Oct 16, 2026
Leila Staton.
Leila Staton, Democratic candidate for Iowa House District 54
Leila Staton, 22, is a victim support specialist. She attended Hawkeye Community College. Her family includes her mother, siblings, and dogs. She resides in Reinbeck.
1. What would be your top three legislative priorities if elected?
Water quality, agriculture, and education.
2. What issues are you hearing most from voters currently?
I hear concerns regarding water quality, the rising cancer rates, and public school funding from voters the most currently.
3. How will you address property taxes if elected?
a) I’m in favor of local control, and believe the votes of communities should stand. I believe it is fundamentally wrong for the State government to tell local county/city governments what they can and cannot do-especially when citizens have voted for implementations.
b) With this being said, the State Legislature is the reason property taxes have increased to the rate that they have. The State Legislature has decided to cut corners in the last decade. The flat tax rate (which may sound good in theory, it unfortunately is not), the failure to fund local schools, and “rollbacks” of protections for homeowners – and has decided to protect businesses and corporations instead. The burden of taxes is put onto residents, rather than being equitably shared amongst all in the communities. In order to cut taxes somewhere (State Income tax has been cut from 8.9% to 3.5% – that isn’t free. The revenue is still needed to make communities function. Instead of it being a shared expense, the revenue is now placed directly onto property owners.) Low taxes sound great, but what necessary services are being cut in the process? Your property tax bill increases because you still need to fund EMS, schools, public safety, etc.
When a decision is made, investigate who benefits. Who’s benefiting from this? Big business, and corporations. Let’s fix that. Follow the money, whose pockets are being filled in exchange for the issues our communities are facing? (It’s almost always big companies that don’t care about you.) Holding corporations and big businesses accountable, and redistributing the wealth is what will get us out of this property tax mess.
4. What do you propose should be done to improve water quality in the state? Do you support raising the state’s sales tax to fund Iowa’s Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund? Please explain.
a) Restore Water Monitoring Systems (IWQIS).
b) Fund the Nutrient Reduction Strategy.
c) Incentivize the public for safe fertilizer management and urban conservation.
5. Rising cancer rates are a concern for many Iowans. What action should the legislature take to lower the rate?
Environment:
a) Mandate and fund vegetative buffer strips.
b) Incentivize cover crops.
c) Hold pesticide companies accountable-they know what’s healthy for us and what isn’t. No one deserves legal immunity-and certainly not a company chasing profit at the expense of our health.
Healthcare:
a) Eliminate copays for supplemental screenings and follow-up appointments while lowering the minimum age requirements.
b) Increase access to the HPV vaccine.
c) Work to deprivatize Medicaid (AKA: Iowa Managed Care, IHAWP, Hawki, Wellpoint/Amerigroup, Molina, Iowa Health Link) to erase red tape that prevents patients from accessing the care they need.
Practice:
a) Increase access to anti-tobacco use programs and education, as well as other practices that increase risk for numerous cancers.
b) Increase access to recreational activities as well as transportation and infrastructure. People are more likely to drink alcohol, use nicotine products, and partake in other activities that increase risk of cancers whenever they don’t have good access to recreational activities.
c) Implement mandatory radon testing in public places, and make it cheap and easy for private ones.
6. With physicians leaving the state, medical facilities either closing or reducing services and rural EMS often struggling to recruit/retain volunteers, what will you do to repair the healthcare system in Iowa?
a) Declare EMS as an essential service from the state, keep the responsibility of EMS to the State rather than putting the responsibility on our counties will help with emergency medical service coverage, as well as subsidizing the training for EMS.
b) Deprivatize Medicaid, and increase the reimbursement rates for OB GYN units/birthing centers to keep these services open and functioning.
7. Public school districts have said the amount of money received from the state each year needs to be increased. Do you agree with that stance? Please explain. How much money do you think districts should receive each year?
I agree that public school funding should increase each year considering inflation rates also increase each year. This is common sense stuff-we need to make sure students’ education is not defunded each year because the legislature fails to fund it. The schools ask for a 5% increase, and I think that is more than fair considering Private education tuition has nearly doubled.
8. As agriculture becomes increasingly concentrated and consolidated, what should Iowa be doing to prioritize opportunities for independent and small family farms, as well as beginning farmers who don’t have inherited land or other significant assets? Are the current policies sufficient, and if not, what specific changes would you support?
a) We need to strengthen Iowa’s Anti-Corporate Farming law, full stop. Additionally, we need to expand programs that match retiring farmers with asset-poor beginners, or utilizing state-backed land trusts to buy land and lease it long-term with an easy path to ownership for new farmers to ease the generational divide in agriculture to ensure that Iowa’s agriculture is the best.
b) We need to localize our food systems. The first step I believe is a great way to start is to rebuild a “farm to school” program, ensuring that students are eating locally grown and sourced foods-and it would be a guaranteed market for local farmers.
9. In 2025, Iowa removed gender identity as a protected class from the Iowa Civil Rights Act (state code). Do you support that change? Please explain.
No. We were all fine before this change, now people are denied credit, housing, education, and more. I don’t see how this change positively impacted anyone-I believe it is a stain on our State’s history.
10. Why should voters choose you in the race for Iowa House District 54?
I care deeply about our communities, and I will always prioritize residents here over companies run by people who don’t live here. I want to strengthen our communities and ensure people have futures here.
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