Josh Hughes served on the Interstate 35 Community School District Board of Directors from 2015 to 2019. He lives in Des Moines with his husband and four cats.
The first time I met Claire Celsi was in October 2015. Somehow I learned about an event supporting Hillary Clinton’s campaign with former Secretary of State Madeline Albright at a home in southern West Des Moines. Claire was there as well, and I recall her sharing that she was planning to announce her campaign for House District 42 against GOP incumbent Peter Cownie.
Cownie had raised substantial money in his prior campaigns and had been able to secure reelection by double digits despite representing a swingy district. I distinctly remember Claire saying, almost in implicit recognition of that fact, “I’m gonna out work him.”
Claire absolutely outworked Cownie in that election. Longtime Iowa politicos will remember that Claire’s relentless focus on direct voter contact and positive messaging forced the Iowa GOP to spend nearly $350,000 to bail out their incumbent (Claire received $0.00 in in-kind contributions from the Iowa Democratic Party that year and raised and spent less than $75,000 in total).
Claire fell short by just six and a half points, which was an improvement from Cownie’s 20-point margin the election prior. Nevertheless, Claire showed that seat was winnable. Two years later, Claire was on the ballot for state Senate in the district covering House district 42. As Kristin Sunde was defeating Cownie in what was then the most expensive state House election in Iowa history, I always enjoyed knowing that Claire carried the precincts comprising House district 42—only this time, she won by double digits.
Claire’s passion for public education was remarkable. I remember going for a walk around Gray’s Lake in Des Moines with Claire and her dog Trixie in early 2017. At the time, I was 19 and relatively newly elected to my school board back home. I recall having some idea about creating a PAC or an organization that would help support pro-public education school board candidates running in 2017 and beyond to combat the danger posed by the new Iowa Republican trifecta.
Of course, a pro-public education PAC was not revolutionary or even untested in Iowa—I just didn’t know what I didn’t know. What sticks with me is that Claire listened and took my ideas seriously. She is, in fact, the first “grown up” who took me seriously as I got more invested in Iowa politics from 2017 to 2020. That has left an impression on how I interact with new activists.
Claire was there in ways big and small for me over the years. When I was fundraising to attend the Democratic National Convention as a delegate in 2016 and making “big asks” of $25 or $30 from friends and family, Claire sent me $100, no ask required. In 2019, after she was elected to the Iowa Senate and I was attending Drake Law School, Claire made time to attend a meeting of the Drake Law Democrats with just two students attending. These weren’t her constituents, and Drake wasn’t in her district. But Claire was there, and she spent the better part of an hour chatting with us and State Representative Karin Derry, who also kindly joined that meeting.
And it was Claire who reached out to me and my husband when she knew we experienced a job loss. Sometimes disagreeable, sometimes abrasive or a little too blunt, Claire loved people and did everything she could for those she loved.
A favorite memory is riding to the 2018 Iowa Democratic Wing Ding in Clear Lake with Claire, Laura Belin, and my partner in young Democratic activism at the time, Olivia Habinck. I wish I had made a recording of those two hours between Clear Lake and Des Moines. Between Claire and Laura, I remember Olivia and I sitting transfixed in the back seat absorbing 20-plus years of Iowa political oral history from two giants (at least in our minds) in the party. I hope Claire knew it meant a lot to us that she and Laura so freely shared insights and stories as if we were peers and not just some college kids interested in politics.
I will miss Claire a lot, and I intend to honor her in a way that matches how she impacted my life: by outworking the opposition, listening without pretense, showing up without question, and advocating without fear.