Iva Markicevic Daley, Kentucky House District 99
These are the Downballot Diaries – stories of and from some of the people Every State Blue is supporting this cycle.
We crowdfund support for underfunded Democrats running for state legislature – typically in the reddest and most gerrymandered districts in the country. We’re redefining what it means for Democrats to run everywhere.
We support people running hard in the hardest places.
Iva Markicevic Daley is one of those people. This is her story.
Iva Markicevic Daley is a mom in rural Kentucky, and she’s running to represent District 99 in the state house. “My decision to run came from navigating pregnancy and motherhood,” she says. “To get basic prenatal care, I had to drive more than forty minutes, and now I have to drive forty minutes to take my daughter to the pediatrician.”
Her husband is a Marine combat veteran who works as a mechanic. Daley takes care of their two-year-old while also working a remote job in communications. “My husband and I both work full time because, like most families, we can’t live on a single income. Because my job is remote and, until recently, childcare was not available, I know what it’s like to juggle working and keeping a two-year-old clean, fed, and entertained.”
Meanwhile, she’s watching what the Kentucky state legislature is doing. “All the priorities are wrong,” she says. “Little to nothing that’s coming out of the state legislature is helping families like mine. Instead, we’re seeing tax breaks for data centers and income tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest in our state. And we’re seeing a push for deregulation, despite the costs. For example, there are still communities in Eastern Kentucky that to this day cannot access something as basic as drinking water—yet we’re loosening clean water protections?”
It’s not lost on her that the representative from her district repeatedly votes with the majority. “He’s not prioritizing the same things that I as a working mother, as a working-class person, would like to see prioritized.”
Her priorities are protecting existing rural hospitals and expanding healthcare access in rural communities; making life more affordable for families by fighting for a living wage and affordable housing; and expanding opportunity through fully funded public schools, Pre-K for all, and investment in small businesses.
“I realized if I didn’t run, my opponent would run unopposed,” Daley says. “And he would just keep voting with the majority for the status quo. And families in Kentucky deserve more than the status quo.”
Daley majored in education at SUNY Cortland and then got a masters from Harvard in education technology. She began thinking deeply about policy while working on reproductive rights as a communications specialist.
“I realized a lot of folks in nonprofit and charity spaces come to the work from kind of a savior position. And that’s not what communities need. Communities need solutions that come from them. If you look at the makeup of most legislative bodies, they’re pretty homogeneous. They’re not very representative of different perspectives. In Kentucky, there’s less than five moms with young children in the legislature. How do we expect solutions for childcare, solutions for access to pediatric care, solutions for our schools, if the people who are making the decisions don’t have a direct stake in that, if they’re not seeing the direct consequences of the decisions that they’re making?”
She says, “I see the direct consequences of a lack of childcare in our state because I’m living them.”
Daley’s district was held from 1987 to 2019 by Rocky Adkins who came in second in the Democratic primary in 2019 to Kentucky’s popular Democratic governor, Andy Beshear. Adkins has just announced he’s running for governor in 2027. Daley believes she is the Democrat who can retake the district. She’s been endorsed by unions — the Kentucky state AFL-CIO, the UAW, the Teamsters Local 651, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local Lodge 40 — as well as groups like Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates and the Kentucky Women’s Action Network PAC.
But when she’s out knocking doors, it’s not just traditionally Democratic voters who signal their support. Triple Trumpers have told her they’ll be voting for her.
“You can’t represent people’s needs unless you’re doing a lot of listening,” she says, and Daley is doing a lot of listening at events and on people’s porches. “Two weeks ago, I was talking with this gentleman, and when I get back in my car, I’m about to leave, he knocks on my window, I roll down the car window, he hands me a $100 bill. He was like, we need more people like you.”
Daley often takes her two-year-old to campaign events. “Our children absorb what they see. I want her to see community engagement,” Daley says. “I want her to believe the system works for her. I want her to grow up and vote.”
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