While precise scheduling details are not publicly aggregated, the broader push is part of a statewide – and national – effort by Democrats to court younger voters. For example, the Democratic National Committee announced an approximately $500,000 campaign last year to boost early voting among college students in Iowa and other battleground states. The Johnson County Democrats are hoping to improve the relationship with UIowa students while reminding them how influential they can be in politics. 

Youth struggle to have their voices heard in the Democratic Party; some say it cost them the previous presidential election. This measure, taken by the Johnson County Democrats, is a steer in a new direction for the Democratic Party as a whole. In an attempt to truly listen to the youth, the group will continue on this listening tour. The research documented along the way will be relayed back to elected officials throughout the government. Common motifs during student feedback toward the Johnson County Democrats so far include:

1. Banning ICE from Iowa City
2. Enforce the frequently ignored recycling ordinance with city landlords
3. Protect trans and marginalized students in light of the threat to federal funding
4. Protect Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives
5. Develop a platform to address an evolving technological environment, including AI, privacy, copyright, and natural resource concerns

Meanwhile, at UI, the non-partisan student-led group Hawk the Vote (under the Leadership, Service & Civic Engagement office) has been working to register students, provide guides, and encourage ballots. Their resources note: “Your vote is your voice” and point out that students eligible to vote in Iowa City must decide whether to register locally in Iowa City or in their home jurisdiction. They offered information on how to research candidates, attend city hall meetings, input in planning initiatives, and encourage all the students to participate in the democratic process.

Hawk The Vote hosted a forum for city council candidates at the Iowa Memorial Union. This gave students the chance to hear out each candidate who could potentially represent them as Iowa Citizens. Newcomer Clara Reynen is a graduate student at the University and stated she plans to bring a young voice to the council. Challenger Newman Abuissa is attempting to appeal to young voters through his aggressive environmental action. Incumbent Megan Alter plans to improve the child care industry, and Incumbent Bruce Teague appeals to his extensive experience addressing affordable housing and free busing measures. 

To learn more about these candidates, visit the KRUI YouTube for interviews and updates.

The post Democrats Tour Campus to Connect with Youth Voters, KRUI Talks with Clara Reynen appeared first on KRUI Radio.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

[Editor’s Note (3/3/25): The previous Editor’s Note said that we did not have access to the email sent from Maka Pilcher requesting Temple Hiatt to rescind her endorsement of Oliver Weilein. We have now gained access to this email through a Freedom of Information Act request. The entire contents of the email are included underneath the previous Editor’s Note in this article]

Will Clair: Alright, this is KRUI, and we are live here with Ross Nusser, City Council candidate.

Ross Nusser: Hello, and thanks for having me.

Will: let’s just get started here. You co-founded Urban Acres Real Estate and take part in your family business, Hans Jewelers. You also have worked with Successful Living and Housing Fellowship. What have you learned from these experiences and how they shaped your ability to serve on city council?

Ross: Yeah, so I love Urban Acres and I was one of the co-founders of Urban Acres Real Estate. It’s, sorry, I’m just distracted there. I love being one of the co-founders of Urban Acres Real Estate. As we founded it, we wanted it to be a cooperative of agents and so that’s really what we’ve done. We now have 60 some or so agents. All of the offices in our building are equal size and we just split expenses. We’re passionate about the community. My family’s business has been in downtown Iowa City for a very long time. I am not a part of that. My brother, luckily, took the horns on that and he’s running it. Then, yes, I have pretty extensive non-profit experience that has really helped shape me.

Will: That’s great. It’s a family business and you were born and raised in Iowa City. Has that helped you with campaigning at all?

Ross: No, it has not. It’s been one of those things that’s been interesting. It’s helped with campaigning in the sense that I know a lot of people from growing up, and it’s been a wonderful experience because I’ve been able to connect with people who I haven’t seen for years, or people who I just hadn’t had a chance to connect with on the level that I’ve been able to. So, I’ve really enjoyed getting out and being able to reconnect to some people from my past and to new people, and just love experiencing our wonderful community.

Amanda Moy: What do you think are the top three emergent issues you plan to address when on City Council?

Ross: Yeah, so the top three issues are my platform. It’s affordable housing, it’s mental health, and it’s behavioral health, which includes substance abuse treatment.

Amanda: Yeah, Oliver Weilein also states on his website that affordable housing is a top priority for him. How do you think the two of you differ in approach?

Ross: Yeah, so I have 15 years of real estate experience. So, that 15 years of real estate experience will help inform my housing approach. Also, during the 15 years of real estate experience, I’ve been involved with affordable housing and the nonprofit sector for 14 of those 15 years. I will use my past experiences and things that I’ve learned along my past to help inform how the city can be responsible and deploy money toward affordable housing initiatives. We have a lot of money that we have the ability to deploy.

In the city, we have around $15 million, which is not insignificant, and we have so many nonprofits. One is just right up the street from where we’re where we’re recording this right now or, or where this is being aired at Old Brick Housing Trust Fund at Johnson County. That’s an organization that gives forgivable loans, zero interest loans, and low interest loans to organizations who will commit to building affordable housing units. It’s empowering programs like these that we have in our community, with real people in our community with real strategies and real solutions that are really working right now.

Amman Hassan: So, to the question of non-enforcement, we’re obviously like a blue bubble in a sea of red and a red federal government. Oliver has made it very clear he doesn’t plan to cooperate with some of the orders given down from above, whether they’d be anti-trans, anti-drag laws, or cooperating with ICE. You have stated you have different intentions, particularly because with the threat of losing funding for other projects we have that might also benefit those minority groups, how do you plan to address cooperation or non-enforcement with the state or federal level?

Ross: Yeah, no, I appreciate that. This is something where I have been cherry-picked and mischaracterized on this. I’ll try and make it succinct and clear to avoid the cherry-picking and mischaracterizing. The Daily Iowan, I had reiterated this to them earlier, but they also decided to not put this in, is that our vulnerable populations are under significant threat right now, as you just stated. We need to fight smart. We have to. We have to fight smart. If we don’t do that, if we don’t fight smart, then we risk a misstep that could backfire, and it could totally further endanger our most vulnerable populations. So, we absolutely have to do something about it, but we can’t be brash about it. We have to fight smart.

Amanda: Do you have any comments on the results of the special election primary, especially given that you have raised a lot more funds for your campaign than Oliver has?

Ross: Yeah, so I’m not sure how many funds Oliver has raised for his campaign. That’s been ambiguous to me, but the results of the special election were not ambiguous to me. It shows, you know, first of all, two moved on, and so I was able to survive that and move on. It shows that I have to work, you know, nothing is going to be given to you. You have to get on the treadmill the next day, go to work, try and work hard, push out your message. At the end of the day, it’s up to the voters to choose. It’s not up to me. I want to run to serve this community. I got stomped in the primary, and that’s totally okay. I’m up to the challenge to work, and to get the community activated and in tune with this election.

Amman: At one of the more recent campaign events, you and your constituency mentioned historical preservation. That was one of your top priorities. I’ve often heard, you know, preserving historic buildings as like a dog whistle for nimbyism, preventing affordable housing from being built, infrastructure, stuff like that. How does Iowa City’s historical preservation commission fit into your vision for Iowa City, and what is that relationship with your plan for affordable housing and urban development?

Ross: Yeah, so the first thing is, I said that I was… Can you repeat the first part of that? Because that statement didn’t ring true to me.

Amman: One of your last campaign events you mentioned historical preservation was one of your campaign’s priorities.

Ross: That’s not been one of my campaign priorities. My campaign priorities have been affordable housing, mental health and behavioral health initiatives. I happen to be passionate about affordable housing too just because I’m in real estate and I love real estate. So, affordable housing and historic preservation, they can go hand in hand. A great example of this, we just talked about it o thanks for bringing it up, Old Brick. Old Brick is an example of a building right up the street from here that kind of started the historic preservation in Iowa City. And Old Brick is what houses the Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County. So these historic buildings can absolutely be repurposed and Old Brick has a free breakfast program and has venues. It’s a wonderful repurpose and it allows us to maintain our history while still providing to vulnerable populations as well as the community as a whole.

Amanda: So your competitor, Oliver, has made the decision not to accept campaign donations and is instead encouraging people to donate to local causes and charities. Given that you are accepting donations, do you feel that you will feel an obligation to donors or that you will prioritize your donors causes more quid pro quo?

Ross: You know, it’s very bizarre. So, in campaigning we have to file these ethics reports, right? We just hit a filing period. And I saw prior to coming in here, it turns out that I have not been the only one who’s been raising money. I’ve not been the only one. The reporting period was done February 22nd. There are two people who reported. One was Oliver, and one was myself. Oliver has been accepting contributions since January 7th, so I think that me disclosing all of my interactions to the ethics committee appropriately is a sign of me wanting to follow the rules, me respecting the rules that we have in place, and certainly not hiding the contributions that I’ve gotten.

Amanda: Is it true that you have been critical of Oliver’s social media posts dating back to 2019?

Nusser: Yes, it’s irresponsible for me to see violence being propagated by a leader. As leaders, we influence culture, and it goes back to this argument where I so sincerely believe that Oliver is a nice person who wouldn’t so much as hurt a fly, but I don’t believe that the concept is understood that just because you might not hurt a fly doesn’t mean there isn’t an army of people right behind you eager to destroy that same fly.

Amanda: So to clarify, you do believe that publicly available information is fair to be brought forward so that voters can assess the character of a candidate.

Ross: Yes, I do.

Amanda: All right. Would you agree that one of the roles of City Council is to develop a strategic plan to outline the city’s vision, values and strategies?

Ross: Yeah.

Amanda: Would you also agree another important role is to determine how the city spends its money by adopting a budget?

Ross: Yes.

Amanda: Would you be willing to comment on how you accumulated almost $55,000 in unpaid property taxes?

Ross: Yeah, so not property taxes. This is, again, this is part of the misinformation is that I was contacted by multiple news sources that have received an anonymous tip, and it was a federal tax lien that has since been released. It goes back to 2018. So in 2018, I started my journey into recovery, and so I hit rock bottom and I went to treatment, and I knew that I needed to get my life back together. The thing about it, we need to destigmatize mental illness. It’s the shaming of the alcoholic, the shaming of the person who is depressed. This is just, it does not have a place in our society and we’re Iowa City. We love people, and we need to understand how to support people.

So yes, in 2018 I started my long journey in recovery, and I’m still not perfect. What that means though, what the journey in recovery means is that in 2018 I made a decision to stop drinking alcohol. You don’t get better overnight. It’s not something that happens. To think so or to proclaim so would just be false. It has taken years, and I still go into the rooms. It’s very important for me, and I love, I love my recovery journey, but you don’t start off and make the decision all of a sudden you’re better. That’s not how it works. So during 2018, that was a very difficult period of my life, and I’ve had other very difficult periods of my life too. I don’t shy away from it. I don’t want to relive it either. I don’t see any way how that has anything to do with the city budget.

Amanda: I would like to confirm you have agreed that important roles on City Council are to establish a budget and work on a strategic plan. Due to both this unpaid tax lien and-

Ross: Not unpaid.

Amanda: Due to the taxes you were sued by American Express on credit card debt due to these issues. A history of not establishing a plan to address the lack of these payments in a reasonable time frame, you know, if you couldn’t manage your finances on a personal level, why should you be trusted to manage finances on behalf of the city?

Ross: I mean, this is another point where it is unrealistic for someone to think of someone who’s going through substance use disorder that they’re going to have their life together. So, the assertion that I couldn’t manage my personal finances in 2018, I mean, that’s like saying, “How could an alcoholic not manage their life in the time that they were an alcoholic?” It’s not a fair question.

Amanda: So, say a tenant listed this as a reason for nonpayment of rent, would you evict them?

Ross: Oh, so I’d love to answer that because I’ve been in real estate for 15 years. How many evictions do you think I’ve done? I’ll just give you a guess.

Amanda: Maybe two.

Ross: Zero. Zero evictions. So, I don’t know how to evict a tenant.

Julia Wilson: Some tenants from around Iowa City have been receiving texts from their landlords encouraging them to vote for you. If the landlords believe that you best represent their interests, interests probably being profit, why should a tenant vote for you?

Ross: Well, why is the interest profit?

Julia: People are landlords, as their career, it’s to make money. That’s why people are landlords.

Ross: What’s the assertion behind that, can you rephrase that? I’m not understanding the layer.

Amman: Citizens are worried that there may be coercion involved with landlords asking their tenants or encouraging them to vote for you. I guess what we’re asking is were you aware that these landlords were communicating with them to make this encouragement, and can you address these concerns that there may be coercion or other elements involved?

Ross: I’m not aware of this at all. I can tell you that I’ve been in real estate for 15 years, and so I’ve been around a lot of real estate people. It probably doesn’t take a huge leap to think that if someone who is invested in real estate, that they might support the candidate who is also invested in real estate in the form of his career.

Julia: So if you had to choose values wise, who do you think you represent more, the landlords or the tenants?

Ross: If elected, I will represent all citizens of Iowa City.

Will: Looking at the city’s 2023-2028 strategic plan, outdoor spaces in the Iowa River are mentioned. Many people in the city are concerned about environmental pollution and the water quality of the city, especially given the fact that Iowa has the second highest and fastest rising cancer rate in the United States. Do you have any plans to address this?

Ross: Yeah, I can’t wait to be part of the conversation if I’m allowed. Since I’ve been a kid, I’ve grown up in Iowa City. Since I’ve been a kid, we’ve tried to revitalize our waterfront in a number of different ways, a number of different times. One time we tried to put sand and have a beach, but then the beach washed out. Another time, it was thought that maybe we could get some rapids going and have a small whitewater rapid course here. I’d love to see the Iowa River be a more prominent part of the community. I don’t know what that looks like. A lot of this ground around here is university owned, so I’m not sure exactly what the city can do, but I’d love to be part of the conversation.

Will: Would you possibly look into working with the university as a member of City Council?

Ross: Always the University of Iowa and Iowa City are two peas in a pod. You can’t have Iowa City without the university, and arguably you can’t have the university without Iowa City, or at least it’d be very hard.

Will: On your website, I also noticed that you had an endorsement from the director of the Community Inclusion Club. Could you talk about some of your time with them?

Ross: Yeah, Tom Braverman is who you’re referring to. I’ve known Tom my entire life, and he has been a wonderful para-educator and person in the community. I’ve really enjoyed just seeing him and the efforts that he’s made in the community and he’s really done a fantastic job.

Will: Would you also care to comment on your campaign manager provoking Oliver Weilein’s endorsers?

Ross: I don’t know. Who’s my campaign manager that you’re referring to and what provocation are you referring to?

Will: Let me find a name right here.

Ross: My campaign manager is my brother and my wife, so it’s one of those two that you’d be referring to.

Will: All right, well, we had a report that there was an alleged campaign manager reaching out to people who had endorsed Oliver and provoking them, Maka Pilcher.

Ross: Maka who is not my campaign manager. See this again, this is like the fifth piece of information that we’ve discussed in this short period of time that’s obviously false and based off of false pretense. I know Maka well. She has been helpful to me. She has been helpful to our campaign. She’s not my campaign manager and I’m not sure exactly what you’re referring to.

Amanda: We just have received a tip that Maka has been emailing multiple people who have endorsed Oliver, asking that they rescind their endorsement and also CC’d the county attorney and the sheriff on those emails.

Ross: That’s interesting. I mean, again, these tips are so fantastical. It’s amazing to me how much and how blown up this is getting and being made. And so, I don’t know what to say because I’ve never heard of that before.

[Editor’s Note: The claim about emails from Maka Pilcher asking Temple Hiatt to rescind an endorsement for Oliver Weilein have not been outrightly confirmed by KRUI. Johnson County Sheriff Brad Kunkel and Attorney Rachel Zimmerman were CC’d on the email. We filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Johnson County Sheriff’s department, but were told that it was, “More difficult to fulfill a request for specific terms.” We are still looking for the exact content of this email.]

Julia: We can move on then. So, people feeling that their voice isn’t heard is a big issue in politics. If elected, how do you plan to make yourself available to constituents?

Ross: Yeah, so as I’ve said, after March 4th, I’d like to make myself available to anyone who wants to meet. As a city council member, you’re the closest link to government that people have, so I will have a lot of time after March 4th to focus on things other than my campaign. The time prior to March 4th is reserved for my campaign, but it’s Iowa City and I have a flexible job. I’d be able to meet with whomever would like to meet with me.

Amman: Thank you for speaking to us. Are there any upcoming events you’d like to make the public aware about? Or any ways they can contact you?

Ross: Hawk the vote on the 28th here at 4:30 PM I believe is when I get started at the Iowa Memorial Union.

John Glab: I just wanted to ask, with not talking to people before March 4th wouldn’t it be important for them to know your policies so they know what decision to make when it comes to the vote on Tuesday?

Ross: So, it’s not that I’m not talking to people, I’m talking to as many people as I can and as many people who are on the fence or who are really wanting to know information about this election. What I’m not doing is I am not engaging with or talking to people who are very obviously a part of my opponent’s campaign. I need to spend my time getting votes from my people in Iowa City and it is totally okay to have your choice of political preference, but it is one of those things that I need to be filling my calendar with my constituents and with events that can help me be put in front of people to get more constituents.

Julia: Who are your people because earlier you said you want to represent every single citizen of Iowa City?

Ross: My people are every single citizen of Iowa City. During this campaign, my people are people who are supportive of my campaign or wanting to learn more about my campaign in a way that is not totally defaming or derogatory toward myself.

Amanda: So when you say you want to fill your calendar with your constituents, are you referring to all of the people of Iowa City or are you selectively excluding people who have publicly endorsed Oliver but may be curious to talk to you as well?

Ross: No, if someone expresses a genuine curiosity and it doesn’t seem like it’s gonna be underhanded or again, in this interview by everyone in this room, the five in this room, I’ve received multiple questions that have just been straight out false to some degree. My people are absolutely all of Iowa City, if anyone wants to meet with me who genuinely has not made up their mind or has a question, they can contact me. For people who are part of the other campaigns who have questions about my policies, it’s a reasonable thing for them to be concerned or wondering about my policies. As I’ve stated repeatedly, they can certainly email me, and we can certainly give an email response.

Will: Well, with those concerns, do you have any plans to address the rumors being spread about you?

Ross: No, rumors are rumors. I don’t need to fall into that category. It’s not a productive conversation. It does not advance the ideals of mental and behavioral health. The whole idea is that social media right now is such a toxic, toxic place, and we don’t need to model that toxicity and propagate it further. So on social media, we have a policy where if you’re throwing a comment out there that is derogatory, defaming, if it’s trying to paint a narrative that is other than true, then there’s no place for it right there. If I’m elected to public office, the rules totally change there. In public office, you want to be able to hear, you want to be able to provide an outlet, but right now, and throughout this campaign, there has been so many rumors, so much false information that I don’t want them to use my platform. Them being people who are not supportive of me, to use my platform to try and tear me down further with lies.

Amanda: Do you have any message for people who do support your campaign, people who do support and endorse you? Do you have a message for them, specifically to those who are making derogatory and insulting comments towards Oliver, especially on social media?

Ross: Yeah, so I mean, I think that I don’t know what comments you’re referring to. So, I can’t answer that specifically because it’s a very broad statement there. What I can say is that we need to tone it down, you guys. This is Iowa City. We love each other. Come on. Like this is something where, especially this race, it’s crazy how negative it has gotten. So, what I would just say to everyone is empathy goes a long way. Empathy, understanding, and at the end of the day, these are two people, myself included, who are trying to do a service to the community, and I think that that’s lost. Oliver’s work in this community is also very valuable. I mean, the whole fact that either of us is being demonized is not something that I’m about. I’m not about shoving people’s face in the dirt. I’m about building people up.

Amanda: In our interview with Oliver, he made a point purposefully to say that, you know, he used the term, you are not dumb, and he was very kind and supportive of you. Given that you’re saying this is Iowa City, we need to be empathetic towards each other, do you have a comment on the fact that you said there’s no place for Oliver’s kind of extremism in our local politics?

Ross: I don’t remember making that exact quote, but I do remember talking about the extremism of posts that he made. There’s no place for that in our politics. So, Oliver has made the decision based on honesty, wanting to have the perception of honesty by not taking these posts down. Again, to me, these posts are just so negative and so destructive, and I just wish he’d take them down. Unless he still wants to stand behind them and stand behind the violent and just negative vitriol that’s in there. I don’t personally think that’s productive. I don’t personally think that that’s what’s gonna get us into our solution. We have a very tough four years coming, and I don’t think we can fight negativity with anything other than positivity.

Amanda: I understand that your personal opinion may be not agreeing with Oliver’s old social media posts, the most commonly cited ones I’ve seen are his posts from 2019 to 2020. But given that you have also had your own struggles in the past, do you think it’s fair to keep talking about Oliver’s social media posts and political decisions from years ago?

Ross: So, it’s interesting that you are now drawing a comparison between my recovery journey and my sobriety to social media posts and a long pattern of that. In 2018 I started my journey of recovery and sobriety, and I’m still evolving that. It’s still very true to me. I still do things every day to reiterate and to help my recovery. Oliver’s done the same thing with the social media since 2019 or whenever the first post was. Consistently he has posted negative and violent photos as recently as December of this past year. That is just not compatible with what I think, and again if you don’t agree with me that’s okay. I’m not saying that Oliver is a bad guy for doing this. I’m saying that as a leader this is not something that should be in the place of leadership. This is not something that we should promote as a community. Violence is not something that we should tolerate as a community.

Amanda: To be fair, I was not trying to directly compare substance recovery and Oliver’s social media, I was more so pointing to the fact that people can grow and change. People can evolve since 2019.

Ross: Correct, but if you show that consistent pattern where it’s still coming, where those images still kept going through Twitter or whatever the source is, through the end of last year from 2019, that is evolving in a particular way. I mean, it’s evolving to keep that belief alive, to hold that belief true, to not disown that belief, just like I don’t disown my substance use. It’s very much a part of me. It’s very much a core. Regardless of how it was intended to come out, it did come out that way. This is part of destigmatizing mental illness. I really do appreciate the opportunity to talk about this, to talk about the struggles in recovery and in mental illness. I am not the only person out there who’s affected by substance use disorder or mental illness, and it doesn’t discriminate. It goes across all socioeconomic spectrums. This has been a good opportunity to show what this journey looks like in part, where it can lead you, and how it can inform your life and life choices.

Glab: What are your thoughts and feelings on the recent Iowa legislator bills that have been passed through subcommittees that strip civil rights away from trans people?

Ross: Yeah, it’s so disappointing for Iowa. I mean, Iowa, we used to be a leader in civil rights, and now we’re a leader in the backwards movements of civil rights. It’s abhorrent, it’s awful, and we have to, as a community, figure out ways to fight smart.

Glab: Also, do you see trans people as part of your constituents to vote for you, or where do you see them as?

Ross: Absolutely. 100% unequivocally, absolutely.

Glab: What have been some of like the things that they’ve expressed to you as you were campaigning in terms of like their wants and needs.

Ross: I’ve heard a lot of personal stories, and the personal stories, just again, bringing it back to recovery, that’s how we relate our journey. So, I’ve heard many personal stories that have intimately related their journey. I’m not at liberty to share those stories on the air. It wouldn’t be respectful for me, but I can tell you that I have a deep sense of empathy. They are so very much a vital part of our community, and I fully intend on protecting them as much as I can.

Glab: With these bills kind of seem more likely than not to go through, what are you going to do if you were elected to City Council to protect the trans members in our community?

Ross: We’re gonna look at them, we’re gonna analyze them, them being the bills, and we’re gonna fight smart. Like I said, we are going to be resourceful, we are going to be thoughtful, we are gonna look into the future, we are gonna look at possible implications, any sort of action that could happen that would either go against us or for us, and we will make the best possible decision at the time. We will make sure that we are fighting for the needs of our most marginalized communities.

Glab: I know you’re not on City Council yet and probably haven’t fully fleshed out ways to do that, but do you have any ideas of how you would do that, I guess looking from an outside-in perspective at the moment.

Ross: Yeah, I’ve not been on City Council as you put, but I have been on leadership roles, and I have had to be in places where tough decisions are needed to be talked about and consensus is needed to be gained. So, this position is one of seven council members. This is just this is something where I will collaborate with my council members. We will figure out how to best address it at the time. I think that it’s hard to do anything and hard to make commitments to anything. Also, part of it is giving away the playbook, right? Like we want to fight smart. We want to be people who can actually protect, actually make a difference.

Amman: Do you have any ideas of what you would do in the present for when these bills pass and what you would do in the future?

Ross: So these bills have not passed, I’m not on council, and so I’m not sure.

Glab: Do you have ideas of what you would do though?

Ross: Collaborate.

Amman: Could you elaborate.

Ross: Collaborate with my fellow counselors.

Will: In addressing these questions, you’ve used the term fight smart a lot. Could you define that a little bit more?

Ross: Yeah, fighting smart, not taking it as anything other than what it is, seeing what’s coming at us, reacting in a way that’s responsible, evaluating what exactly is coming at us, and then figuring out what exactly our solutions can be. What are our options here? There are some things that we can do, there are some things that we can’t do. There are some things that we can do that draw more attention to us, there are some things that we can’t do that also draw more attention to us. So, fighting smart means fighting smart, it means looking, it means thinking before acting.

Will: Is there anything you would like to say to your constituents? Or possible constituents?

Ross: Thank you for listening. Please vote on March 4th.

Amanda: Is there any question we did not ask that you would have liked to have been asked?

Ross: I’m not sure, I think that we’ve covered a lot of a lot of the rumor mill. We’ve not talked a whole lot about the issues, we’ve not talked a whole lot about affordable housing or behavioral health but that’s okay, it seems like the rumor mill is what’s going to be the focus here and that’s okay with me and again I will be here at the Iowa Memorial Union on Friday.

Glab: All right. so, our old news director, Case Fenner, just sent me a text that he saw from somebody. Of course, this is all alleged, but we want to get your side of this. They said in October of 2023, as they were delivering beer to George’s bar in downtown Iowa City, there was a parking dispute. It looks like they alleged that you yelled at them and like chased them down. What do you have to say about that?

Ross: This is, again, obviously very much part of the rumor mill. What? I mean, if you have more context, but you just got a text, you walked out of the room, said, I need to vet this, come back in the room, and then say that? No, I’m on air. You’re wanting me to read something that you just vetted and react to it. Is that the question that you’re asking me?

Glab: Well yeah, it’s a Reddit post.

Ross: Oh, that makes it so much more credible. Thank gosh, it’s a Reddit post.

Glab: I mean, this is going to be going around, so if you want to just read through it, just to get ahead of it.

Amman: Thank you for tuning in to KRUI 89.7 FM Special Election. Thank you for listening.

Note: We do not speak on behalf of the University of Iowa or the Board of Regents.

The post In Conversation with Ross Nusser appeared first on KRUI Radio.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Amanda Moy: First of all, you know, you’ve been in Iowa City a long time. You’ve worked and volunteered at a lot of places, like Public Space One, the Emma Goldman Clinic, Iowa Farm Sanctuary, can you tell us a little bit of what you’ve learned from these experiences and how they’ve helped shape your ability to serve on city council?

Oliver Weilein: Yeah, definitely. I’m always someone that likes to keep busy, for one, so that’s why I do a lot of these things, and also it’s just things that I’m passionate and that I care about. One way or another these things deeply impact my life and I want to be a part of them. With the Emma Goldman Clinic, obviously, Emma Goldman herself was one of the first feminist authors and thought leaders that I read when I was a teenager, and so I have a personal connection for that reason with the Emma Goldman Clinic and I think it’s really cool that it’s named that, and I think that it also helps that I live across the street. You know, just looking and seeing people you know bugging and harassing people trying to go in there and get healthcare, it does not sit right with me. It makes me upset and so that’s why. I support everything Emma Goldman does, so that’s why I just want to go help out in that capacity where I can. 

With the Iowa Farm Sanctuary, I am someone where I’ve been vegan for 12 years and I haven’t eaten meat since 8th grade when dissecting frogs freaked me out. So, it’s always been a priority for me, especially living in a place that’s kind of ground zero for bad factory farming like Iowa. I just think it’s beautiful that we have a place like that and connecting with the animals is really important to me, and I recommend people go volunteer there. It’s a depression cure a little bit, especially in the summer.

With Public Space One, I play music; I play in a couple bands and I remember being super young and when I still lived in Cedar Falls I would come here and go to shows at Public Space One when it was below the Subway. It’s come a long way since then, and it was really important to me growing as an artist and as a person, so I’m just really happy to serve on the board and do what I can.

Just doing all these things, it has allowed me to touch so many parts of the community and to understand what’s going right, what’s going wrong, and what can be improved. Specifically, it’s put me in contact with other working class people, and low income people, and people of traditionally marginalized groups. It’s given me a perspective on a lot of the inner workings of Iowa City, and not from the perspective of I’m like this super educated elite business owner, property owner, and yeah it’s just like I’m a member of the working class. I’m just like one of these people, and yeah I think in that way it’s really primed me to have a unique perspective on city council.

Amanda: I will say, I’ve also volunteered at Iowa Farm Sanctuary. It is absolutely something that will lift your mood. Especially in the summer.

Oliver: Do you have a favorite resident?

Amanda: That’s a good question. I think my favorite resident was Rudy.

Oliver: Rudy? I loved Rudy. I like Flower. I have a special connection with Flower. She’s a thousand-pound dairy cow who was born without eyes, and she’s blind, and she loves being pet, and she purrs when you pet her.

Julia Wilson: So, how do you plan to implement these environmental values, in regard to farming, while still supporting the local farmers around Iowa City?

Oliver: That’s a really good question. I think that coming at these issues centering around sustainability and climate, I don’t think it has to come at the cost of farmers or people making ends meet. I think that it’s a lot of nitty gritty policy stuff, but basically just from the mindset that these two things don’t have to work against each other. There’s lots of really cool organizations around here that I’m really excited to work with, that really look into local preservation, look into prairie restoration, and try to work alongside farmers while doing so, and trying to figure out more sustainable ways to go about these things. Even if I myself am not an expert, I know the people who are, and the people who really inspire me to do this work. I know people who not only lead some of these organizations or some of these movements, but people that are rank and file, people who go and do controlled burns of prairies and stuff like that. So, I’m someone who tries to get the entire picture from the “lowest worker” to the overarching picture.

Amanda: What do you think are the top three emergent issues that you plan to address while you’re on city council?

Oliver: I really think that one of the things that convinced me to run… I’ve been probably what you can call a housing rights activist for like a decade in the Iowa City area. Whether that be a founding member of the Iowa City Tenants Union where we did things like help families fight eviction, got security deposits back, helped with immigrant families who were dealing with abusive landlords, worked with lots of students whose landlords just think that they’re dumb young people and they can take advantage of them, to doing more direct mutual aid work with the homeless population in Iowa City.

I think that housing is so central and intersects with so many different issues in our society: racism, transphobia, homophobia. Lots of these systems of oppression get so much of their power from housing insecurity and from economic insecurity so housing is huge, huge for me and I’m someone who believes deep down that housing is a human right. I think as a society that we should move away from viewing housing, which is something that is a basic need for everybody, as a commodity, but rather something we see as, well, you’re a human being and you deserve a home. Obviously, I know going in, I’m not going to be able to be like: I declare housing as a human right. But, I think there’s lots of tangible ways we can move in that direction. 

Along with housing, a huge thing for me is also maintaining some type of financial independence as a city from the state and federal government. Making it to where we are not so afraid of repercussions from the state and federal government. There’s so much fear right now about, well, we can’t do this because maybe the state’s going to come take some funding away. I think that we can start laying a foundation for long-term solutions for making ourselves more independent. I’m a huge proponent of things like public banking. We have one public bank in the United States, and that’s the Bank of North Dakota. Look into public banking, how it is essential to the economy in so many different places around the world, and how it can be used as a tool to fund the things we need to fund and save ourselves so much money as a city. Obviously, wealthy bankers do not like it, and their shareholders, because this means they don’t make money. But, I think as a society, we need to do what we need to do for the community and for people, and not just always focus on making the richest people around us richer, and being in their grasp with their talons in us. 

Those are probably two really, really big things for me. Transit is always up there. We are doing a really good job as a community when it comes to transit, with our fare-free public transit and our commitment to maintaining that. I’ve talked with so many homeless people, so many low-income people who say that has improved their lives significantly. Just keeping that.

I will say one more thing that might be the most important thing currently is protecting marginalized people in Iowa City. It is making sure we do not go into this administration, this federal administration and this state administration, with people who operate abject cruelty towards the most vulnerable people in our community. We need to not go into this relationship pre-compliant, or work as collaborators with them. I think that we can be smart and strategic with how we go about doing these things, protecting these communities, like our immigrants, like our trans community. That means that we go into it with the attitude that we will never give up, and we will not collaborate with fascism. 

Amman Hassan: I have two questions. For transit, are you supporting the North Liberty rail, or the commuter rail proposal? Also, about the not collaborating with fascism, and the Iowa City autonomy, obviously we are kind of a blue dot in a sea of red. How much autonomy or wiggle room does Iowa City have to kind of ignore some of these resettlement orders or some of these acts against minority groups, immigrants in particular? How much wiggle room do we have to ignore those orders and address the issues as we see fit, or protect these groups as we see fit?

Oliver: For the transit, I don’t know all the ins and outs of what has happened, but I think that the county is having trouble finding bidders to create the rail, and I think that the project has been put on hold for now, if not scrapped, which is unfortunate because transit is huge for a multitude of reasons: for economic reasons, for climate reasons. I’m somebody who thinks that we need to move away from a car-centric society. Obviously rail, streetcars, biking infrastructure, all of these things, density, not relying on sprawl, there’re so many reasons why we need to go in this direction. So, it is upsetting to me that’s been put on hold, because as it comes to climate, we can’t afford to push these back all the time. 

When it comes to what kind of autonomy or agency Iowa City has in the state, it is true that we live in a hostile state run by people who are cruel and do not have the best interest of the people in mind. They want to protect the wealthiest people in our state, and they want to keep oppressed people in their place. We need to not go into this thinking that these are people that can be reasoned with, like Kim Reynolds, that we need to try so hard to placate them and to beg, because no matter what we do it will never be enough for them. They will always keep coming after our people. They will always keep cutting our budget. They will always keep lowering property taxes. They will always keep doing all of these things that are detrimental to our community, and I think it is delusional to expect any different, no matter how much we give them. Going into it with the attitude that we need to come up with another way.

I think that if we really put our mind to these things and make them a priority, we can really do something. I look at examples like in 2020, when our mayor Bruce Teague and the city wanted to implement a mask mandate, and Kim Reynolds was like, “No, I’m writing it in law that cities cannot do a mask mandate.” We were able to get around that with just clever wording, something about mandating masks for persons and not facilities. Something like that. We can always put our minds to something and there are so many smart people, and so many organizations of smart people who know the law, who it’s their mission to do these types of things. The city councilors and the mayor at the time, they did a great job with that. I think if we apply that same determination, and willingness, and priority to protecting migrants and protecting trans people, and protecting our LGBT community, and our low income people, I think there’s always something that we can do.

Like I said, that doesn’t mean that we do something reckless or not strategic or not smart. A lot of people have criticized me saying oh, he’s just gonna like… No, I’ve never said that. What does differentiate me from my opponent is that I am willing to say that I do not support ICE, and I will do whatever it takes, whatever it takes, to protect the immigrant community. At the end of the day, if everything has been, if all the things have been tried, if there is absolutely nothing else we can do as a city, I’m not willing to sell one person for a dollar amount. That seems to be what a lot of people who were criticizing me were saying, “Well at the end of the day, we are just going to have to sell out some of our neighbors to fascism.” I think going into this new administration with that attitude is crazy. It is what has gotten us into this position in the first place.

Rigby Templeman: So, the budget of the city has always been an issue. How do you plan to deal with the conflict between having that limited money to spend, but wanting to build permanent supportive housing and make existing housing more affordable?

Oliver: It’s been a huge part of my campaign, talking about how I think we can fund a lot of the things I’m talking about, and directions I think we can go. I think that capitalists love to say that you have to spend money to make money, and I think that the same holds true for cities. We can spend money to build a foundation that in the long run saves us money, and even give us money as a city. A lot of the things I’m talking about, you don’t even need to spend a lot of money to create a public bank, and then that has been proven to make things easier for cities to get loans, to get good loans, and to fund the things we need to fund without having to make private banks happen. I grew up in Cedar Falls, Iowa and I thought it was normal my whole life that we had a public utility company, that was city owned and operated, community utilities company. Then I moved to Iowa City when I was 18 and I was like, why do I have like three bills instead of one? Also why is it this private stuff? Then I learned.

Amman: Is the power plant that operates the University of Iowa privatized? 

Oliver: I believe so. I guess I can’t speak surely, but I think so. Anway, in public utilities, in Decorah, they have something on the ballot in March, where they are going to vote yes or no to establish a public utility company. It is something that not only makes it easier for us to democratize our energy, and be able to more directly as community members make decisions about where we want our energy to come from, and our sustainability, but the profits that we make go back into the community, not into a private company’s hands. That’s another revenue source that I’m willing to explore. Like I said, a public utility company is a long term plan, but we need to start having these conversations and set a foundation. 

When it comes to housing, housing if done right, other models in cities around the world have proven that public housing can not only be a self-sustaining utility, but it can be one that makes the city revenue. I look at the city of Vienna, it is truly a model that we can learn from. They have a 100+ year, huge history of public housing. 25% of the housing in Vienna is owned and operated directly by the city and they get 200 million dollars in revenue from the rents collected. 80% of the population qualifies for that public housing. That’s why it’s so effective and that’s why it has such good results, and that’s why you get revenue, because you have people of different incomes. It’s not just for the lowest income people. As a utility, it balances rent. That’s why it’s cheaper to rent an apartment in downtown Vienna, the capital city of Austria, than it is in Iowa City, and that’s kind of a crazy statistic. That’s what the last numbers that I looked at were. So, these are all things that, it might be an upfront investment, but in the long run it gives us more revenue streams and it can really make a dent I believe.

Rigby: So, speaking of housing, your opponent Ross Nusser also states on his website that affordable housing is a top priority for him. How do you think you two differ in approach to that? 

Oliver: I’m not saying that he doesn’t actually, legitimately want to have affordable housing. Nothing like that. What I do think is that he is someone who has a background in real estate, and with property management, and with being a real estate developer, and being a landlord who has Airbnb’s, and I think that just naturally shapes your worldview in terms of what is possible when it comes to affordable housing. In different forms, when I’ve been talking about how other cities around the world are looking into public housing, he responds to it by talking about things like permanent supportive housing, so I just don’t think he knows or has heard about a lot of these things, which doesn’t make him dumb, he’s just been not exposed to the things that I’ve been exposed to, and hasn’t read things that I have or learned things that I have, doesn’t have the same lived experience.

So, when people generally in the United States think about affordable housing, they think about tax credits to developers and landlords, which let’s say you’re a developer and you want to build an apartment complex in the city. The city will say okay, you can build this, but 10% of the units have to be what’s considered affordable, and it actually has a definition, affordable, and that is 30% of your income or less goes to rent and other housing costs. Even that, I don’t know if it follows that model exactly, because a lot of the “affordable” units that we see from these tax credits are not very affordable, and also they’re not permanent. We have increased the longevity of them, from 5-10 years to 15-20 I believe, but it’s just kind of kicking the problem down the road to deal with later. Giving money to the wealthiest among us, thinking that it is going to trickle down onto the rest of us, it is actually just trickle down economics.

Rigby: And that worked great.

Oliver: And that worked great! It’s just trickle down economics that’s kind of painted as this progressive thing. It’s not like I don’t think in this environment that we never do something like that. I think it can help ease symptoms of the problem, but at the same time we need to be looking at the overall, root causes of these problems, and the solution is not to continue to give money to the wealthiest people among us. It doesn’t work, we know it doesn’t work in the long run. We need to think of more structural change to how deep down we view housing.

Amanda: Speaking of your competitors, instead of accepting campaign donations, you’re directing people to donate funds to the Emma Goldman Clinic, Shelter House, Iowa Trans Mutual Aid, and the Prairielands Freedom Fund. What steered you to make this decision? Do you think that this will hinder you from winning the overall election, especially because Ross is using donations to campaign for himself?

Oliver: A huge barrier to me even coming to the decision to run was that, for one, I don’t like making things about myself. I have very intense criticisms of electoral politics a lot and their effectiveness, and one of those main criticisms is that so much of electoral politics is lighting millions and billions of dollars on fire and losing. Or, you win and you get minimal to no results. So, I think going into this as a special election, I thought that I would not have to spend as much money as I would in a general election, I thought that I already, due to a lot of the community work that I do, have kind of like face and name recognition around town, so there was a lot of that work already done for me.

But, deep down it’s just, I think that grassroots organizing and things that are not just electoral politics, I think those are more important than just electing the right people. I do think that strategically, getting local government officials on your side or electing the right people, I think it can really, really help working people directly in their communities and it can strengthen movements. So, a lot of the people in town that would donate to me, I feel like they’re low income people, they’re activists, they’re people who are putting their blood, sweat, and tears in these organizations on the ground that do so much good in our community, and I didn’t want to take their money.

So, I’ve been spending a lot of my own money. A lot of people have been begging me, like please let me give you money, and so if I accept money from somebody I personally vet them. I have a conversation with them and I say is this something that you can afford, and please be honest with me. If they convince me that yes that is the case, my next question is, is this a substitution to doing something else in the community? If they say no, I will continue to do stuff for the community and put finances into the community, then I’ll accept that money. I just didn’t want to take money from the general public. I fear that I would get a lot of money, and then be tempted to spend it needlessly, if that makes sense.

Honestly, I don’t think that this is really hindering me. I think at the time of the primary, I had spent $700, and $534 of it was on yard signs, and the rest of it was on the website and printing, and I still won the election with 69% of the vote. My opponent spent over $3,000 which is public record. I think that goes to show that money can only go so far in things like this.

Julia: Despite the spending ratio between you and your competitor, I’ve seen your signs in just about every business, house, and window in town. I’ve seen your name on a sign all over my social media. How is it that you’re getting people so worked up, so excited about this election?

Oliver: I don’t think it’s necessarily just me, it’s about the values of the campaign, it’s about the knowledge that we just elected a TV show rapist as president for a second time. Am I allowed to say that on the radio? I’m sorry. 

KRUI: Yes.

Oliver: The status quo failed again to combat this right wing authoritarianism. People are fed up and they know that we can’t keep going in that direction that the Democratic party, and the elites of the Democratic party, the higher ups of the Democratic party have tried and failed. They ran a right-wing campaign that was xenophobic, that abandoned trans people, that campaigned with Dick Cheney who’s a war criminal, they shamelessly participated in wholesale genocide and slaughter abroad, and they lost.

They made all of those moral concessions with the justification that we have to beat Donald Trump. And they were going after a demographic of Republicans that don’t want to vote for Trump. That doesn’t exist in the numbers that you need to win. I think people around the country, and in Iowa City, are just realizing that you need a message that is not the status quo, that is for working people, that is unapologetically pro-working class, a populist economic message, and you need to stand with oppressed people, and unflinchingly do so. I think that this is the reason why people really support my campaign. It’s not just about me, it’s about that message. 

Amanda: Looking at the city’s 2023-2028 strategic plan, I know we’ve talked a little bit about the environment in previous questions, but the City of Iowa City states that it wants to focus on maintaining and improving a lot of the outdoor spaces and the Iowa River. A lot of people in the city are concerned about environmental pollution and especially the water quality of the city, especially given the fact that Iowa has the 2nd highest cancer rate in the US, and the fastest rising cancer rate. Do you have any plans to address this?

Oliver: Specific plans, it is hard to say exactly the approach, because there’s so many different angles that you can look at this particular problem from, and it’s hard to say exactly what authority the city does and does not have. I’ve been talking with a lot of lawyers about these things, and the lawyers don’t even agree with each other sometimes about what they think is possible and what they don’t think is possible for the city to do.

What I would love to see is… I guess I’ll just start with the story of how in the 90’s, the city of Bogotá, Columbia, they had so much poverty, they had so much pollution, they had so much litter, they had so much car infrastructure, just smog, everything. They got a new mayor, I can’t remember his name right now, and he got into power, and he was like, “I want to make the city happier.” That was his message. The way he went about doing that was scrapping the multi-million dollar idea of a highway to go through the town and using all of that money to expand on green spaces, build parks, build hundreds of miles of bike infrastructure, build hiking trails, invest in infrastructure that isn’t car based. They even did something where he was like, “Alright guys, one day I declare that you will not drive a car, unless you absolutely have to.” I don’t remember the exact stipulations, but the vast majority of people did not drive a car for one day, and it was so popular that it’s now a city wide holiday yearly, and I believe it’s still going on.

Instantly, they saw people utilizing common space, public space, in ways that they were not used to doing. The smog thinned dramatically in one day. The green spaces that were built were utilized in ways that they hadn’t seen before. People just went out in the community and they enjoyed their community spaces in ways that they hadn’t seen. That, mixed with the investment in green spaces, the investment in moving away from fossil fuels, in pedestrian and bike infrastructure, that type of thing, it really made a huge positive impact on the city. I cannot wait to learn and read more about how they went about doing these things, and the nitty gritty on how these things were implemented, and the exact ways that they went about doing this because I’m very passionate about not only making the city more accessible and more public and more democratic, but making it a beautiful place, and making it one where you’re not afraid to get in the water.

Rigby: You’ve said you are a gun owner who dislikes gun culture. One quote that stuck with me is, “We sadly live in a country with many more guns than people, and with our current leaders, it will stay that way for the foreseeable future. I think we can avoid harm by strengthening our community networks and engaging in this type of gun violence intervention.” 

This view is pretty different from the left’s usual take on gun control, and pretty different from what I’ve grown up being taught. Could you expand on your thoughts about gun control a little bit?

Oliver: There’s been a lot of talk about the fact that, and it’s also something that I’ve addressed on my website, about how I hate the NRA too. People, with whatever agenda that they have, have gone through 10-plus years of my social media history and posted things that they consider to be bad. A few of those things were a 6-year old picture of me holding a gun, and a couple recent pictures of me just at the shooting range.

So, a little bit of background of my journey to becoming a gun owner, if you will. I’m someone who has been very public facing in my activism and the type of activism that I’ve done. I was in the streets when Michael Brown was murdered, I was at Standing Rock with Indigenous People in North Dakota when they were fighting the pipeline going through, I was at Mississippi Stand when we were fighting the pipeline in Iowa, I was at Donald Trump’s inauguration and I got arrested there protesting his first inauguration. I was in Minneapolis for Philando Castile, I was at Tamir Rice protests, I was in Minneapolis during the George Floyd uprisings.

Because of this public facing history of activism, and being arrested in D.C. during Donald Trump’s inauguration, I was heavily doxxed by extremely violent right wing nationalists, neo-nazis that had posted not only my address, but my partner’s address, and my family’s addresses, where they work, and sometimes what their phone numbers were. I think I was like 23 or 24 at the time, my partner and I, it was just something where we didn’t know what to do. These are the types of people where when political violence happens, 99% of the time it’s violent white supremacism right wing people. They commit the murders the vast majority of the time and they’re the people that I know that are capable of extreme violence, and have made direct threats to me and my family.

When I say that I have weapons, or I bought weapons for self defense, I don’t mean in the NRA talking point of ugh, what if someone walks in and steals my TV. If someone walked into my house to steal my TV I would let them have it. I think that lives matter more than property, and I think a lot of these NRA types, when they talk about self-defense, it’s actually just kind of murder fantasies about them wanting to be in a position where they can use their firearm. It’s the absolute opposite for me. Even if it was a neo-nazi, it would be the most devastating thing probably in my life if I had to use a firearm in self-defense.

Even with animals. I go back country hiking in bear country pretty frequently, so I have a handgun that is an absolute last resort if I’m being currently mauled by a bear, and I have all these other items. Pepper spray, bear spray is way more effective and all these other mitigations are way more effective, but if it comes down to it, I would rather shoot a bear than be eaten by one. Even if I had to shoot a bear, it would be devastating to me. Like I said, I’m a vegan. 

So, my reason for owning firearms, my philosophy surrounding firearms is so different than your average right wing person. It’s also put me in a place kind of like you mentioned in your question, a very unique person to where a lot of people where they’re in similar situations, like particularly with marginalized people, people who have faced similar threats. They’re like black, they’re trans, they’re part of the queer community, they are women who have stalkers. A lot of them don’t feel comfortable going to a racist organization like the NRA and asking for their help. So, if someone makes the hard decision to purchase firearms for self-defense for legitimate threats, and they feel comfortable coming to me and asking me, “Can you help me be safe when I’m going through this?” I will always do whatever I can for free. I have multiple times. I’m not telling people to buy firearms. I always tell them the risks involved, and make sure they really think this through because it is true that if you have a gun in your house, statistically you’re at much higher risk of gun violence, specifically marginalized people, specifically women. But, if they make that decision, I will be there to make it as safe as possible.

I even bought a safe that’s way bigger than I need, it’s like huge. My partner Juliet hates it because it takes up so much of our living room, and so they’ve tried to “yassify” my gun safe, make it look pretty. So many people have reached out to me because they’re like, “Hey, I have guns, but I have family coming over and I don’t have a proper place to store this.,” or, “I am currently expecting a child and I want a proper place to store this gun before I get rid of it,” or, “I really need my gun to not be in my house because my mental health is so terrible.” Usually, individualistic American gun culture does not have that community minded approach to gun safety, where people feel safe as a community to reach out and have these public resources that they can use. Countless times I’ve stored peoples’ guns in my gun safe for that reason. That’s the reason why the leader of the chapter of the Moms Demand Action endorsed me, it’s because of my commitment to gun safety in that way.

Amman: On Ross Nusser’s website he says that historical preservation is one of his most important values and at his last campaign event, he and his supporters were repeating similar things. The Iowa City Historical Preservation council is big into zoning and controlling what can and can’t be built in the city. Do you view that commission and its concerns about historical preservation as compatible with your affordable housing plans, or do you view them as NIMBY dog whistle?

Oliver: I guess it depends on who is saying it and their reasons for saying it. I’m someone who doesn’t think we need to be at odds at all. I think that we can maintain the character of a neighborhood, we can preserve important cultural things and buildings in our communities while at the same time adding density without having to tear down or heavily modify these places. I really like Friends of Historical Preservation because they’re really big on sustainability. If they have to demolish a historical site, they have a program, I’m blanking on the name right now [The Salvage Barn], but it’s for old historical buildings that have been torn down and they take the parts and the things from the historical building and store them there so if people who have a historical house or historical building, they need to repair it, they can recycle those things.

I think that it does not have to combat affordable housing. I don’t think it has to combat sustainability efforts. I think that they can work hand in hand. I really think that we should dispel the myth that you can’t have historical preservation while also building housing and adding density. I think we can bring the community together and really find a common ground on what type of architecture we want to use, and the scale of projects. There’s currently one being talked about now, it’s the rezoning of a place on North Governor street. They want to build what’s called the Goosetown apartments, and there’s lots of conversation going on there. A lot of people might think of zoning and this type of thing as boring, but I’m someone who has read lots of books about how zoning and city planning greatly affect cities, and how they are very political things that really play an important role. So, I don’t view these things as boring. A lot of people would. It’s fascinating how cool zoning can be.

Amman: On the topic of zoning, do you have a plan for that open downtown lot they’re talking about right now.

Oliver: Personally, I don’t have a plan. Obviously there are priorities of things. I don’t know exactly the stipulations or the costs involved, so I don’t know enough details to know what’s possible there, but I do know that the city has made a recommendation. There’s a few bids from different developers, and the city has made a recommendation to choose between one of the two. I’ve read both of the proposals, but I feel that I would need more context, and I would need to meet more with the city councilors and learn more about the process of how we got to this point to make an informed decision. I think it needs to be something that is very beneficial to the community and adds to our housing stock, I will say that.

Amanda: You’ve touched a little bit on the culture of community mindedness. A lot of times when it comes to politics, people feel like their voice isn’t heard. If you end up being elected, how do you plan to make yourself available to your constituents?

Oliver: I have my phone number on my website, and lots of people just cold call me, and I love that. I really want it to be known that I’m somebody who will meet with virtually anybody, and views everybody’s input in Iowa City as important. Not only just for me but I want people to feel that in general. I believe in the words of Henri Lefebvre or David Harvey, that people have a right to the city. I think that can start with more transparency with what the city is doing and the willingness of people to meet with anybody, the willingness of councilors to meet with anybody, so no one feels left out. 

Rigby: What are your plans and intentions of non-enforcement for specific state and federal laws that target certain community members, such as anti-trans laws or the ICE executive orders?

Oliver: In terms of anti-trans laws, there’s the TAC, the Trans Action Committee, and I’ve met with lots of people who are in that committee. I’ve met with lots of different transgender individuals with different backgrounds in Iowa City constantly about this type of thing. What I will say is that there are ideas that the Iowa ACLU will like, and think that there’s a good chance of being successful. Also, organizations like One Iowa, that’s an advocacy group for LGBTQ rights in Iowa. I remember phone banking for them when I was in like 7th grade. That was when gay marriage was being passed in Iowa. Remember when we had a state government where that was possible? That’s crazy. I don’t know if you all remember, I’m kind of old. Like I was saying before about how we can get creative with our wording, we can get creative with how our role as the city council can direct our city attorney in a way of how he interprets law. That’s kind of vague but that is a direction that a lot of these organizations like. 

When it comes to ICE, I think the city should do everything that it can in smart and strategic ways, like I was talking about with the mask mandate, we need to explore all options and work with lawyers and really try to explore how other communities are handling this. I don’t think it should be overlooked how much grassroots community organizing plays a role in protecting people in the community, and I think as a city, we can do so much in terms of providing education and resources to these grassroots organizations to effectively protect people. Tom Homan, he’s the director of ICE that Trump appointed, he went on I think CNN and was whining about how the people of Chicago know their rights too much and it’s making it hard for them to arrest people. So, he gets on TV and proves that if people, not only migrants know their rights, and if people in Iowa City know their rights, you do not have to talk to ICE, you do not have to talk to the police. Actually, I want Iowa City to have a culture where if ICE comes in here, they’re gonna get the door slammed in their face, and they know that we are a city that looks after each other and has solidarity with our neighbors, and we’re not gonna sell each other out. Those are directions I would love to go.

Rigby: Thank you for talking with us today, Oliver. Where can people can reach out to you if they have questions or concerns? 

Oliver: My website is https://www.oliverforiowacity.com/ 

You can read more about everything on there: how to vote, where to vote, when to vote, and at the bottom of the website, my phone number is on there. I love getting calls and texts. I haven’t gotten any weird ones yet. My email is on there. I get a lot of emails and I respond as quickly as I can. I kind of understand why people have secretaries now, because it’s extremely hard to keep up with all this, but I make it a point on principle to try my absolute best to respond to everybody and to meet with everybody in good faith. Absolutely reach out to me. 

You can reach Oliver at oweilein@gmail.com or (319) 269-5189

Note: We do not speak on behalf of the University of Iowa or the Board of Regents.

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Dr. Ben-Ghiat visited the University of Iowa as a guest speaker for the UI Lecture Committee on October 3rd, 2024. KRUI had the opportunity to speak to her before her public appearance to talk about her significant research findings on the blueprint of fascist movements, strongmen, and why the MAGA political movement has been so successful just over a month ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election.

Since the time of this conversation, Republican Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance have been declared and confirmed as the winner of the Presidential election, and were inaugurated on January 20th, 2025. All comments were made in speculation of a tight race and in the context of rising political tensions between the two parties with the end of campaign season rapidly approaching.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Julia Anderson: In preparation for speaking with you today, of course, I watched just about every video of yours I could find on YouTube. An interesting fact that you mentioned, that I thought would be a really good starting point here is that 30% of the population at any given time has authoritarian leanings. This is in a global sense, and so according to the trending news today, there are many right-wing political movements happening across the world, such as in Hungary with President Viktor Orbán and in France with the rise of the National Rally Party led by Marine Le Pen. There’s also a couple of others I believe in Germany and whatnot, along with several places in Europe. What distinguishes fascism from other types of nationalist movements, and where do we see fascism rising in the world today?

Ruth Ben-Ghiat: Yeah, so that’s a great question. I mean, classic fascism was a product of the 1920s and ’30s, with Mussolini being the person who invented fascism. It was very much a product of World War I and the total upheaval of everyone’s lives, with millions and millions of men who were killed and disabled, along with changes in gender relations. One of the things I found in my research, and fascism as the first example, is that authoritarianism is appealing when societies have had a huge amount of change.

World War I was the biggest example, with progress made with gender, racial equity, and the beginning of anti-colonial activities. That leads to a backlash, and so fascism was this very pure form of state driven racism, you know? Nations wanted to turn back the clock and make women kind of the tools of the state for procreation, but only the right kinds of babies. In the Nazi version, it was having the state channel to create a master race, right? That leads to imperialist campaigns of conquering, looting, and plundering. So today, things work differently, and there are many fascist aspects that remain. For example calling people garbage, scum, or vermin, and talking about them as animals. This has remained from fascism. Hitler used it for the Jews. Mussolini used it eventually for Jews, but also for leftists.

There’s the whole idea of needing these hyper nationalist movements to defeat Marxism and defeat communism that comes out of fascism. But things work differently today. There are not as many one party states where there’s no political opposition allowed. Really, it’s places like North Korea and China, which are communist. So fascism remains in its spirit, in its language, and many policies, but today I use the word authoritarian because that encompasses the fact we still have elections. Like in Hungary or Turkey, you have authoritarians, but they have elections and they’re not one party states.

Anderson: Is it possible to see fascism in a democracy such as what we’re seeing across Europe? Are these actually considered fascist movements?

Ben-Ghiat: Some people use the word fascism for them, and there’s a whole debate on this including what we do about Trump and the GOP. Are they fascist? Do they want fascism? So, there’s a debate on whether you could use the word today, right? Or, you want to restrict it, and I’m kind of in the middle where in some ways it’s not useful to label Viktor Orbán a fascist, because then people say, “Well, wait a minute, it’s not a one party state. It’s not a pure dictatorship. So, what are you talking about?” That’s why I use the word authoritarian. Fascism was just the first stage of authoritarianism, which is when the executive, personal power of the leader kind of takes over, and eradicates or highly damages the independence of the judiciary and opposition parties. That allows the leader to have supreme power and even immunity from prosecution.

So, there are many similarities, but definitely some of the same conditions that led to fascism—like people feeling they need to turn the clock back on racial or gender emancipation, all that stuff—that exists today.

Anderson: You brought up a good point a second ago with mentioning how this relates to Donald Trump and the rise of this kind of Trumpism version of Republicanism in American politics. Since the release of your book, which served as an analysis of the rise to power of Benito Mussolini in Italy, he essentially created the blueprint for right wing dictatorship.

As it relates to Donald Trump and with the upcoming election, you’ve spoken very publicly and been very critical of the policies contained in Project 2025, and how they relate to fascism. A common response is, “It can’t happen here in the U.S. We have too many guardrails in place. That really wouldn’t be possible. As entertaining as politics is right now, nothing’s really a threat, an actual tangible threat to our democracy.” But, what is it that experts making this claim, that there is a connection between the two, what are they seeing that indicates that the U.S. is susceptible to a fascist movement?

Ben-Ghiat: Well, we already have many signs of this. So basically, you know, Trump is an authoritarian. He’s in my book. It was one of the first books to put him in historical perspective, look at him and see how does he bring forth not just fascism, but also right wing military dictatorships. Trump has been on record many times saying he wants the military to have a new role. Not just abroad, which has been their role, but also he thinks protesters should be shot. He’s talked about executing generals who are not loyal. He wants the military to be used, in part, for domestic repression.

So, he doesn’t just borrow from fascism, he borrows from these other forms of authoritarianism. What has happened to the GOP since he became president is that in my analysis it’s become an autocratic party. Trump has a genuine leader-call. It’s extraordinary what he’s been able to do. Working in a democracy, he has been able to have this personal control over the party. Now, he has his daughter in law, Laura Trump, who’s the head of the Republican National Committee, and the money is raised from ordinary Republicans around the country. It goes to Trump and not to other campaigns. There’s a lot of personalization of politics, and the GOP is now a party that is dependent on lying, such as the idea that Trump won the 2020 election. Also, they lie about January 6th, which was an attempt to overthrow the government. So that’s an example.

How far have we come down the path of authoritarianism? We already had an attempt to overthrow the government with tens of thousands of people committing violence, along with the GOP, Fox News, and all the other allies that have been trying to cover this up and say it was just terrorists. They said it wasn’t violent, because that’s what you do in history if you’re not done. So, they’re dependent on corruption, on lying, on violence, and that’s how authoritarian parties work. They can’t really have fair and free elections anymore in countries. That’s why they engage in this election denial.

The last thing I’ll say is that we never had a national experience of dictatorship in America, but we had a regional authoritarianism which was the Jim Crow South. We have a long history, and not just in the South, of voter suppression, a lot of which is racially motivated, but also just political trickery, right? So, in places like Ohio the GOP uses voter suppression very effectively. Redistricting and gerrymandering, these are all forms of voter suppression and just trying to game the results so that it’s not really a free and fair election, even though it seems to be. So, we have all this history and that’s why it can happen here, but it always looks different. That’s why people don’t see it coming. When you analyze something like the tool book of global authoritarianism, and then look at our history here, you see how they meet.

Trump was very smart from the very beginning in 2016 to address himself to all kinds of extremists, including southern racists who never liked Barack Obama, never thought he should have been there, along with neo-Nazis and the militias. So, he created a big tent so that everybody could be part of his Trumpism and that’s why some people would say, “Okay, well, isn’t he repeating fascism?” and in part, he is, but he’s also activating things that are specific to our country, if that makes sense.

Anderson: Yes, it does seem that his popularity increased with this emotional appeal. It was like an appeal to people that felt like they had been forgotten, given that they weren’t at the forefront of the progress being made for people that have historically been left behind.

As a response, as you mentioned, the GOP does use a lot of rhetoric to combat against claims that they’re fascists, such as blaming the left, accusing the “the radical left” of being a fascist, or an authoritarian movement that’s attempting to oust him from politics and disrupt the democratic process. Is there any validity or any weight to those claims, or are they simply just diversion tactics? 

Ben-Ghiat: That part is diversion tactics. I call it the upside down world of authoritarianism, you take everything and you flip it. So, a diversionary tactic is claiming that when Joe Biden stepped aside due to age and a sense that he wasn’t as effective as he could have been, and Vice President Kamala Harris became the nominee, the Republicans are saying that was a coup attempt. What we have to pay attention to is the big narrative lines they use, and one of them is that it’s the Democrats who are authoritarians. They’re very good at doing that.

But you brought up something really important about the validity of all this. Democrats had kind of neglected white working class people and rural populations. The Biden administration has hugely corrected this, both with like manufacturing policies and stuff about addressing the opioid rhetoric epidemic, right? But they were a population that was not served by Democrats. So, Trump is a marketer at heart, and he’s a brilliant marketer. He’s not the first one, there are others in my book who scan the political marketplace and see who is underserved, and is going to be susceptible to his appeals. He doesn’t care about the working class, but he came to them and he said, “You’ve been forgotten. I love you, and I will fix it for you,” and of course they voted for him. Here was somebody speaking to them directly, and authoritarians from Mussolini, Berlusconi, even Putin do the same. They know how to use emotion to make people feel they care about them.

There are huge crowds at Trump rallies. They feel that he loves them, and he’s very good at making them think that. So, he went and he said, “You were forgotten.” Democrats didn’t have anything to compete with that. Emotion is extremely important, and it’s actually been authoritarians who have known how to use emotion until very recently, with the Kamala Harris joy and love sentiment. That’s really recent, but Hillary Clinton was not a joy and love type of emotional person. It was Trump who knew how to do that, and he gets credit for that. I believe it’s a terrible tragedy for our nation that he doesn’t actually care about the American people. He cares about his own power and riches, but he’s very good at making people feel like he cares about them.

Anderson: As someone who has obsessively watched the news since probably 2016—even when I was a little too young to understand exactly what was going on—I could tell the emotional appeal was strong, even if you don’t have much of a political background. Donald Trump on TV is someone that anyone can understand. Just breaking down his vocabulary, it’s not the most complex, but it appeals to people and it’s accessible.

Ben-Ghiat: There are studies that he, especially in the whole 2016 campaign and while he was president, was at a fourth or fifth grade level with his vocabulary. The other thing he did is that he used all caps. Most of his posts are all caps. I study propaganda, there’s a chapter in my book about propaganda, and I also studied visual things. He’s a hugely visual person, and so at the beginning, he would capitalize only some words in his tweets. They were words that he knew when people were scrolling would stand out. Stuff about his victimhood, stuff about the horrible Democrats, stuff about him being so great, he would capitalize those things, and he would use this very basic language that appealed to people who wanted a politician who they feel is down to earth.

Anderson: When there are serious, credible threats of authoritarianism or fascism on the rise globally in a political climate, what are the most effective practices in curbing that rise?

Ben-Ghiat: So recently, we had a really good example in Poland. In 2023, the opposition mobilized to the polls and voted out a far-right government that had all but banned abortion nationally and was horribly anti-immigrant, which is the same checklist of far-right things that we are having here and all kinds of other places. So, what do they do? They expose the corruption of the far-right government and their hypocrisy. That is a little harder to do here because the GOP is highly organized with a very effective party machine for messaging. They also have Fox News, and there was no Fox News equivalent in Poland. But, they did expose the hypocrisy, showing that government politicians were actually selling visas to immigrants and profiting, gouging them. People didn’t like that. They also appealed to women about abortion rights and so and they had positive messaging.

They also had like a six party coalition. Now, we are really hindered with this because we’ve only got the two parties. We’re a giant nation, a big, powerful nation, and when one of those parties leaves democracy, doesn’t recognize election results anymore, and uses violence, what do you do? That’s hard, and that’s why we have Republicans endorsing Harris now. Hundreds and hundreds of prominent Republicans, people who served with Trump, and generals are coming out and saying things like, “For the good of the country,” and “Put country over party this time and keep him out,” because we know how dangerous it is for national security. So in Poland, the polls were able to get six parties representing a wide swath of opinions. They all unified against the far-right government.

The final thing they did was mobilize emotion. They had the March of a Million Hearts, and literally a heart as their logo. It was about positivity, solidarity, kindness, all of it was a values based campaign. Plus, the anti-corruption and pro-reproductive rights. It was the largest turnout since communism fell in 1989. Then that led to the largest voter turnout since 1989 and now they have progressives in power. Those are things that are much harder to do here, but that’s why when the Harris Walz campaign started talking about joy and love, I was like, “This is good, this is what we need.”

Anderson: Honestly, I do take a more moderate stance between the two, specifically when it comes to being on radio, but I do really enjoy the positivity that’s been coming from the Democratic Party since they’ve switched to having Vice President Harris be the primary candidate as opposed to Joe Biden. There is a massive tonal switch that I don’t think really anyone can deny. If you watched the DNC, it just seemed like there was a lot more positivity in the room than there has been in the last eight years that we’ve seen from the Democratic Party.

Ben-Ghiat: On that positive, moderate note, it’s really important to engage people on a positive basis and not just attack. It’s not by demonizing each other, it’s by actually reaching out to those you know. Bridge building is important, and a lot of people have family members or friends they don’t talk to anymore because of politics. You have to have those conversations. All the research says you should not shame them, you should not condescend them. You have to meet them where they are and keep the connection going, because otherwise we don’t have a civic fabric anymore, and that’s what can lead to political violence, and nobody wants that except a very small minority of extremists. Most Americans don’t want that.

In fact, on some of the major issues, Americans are much more moderate than MAGA. They are for reproductive rights. They are for same-sex marriage. Those things have been accepted. There’s a lot of repair we can do. That’s why I’m also on this tour talking about these things. It’s just we can all do things our own way and have our own contribution, because what is the alternative?

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Reid currently hosts “The ReidOut” on MSNBC, and was the first black woman to host a primetime cable news program. In her speech at Hancher, Reid led listeners through her life and explained how she got here. Being “here,” of course, meant being a nationally recognized and award-winning journalist and political analyst. Her story began with her adventurous, West Indies mother, who Reid said pushed her to learn about and explore her passions.

After her lecture, an audience Q&A, and a reception, Reid visited KRUI for an interview. The interview was conducted by KRUI editor-in-chief Lauren Asman, KRUI writer Sebastian Buchman, and Daily Iowan reporter Kate Perez. Also in the studio were Daily Iowan photographer Olivia Lapchick and DITV reporter Johnny Valtman. Alex Lenaers, KRUI’s production director, engineered the live interview and edited the audio for re-upload.

The internet has produced a lot of bite-sized information, Reid said, and as a result, people are reading less and not always absorbing accurate information. “I definitely think the narrowing of the American palette has been bad for journalism and bad for the country,” Reid said. To correct this, she said, mainstream media should practice transparency and try to lead audiences to a wide range of journalists and investigative pieces.

Reid urged new journalists to sharpen their writing skills, and to read as much as possible. The journalist shared her past affinity for Russian novels, including “War and Peace,” as an example. She encouraged listeners to branch out and explore new subjects. “Read the banned books,” Reid said. “Those are the first things that should be on your list.” She also recommends conducting interviews, and learning how to listen to interviewees.

The interview covered racial politics as well. Reid broke down the difference between racism on an individual level and racism on an institutional level. She also explained her thoughts on recent legislation to ban critical race theory. She explained how the phrase “critical race theory” is a law school program that has been negatively branded, primarily by conservative Christopher Rufo, and is now inaccurately associated with all race-related education. “Trying to ban critical race theory is dumb, because they’re still going to teach it in law school,” Reid said.

Reid’s final insights featured a humorous riff on getting her Jamaican godmother to eat steak medium-rare, and shoutouts to several journalists and political experts. She listed Rachel Maddow, Nicole Wallace, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Adam Serwer and David Folkenflik as examples of good reporters and writers.

Access the full conversation and other interviews at anchor.fm/krui.

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Join KRUI as we interview Katie Lamberty, Executive Director of the University of Iowa’s ARH!

Associated Residence Halls (ARH) is the student governing body for the residence halls. It is an active organization whose mission is to serve as an advocate for student residents. Associated Residence Halls takes honor in focusing on a high quality living experience for residents through hall improvements, developmental programs, and events.ARH create policy and plan many social, fundraising, and school spirit events including Homecoming activities, Casino Nights, final exam care package programs, movie nights, Iowa Idol, and various leadership development activities. ARH also has the ability to create committees and policies crafted from what they find that residents would like to see in the halls and on campus.

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Join KRUI and host Daisy Lee as she interviews Morgan, the Volunteer Coordinator for Iowa City’s Rape Victim Advocacy Program. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) and RVAP has done so much this month to educate, advocate and promote Sexual Assault Awareness and prevention.

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Join host Kris Yambao as he and KRUI learns more about secularism at Iowa, coming up on Sunday (4/24), there is going to be a forum that asks a pretty big question: “Does religion do more good or harm?” Learn more about that here and listen in on this awesome interview with Secular Students at Iowa’s very own, Ian Wold.

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In partnership with Just Living and the University of Iowa Public Policy Center, hosted by the Englert Theater, Dr. Robert Bullard presents: “The Wrong Complexion for Protection: Flint Water Crisis.” He is the author of seventeen books that address sustainable development, environmental racism, urban land use, industrial facility siting, community reinvestment, housing, transportation, climate justice, emergency response, smart growth, and regional equity. Please join 89.7 KRUI fm as we bring you this exclusive interview with the Father of Environmental Justice.

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