed this year. But we’ve completed outreach and research in 22 counties in preparation for final decisions by mid-September about who to support. We stand ready to make a critical difference in as many races as possible.
The Democratic bench will gain strength with the concerted effort of all Iowa Democrats.
Anyone interested in learning more about LIFT IOWA or supporting LIFT should contact Melissa Watson, executive director, at liftiowa@gmail.com.