Alex Wagner

I mean, it's funny, I still remember watching those episodes of the Colbert Report, where Stephen is like explaining, you know, his dark money group and the Stephen Colbert pack and everything, and just thinking about how absurd that was.

And I was a college student then.

And now, like actually being in elected office, you know, you can see it so much so.

But I will tell you, tell me one story about the influence of money in politics.

My very first years in 2019.

These large out-of-state investment companies started coming to Iowa, buying mobile home communities and trailer parks, and proposing outrageous increases to the monthly lot rent, 50%, 60%, 70%.

I would be very unhappy if my mortgage went up 70%.

And these folks have a lot less flexibility in their budgets than I do.

And this one company from Utah bought 15 communities across the state, three of them in my Senate district, two in Johnson County, and then one in Cedar County, the more rural part of my district.

And as their state senator, I took it upon myself to go knock doors in my communities to hear from my constituents, my people about what was going on.

And the stories I heard were heartbreaking.

I met a woman named Candy.

Candy was a widow and her late husband had saved up, bought her this beautiful double wide trailer and

She had a place to call her home and she was worried about her own home.

She was terrified about what would happen to her neighbors.

And I, you know, I was so angry about what I was hearing that I was able to take these stories and I went to my Republican colleagues.

And even though I was a freshman and even though we obviously didn't agree on every issue, that experience that I had as an advocate for marriage equality, about finding that common ground and being able to bring people together, we brought together a bipartisan group.

We hammered out a bill that we could all support.

And as a freshman, I got that bill with the help of people like Candy and her neighbors who came to the State House to fight for that bill.

We got it through the Senate 48 to 0.