Ivy Schuster

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Ivy Schuster

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 3, 2020

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Personal LinkedIn

Ivy Schuster (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Iowa State Senate to represent District 38. She lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.

Schuster completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Schuster's professional experience includes working in information technology. She attended Iowa Valley Community College and Iowa State University.

Schuster is affiliated with the following organizations:

• S.H.E. Counts, board member
• League of Women Voters, member and former publicity and voter editor
• Searsboro Fire Department, former safety officer

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

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	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.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

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
	Submit photo	Alvin Aragon	18.2	815
		Other/Write-in votes	0.3	14

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	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
	Submit photo	Bruce Adams	19.2	1,025
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	8

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	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

Ivy Schuster completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Schuster's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I'm Ivy Schuster and I'm running for Iowa Senate in District 38 to represent Benton, Iowa, and Poweshiek counties. I was born and raised in Poweshiek County and that's where I'm choosing to raise my own children with my husband, Andy. We live just outside of Searsboro, and I work in information technology. I also volunteer my time as a firefighter and with women's and political organizations.

I was raised in a single parent household, and we moved a lot-12 times in 10 years. My mother understood the importance of education, so wherever we were, I was always enrolled at Montezuma Community School, where I qualified for free or reduced lunches. In my district, nearly 40 percent of families in our school districts qualify for free and reduced lunches.

We believe in community here, whether it's your next door neighbor or other cities and counties across the state. That's why I'm running. And that's why you're here, researching candidates and making the best choice for your representation.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• There has not been any time in the history of this country when the people have been more capable of directly interacting with and impacting the decisions of the people they elect. One of my main strategies for the campaign, before COVID-19, was to host listening sessions where I traveled around the district talking and listening to voters in towns of all sizes. I always want to make it easy for people to connect with me. That is why I have made thousands of calls in the last few months to reach out to voters in the only way available. I want to make connections and make sure that the priorities of my campaign are the priorities of the people.
• One of my main focuses when elected will be to communicate and build relationships with fellow legislators. Drafting and passing quality legislation is not about the party in charge being able to push through all of their political priorities while ignoring the voice of the minority party. I will strive to build trust with other public servants in the Senate to collaborate on bills that would benefit all Iowans.
• The core of my platform is rural revitalization-working to give the greatest number of people the greatest possible chance of living fulfilling, productive lives. I want to do that for the people who need it most: people from marginalized backgrounds, people who have been disenfranchised, and people who don't have the benefits that come with living in a large city. And since the biggest city in the district has a population under 10,000, we all fall under at least one of those categories.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

The areas of public policy that I am most passionate about and that most affect my district are education, the environment, health care, voting rights and workers rights.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Elizabeth Warren. To make a difference in politics, we need to elect more people that have a background like the people in our communities. More likely than not, the people that have the resources and the connections to win elections are not representative of their communities as a whole. Like Elizabeth Warren, I faced financial insecurity growing up and will legislate with our most vulnerable constituents in mind.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

I see myself as a lifelong learner, and I enjoy figuring out the best way to improve a process based on new information. I understand that to do my job well as a state senator, I will need to be learning constantly, and to do that, I will depend on many resources, but particularly on the people in my district. Their concerns will guide my learning where new legislation needs to be considered or when current legislation needs to be reviewed. I plan to communicate regularly with constituents in my district or in other parts of the state to educate myself on topics I am less familiar with.

Communication is key to learning. I encourage constituents to reach out to me during the campaign, and once I'm elected, so that I know where they stand in my district. We might not always agree, but I will be open and honest with my opinions and will always be willing to have a conversation to see where we do agree.

What legacy would you like to leave?

By the time I leave office I want to have measurably improved the quality of life of the people I represent. I would hope that any successor to my position would continue prioritizing the human connection I'm trying to bring back to the legislature. The most significant goal that I have, which will guide my decision making once I am elected, is to help people live lives that are fulfilling and productive. That begins with giving them a hand when they need it.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

At all hours of the day, "Into the Unknown" from Frozen II is blasted at unreasonable volumes. There are worse songs out there, so I'll consider myself lucky! Raising a 3- and a 5-year-old has its struggles and triumphs, but there is no better way to let loose at the end of the day belting out a song that is far outside of your vocal range to make a child smile!

What do you perceive to be your state’s greatest challenges over the next decade?

The environment will be not only the state's greatest challenge, but the world's. I want the state of Iowa to be productive and as proactive as is possible at this time to combat climate change. The crisis needs to be addressed now before it is too late, which is one reason I'm running now.

No means of energy production is perfect, and there will always be unintended consequences, but we can all agree there is a spectrum that has fossil fuels toward one end and wind, solar, and geothermal near the other. Ethanol falls somewhere in the middle, but closer to wind and solar than to oil and gas.

You can urge people to do the right thing, but to expect widespread adoption of green or marginally greener practices, there need to be incentives. And I believe instead of going back to normal after COVID-19, we need to go forward. As Iowans, we are already feeling the effects of climate change. It is time to make legislation to ensure clean air and water to future Iowans.

Do you believe it’s beneficial to build relationships with other legislators? Please explain your answer.

If anything, this will be one of my top goals once I'm elected. I feel that the best legislation is formed when people with differing opinions work together. This communication and compromise leads to legislation that has the greatest positive impact. It is always important to advocate to move our state policies in the right direction, change is made through compromise rather than from being unwilling to budge.

Are you interested in running for a different political office (for example, the U.S. Congress or governor) in the future?

I am not interested in running for a different office in the future; I think that the state government is where I can have the greatest impact. In the future, rather than using a term in a state legislature to propel me toward a governorship or federal position, I would consider serving my communities on boards or councils more locally.

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

What's on the ballot? U.S. President U.S. Congress U.S. Congress special elections State executives State legislatures State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards Election analysis hub

Government

Who represents me? U.S. Congress State executives State legislators State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards

Newsletters

Coronavirus Weekly Updates Documenting America's Path to Recovery The Heart of the Primaries The Daily Brew The Weekly Brew The Ballot Bulletin Checks and Balances Economy and Society Hall Pass Number of the Day Robe & Gavel Union Station

External links

• Search Google News for this topic

Footnotes

[show]

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

Cherielynn Westrich (R)

District 14

Sarah Trone Garriott (D)

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

Charlie McClintock (R)

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)