Leila Staton, Iowa House District 54
Every State Blue’s projects crowdfund support for underfunded Democrats running for state legislature – typically in the reddest and most gerrymandered districts in the country. With state projects in Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee – and First In Line, our national initiative funding candidates in districts that went uncontested last cycle – we’re redefining what it means for Democrats to run everywhere.
These are the Downballot Diaries – stories of and from some of the people Every State Blue is supporting this cycle. We fund people running hard in the hardest places – places where a Democrat hasn’t shown up on the ballot in years, sometimes decades.
Leila Staton is one of those people. This is her story.
Leila Staton knows how to get things done.
She’s helped change the rules in Iowa so children who testify in trials don’t have to face their abusers in a courtroom.
She co-founded an advocacy organization called Insufferable Wenches that organizes for local candidates. The group grew from just Staton and her mother to over 400 members across Iowa. The group summarizes state legislative bills into plainspoken language and then posts them on social media so busy Iowans can know what’s going on in Des Moines.
In 2024, Leila Staton reached out to the Democratic Party to learn how best to support local candidates. Instead, she learned there were no Democratic candidates running in her county. In fact, there was no functioning Democratic Party in her county. She says, “The Democrats were neglecting rural communities like they were paid to do it.”
So Leila Staton decided to run herself – to represent the 32,000 citizens of District 54 in Iowa’s house.
Leila Staton is 22 years old.
She was 21 when she filed to run, and in the first fundraising cycle, she fell only $258 short of the Republican incumbent’s donations. The next cycle, she bested him by $10,000. “And all my donors are people,” she emphasizes. “His are PACS that you can’t trace. I could count the people who donated to him on one hand.”
As a candidate, she’s knocked on 2,500 doors across her rural districts, so many that her knuckles hurt. (“I use the heel of my hand now,” she jokes.) Often she’s the first candidate ever to come to those doors. “People have lived there forty years and never had someone knock,” she says. “I’m super awkward, but I ask them what keeps them up at night? Some of them are triple Trumpers, but I tell them, ‘I don’t waste time. We are going to find something to agree on.’”
Staton and supporters door knocking on one of the hottest days of the summer, with her signature “It’s Cool to Care” signs. Image credit @LeilaForIowa
And they do agree on a lot of things: Nobody wants data centers. Most Iowans want campaign reform — corporate funding out of campaigns, for instance, and term limits. They want agricultural monopolies out of their state. They’re against eminent domain being used by private companies. They don’t want tax dollars going to private schools through vouchers.
“I grew up here,” Staton says, “and I know how people think. I would argue that rural Republicans are probably more progressive than Republicans in general. We agree on education, on monopolies, on data centers. We disagree on abortion. To flip a rural district, you have to talk about progressive policies in a conservative way; for instance, if the state can tell you to have a baby, it can also tell you to abort.”
Staton makes the case that the strict 6-week abortion ban has hurt everyone in the state: “We have the fewest per capita ob-gyns of any state. We’re in a complete maternal healthcare desert. People in my district have to drive two hours to find the nearest ob-gyn, and that’s if the doctor takes their insurance. We had five Planned Parenthoods in the state; now we have one.” She notes that the crisis is exacerbated because birthing clinics have closed due to Medicaid cuts. “It’s hard to keep full hospitals open in rural Iowa,” she adds.
Staton may be young, but she stresses that she is not bringing a fresh perspective. “If anything,” she says, “it’s jaded.” She remembers people dancing on tv when Obama got elected but “my memorable presidencies, my entire existence has been under Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Donald Trump again.” She cares deeply about reproductive freedom, bodily autonomy, trans rights, education, and the environment. “I’m really only a doomer on the environment while fully understanding that we can reduce part of the harm,” she says. “We can’t reduce the damage that’s been done. Companies have been extracting out of our world for so long – without any accountability. That’s really what disappoints me in history.”
Leila Staton, Iowa House District 54; Image Credit @LeilaForIowa
Leila Staton hopes her candidacy – win or lose – will inspire other young people to get involved with the process. “We need them,” she says bluntly. “If a Democrat in rural Iowa can campaign one-hundred percent grassroots, any Democrat can do it.”
“Because the harsh reality is that the people making these laws don’t have to live under them for very long.”
Today, candidates like Leila are running in what otherwise would have been uncontested districts all across the country. These good neighbors have stepped up for their communities, giving them a voice and a choice in this election, boosting turnout and vote share for Democrats statewide, and making much-needed progress in some of the reddest places.
You can help them. Support Leila and her fellow Iowa candidates who are running in districts that went uncontested last cycle by clicking here or on the button below. 100% of your contribution goes to the candidates.
Learn more about Every State Blue and our projects (Blue Missouri, Blue Ohio, Blue Tennessee, and First In Line), here.
