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Garrett Dozark
From Ballotpedia
This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Garrett Dozark (Republican Party) ran for election to the Iowa State Senate to represent District 38. He lost in the Republican primary on June 2, 2020.
Dozark completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Garrett Dozark was born in Denison, Iowa. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2006 to 2012. Dozark received a bachelor's degre from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, in 2010 and a J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law in 2013.
His professional experience includes working as an attorney and partner at Bloethe, Elwood & Buchanan and serving as president of the Iowa County Bar Association, as a member of the Iowa Association for Justice, and as a member of the Cedar Rapids Area Estate Planning Council. Dozark has been a associated with the Compass Memorial Healthcare Foundation Board, the 100+ Who Care Charity of Iowa County, the HLV Area Scholarship Foundation, the Kirkwood Community College Foundation Board, the Williamsburg Middle School Mock Trial Program, and the American Legion.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Iowa State Senate elections, 2020
General election
General election for Iowa State Senate District 38
Dawn Driscoll defeated Ivy Schuster in the general election for Iowa State Senate District 38 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Dawn Driscoll (R)  | 63.9 | 21,238 |
 | Ivy Schuster (D) | 36.0 | 11,948 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 45 | ||
| Total votes: 33,231 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Iowa State Senate District 38
Ivy Schuster defeated Alvin Aragon in the Democratic primary for Iowa State Senate District 38 on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Ivy Schuster | 81.5 | 3,642 |
| Alvin Aragon | 18.2 | 815 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.3 | 14 | ||
| Total votes: 4,471 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Iowa State Senate District 38
Dawn Driscoll defeated Garrett Dozark and Bruce Adams in the Republican primary for Iowa State Senate District 38 on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Dawn Driscoll | 44.9 | 2,402 |
 | Garrett Dozark | 35.8 | 1,912 | |
| Bruce Adams | 19.2 | 1,025 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 8 | ||
| Total votes: 5,347 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Garrett Dozark completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Dozark's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I was born and raised in Denison, IA in a family of 4 children. My older sister, Taryn, is currently a deputy director to the Ambassador for the UN. My brother, Tanner, is a senior software engineer for Microsoft. My little sister Macey is getting her doctorate in occupational therapy. My father Craig works for Thrivent Lutheran, and my mother, Cindy, is a consultant for nursing homes. I was raised in the Lutheran church with strong Christian values, and have even done missionary work. I was also raised growing up on my grandfather's farm, so agriculture has always been important to me. Above all things, I value Love, faith, and service. I am currently a partner at the Bloethe, Elwood & Buchanan law firm in Victor, IA. I am currently 32 years old and I live in Williamsburg, IA with my fiancé, Jessica Hlubek, who is also an attorney and has her own practice. We live with our two dogs, Ruthie and Scrappy, and our two ducks, Quack and Honk.
- MOTIVATED LEADER: I have experience in leadership positions as a former Sergeant and Platoon Leader in the United States Marine Corps and graduate of Marine Officer School. I am also a law partner at a prestigious Iowa law firm.
- QUALIFIED & EXPERIENCED: I have Bachelor Degrees in both Political Science and U.S. History, as well as a Juris Doctorate in Law. My legal practice focuses on complex and relevant issues such as taxation, agriculture, and elder law.
- SERVICE IN MY DISTRICT: Compass Memorial Hospital Foundation Board, HLV School Scholarship Board, Iowa County 100+ Who Care Charity Board, advisor to Kirkwood Community College Foundation Board, Williamsburg Middle School Mock Trial Co-Director, and member of American Legion - Victor post.
To leave this great state in a better position than when I started, and to make decisions with the next thousand years in mind rather than the next four. Some of the most pressing issues in Iowa right now are the 3 M's: Medicaid, Mental Health, and Millenials. If Medicaid is to remain privatized, then we must have strict accounting and reporting. Otherwise, we must do what is necessary to ensure our rural hospitals and nursing homes remain open and funded properly. We must make mental health a prime issue in this state, and get Iowa away from being ranked near the bottom of this country in regard to care for mental health. Finally, we must ensure a bright future for the younger generations of Iowans, and in particular, come up with ways to aid the next generations that are currently getting crushed under the weight of student loan debt and interest payments. It is also important to me to provide better protections for low-income housing, and in particular our residents of mobile home parks being exploited by out-of-state corporations.
Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate example to follow. I read His messages and visualize the application of His concepts of Love, forgiveness, charity, faith, grace, and loving your neighbor as yourself to our present-day reality. Ever single time, I come away thinking it would be impossible for this world to NOT be a better place if we practiced such concepts. These concepts are particularly important in a free, democratic, and diverse society such as ours, which requires cooperation, respect, and forgiveness amongst neighbors. In every situation that I face as a Senator, I will legitimately ask myself, "What would Jesus do in this situation?"
Common sense, loyalty, honesty, faith, Love, leadership, hard worth ethic, and a good listener.
I can understand complex problems and then be able to explain them in plain English. I think communication is a vitally important quality that an officeholder must possess. This skill will help me to build a relationship with my constituents. Also, an officeholder must have moral fortitude. They must have the courage to do the right thing.
The core responsibility of someone elected to office is to serve the people who elected you. I take that responsibility extremely seriously. In fact, I would consider myself a "servant-leader." My sole job as a Senator would be to do whatever is in the best interests of the great people of District 38 - Iowa, Benton, and Poweshiek Counties. No special interest, lobbyist, group, or even political party can come between the bond of the Senator and his or her constituents. Along with this responsibility, I think it is also extremely important to be accessible to your constituents and actually answer their letters, emails, phone calls, etc... It is also important to me that I have the most informed constituents out there, and that they can come to me to get up-to-date on the issues most pressing to my District.
September 11, 2001. I was 13 years old at the time. Everyone knows where they were on 9/11. For me, I was in home economics class in middle school, and the teacher wheeled in a TV so the classroom could see the World Trade Center towers burning. It was my generation's "Pearl Harbor" moment, and was the first historical event that happened in my lifetime that I will never forget. (I was going to mention the year 2000 and the Y2K bug, but nothing really happened so I guess you could call that my first historical non-event!)
I have to admit, my very first job I did not have for long. It was I believe in middle school delivering newspapers, but my father quickly tired of having to perform my route while I was at ball practice! However, a couple years later I did have a couple jobs that lasted throughout high school. In the summers I would lifeguard at the city pool, and in the winter I would shovel snow for an apartment complex.
Not necessarily. I think it is more important for state legislators to approach every situation with a fresh mind and an open heart. It does not take previous experience in government or politics to do that.
One challenge Iowa may have over the next decade is the future of the young Iowa farmer, and keeping Iowa farm ground in the hands of Iowans. It is reported that about 1/3rd of all Iowa farm ground is owned by people over the age of 70, and also about a 1/3rd of Iowa land will change hands in the next ten years (Iowa is the 4th eldest state in the nation by age population). However, out of all the estates that I handle through my law office, maybe only 1 in 25 of estate beneficiaries are "on-farm" heirs. There are simply fewer and fewer farmers as technology has allowed farmers to cover drastically more acres than in the past. Thus, farms are being inherited by beneficiaries that do not farm, and so many farms get sold (especially given the increase in value of land prices in Iowa following the 2010-2012 land price boom). While in office, I can monitor the transition of this land over the next decade to ensure it is not being purchased by out-of-state, or even out-of-country, corporations and/or investors. Especially in this time of market volatility, they might see Iowa farm land as an attractive and conservative investment. I wish to keep Iowa land in the hands of Iowans. The last thing I want to see is future generations of Iowa farmers getting paid an hourly wage to play farmer on corporately-owned farms.
Yes. Ways and Means Committee. I want to use my special expertise in the area of taxation to provide guidance in this area to my constituents as well as fellow legislators. Taxation is an extremely complicated concept for voters and legislators alike, and this is a particular area of the law in which I can provide valuable insight.
The stories from the mobile home park in Grinnell, IA. Their park was purchased by an out-of-state corporation, who immediately increased the rent drastically and over a very short period of time. Almost all of these people are on fixed incomes. Some are veterans. Many have physical or mental health issues. They are being exploited for profit. Many do not have the thousands of dollars it takes to move a fixed-foundation trailer, and many don't have a place to move it to even if they had the money. A few have told me they now have to choose between paying for rent, or paying for food and medicine. As a State, we have an obligation to our citizens to ensure they are never being exploited (particularly by out-of-state corporations) and that they have an opportunity to secure affordable housing.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on March 20, 2020
Current members of the Iowa State Senate
Leadership
Senate President:Amy Sinclair
Minority Leader:Janice Weiner
Senators
District 1
Vacant
District 2
Jeff Taylor (R)
District 3
Lynn Evans (R)
District 4
Tim Kraayenbrink (R)
District 5
Dave Rowley (R)
District 6
Jason Schultz (R)
District 7
Kevin Alons (R)
District 8
Mark Costello (R)
District 9
Tom Shipley (R)
District 10
Dan Dawson (R)
District 11
Julian Garrett (R)
District 12
Amy Sinclair (R)
District 13
District 14
District 15
Tony Bisignano (D)
District 16
Claire Celsi (D)
District 17
Izaah Knox (D)
District 18
Janet Petersen (D)
District 19
Ken Rozenboom (R)
District 20
Mike Pike (R)
District 21
Mike Bousselot (R)
District 22
Matt Blake (D)
District 23
Jack Whitver (R)
District 24
Jesse Green (R)
District 25
Herman Quirmbach (D)
District 26
Kara Warme (R)
District 27
Annette Sweeney (R)
District 28
Dennis Guth (R)
District 29
Sandy Salmon (R)
District 30
Doug Campbell (R)
District 31
William Dotzler (D)
District 32
Michael Klimesh (R)
District 33
Carrie Koelker (R)
District 34
Dan Zumbach (R)
District 35
Mike Zimmer (D)
District 36
Thomas Townsend (D)
District 37
Molly Donahue (D)
District 38
Dave Sires (R)
District 39
Liz Bennett (D)
District 40
Art Staed (D)
District 41
Kerry Gruenhagen (R)
District 42
District 43
Zach Wahls (D)
District 44
Adrian Dickey (R)
District 45
Janice Weiner (D)
District 46
Dawn Driscoll (R)
District 47
Scott Webster (R)
District 48
Mark Lofgren (R)
District 49
Cindy Winckler (D)
District 50
Jeffrey Reichman (R)
Republican Party (33)
Democratic Party (16)
Vacancies (1)
