A Neighbor’s Case for Running Everywhere.
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.
Mike Frantz is one of those people. This is his story.
Mike Frantz is the kind of neighbor you want showing up when trouble comes. He’s a disaster-relief volunteer who’ll drive an hour to help if you’re burned out of your home – and he’ll bring teddy bears for the kids.
Now that he’s retired from a job in college enrollment, Mike Frantz, 62, keeps showing up for his neighbors in Iowa – not only for families on their worst days but also at legislative forums. He stands up in local town halls to talk about what’s gone wrong in the state and what policies might make it right. “Iowa’s like a mini-me of the federal government,” he says, referring to the Republican stranglehold on the legislature and governorship. Republicans have pushed through a regressive flat tax on income, have sent tax dollars to private schools, and have continued to promote visceral culture wars. Meanwhile, cancer rates climb, educational results fall, and everything costs too much.
Party Democrats noticed Frantz was making good sense at the town halls and began urging him to “put my time and effort where my mouth’s been.” So Frantz, the first person in his family to register as a Democrat, is now running as a Democrat for senate in Iowa’s 3rd district, a Republican-stronghold district that was uncontested by Democrats in the last cycle. Trump won all of the five counties that meet in in 2024, two of them with 80 percent or more of the vote.
Mike Frantz, Democratic nominee for Iowa State Senate, District 3. Image credit: Mike Frantz
So far, Frantz has knocked on doors in 30 of the 33 communities where most of the 60,000 voters in his district live. “I’m doing this to represent you,” he tells anyone who opens the door and accepts his flyer. “Tell me what your interests are.” He hears a lot of despair. “People aren’t happy with where Iowa’s at. They want change. They want some symbol that Iowa doesn’t have to be this way.”
What’s “this way?”
Cancer rates in Iowa are second highest in the nation. It’s one of only three states where rates are rising. Over 21,000 Iowans are diagnosed annually. Frantz points to radon, forever chemicals, and probably nitrates in the water from the corporate agriculture operations that have subsumed the family-farm tradition. He thinks the state should follow the science and act on it. “Do the research and then have the fortitude to follow through on the solutions suggested by the research.”
The state’s education ranking has fallen to 27th in the nation— after traditionally being in the top one or two slots when Frantz himself was in school. Tax money goes to private schools, often religious, through roughly $8,000 vouchers. Polls show 70 percent of Iowans are opposed to vouchers. Frantz notes, “Knocking on 1,500 doors so far, I’ve found three supporters for vouchers.” He sent his own daughter to private schools but did it on his own dime. “That was my choice, and we paid for it,” he says.
Iowans also notice that civil rights protections are eroding. “I was raised to believe my wife and I should have the same rights. She no longer does — even though sixty percent of Iowans are opposed to the six-week abortion ban.” As for his LGBTQ neighbors, Frantz says, “Everyone should have the same civil rights protections under the law.”
People can’t afford healthcare.
Which has been true in his own family. Frantz grew up hunting pheasant on his grandpa’s century farm but later watched helplessly as that farm got sold to pay for his grandparents’ medical care. He remembers going out one last time with this dog and his gun. “I think I took the last pheasant ever off that land by a family member.” His voice thickens and cracks when he tells that story.
Same with when he talks about helping his neighbors during disasters. Recently, he gave a little girl a teddy bear because all her toys had been destroyed. The little girl gave Frantz a hug. “Next time I’ll drive two hours if somebody needs it,” he told his wife later.
Frantz’s run for office is attracting the support of the people who know him best: his neighbors, even ones who don’t agree with him politically. A Bush Republican came up to Frantz at the bar one night and thrust two one-hundred dollar bills into his hand. Frantz asked if he was sure he wanted to see his name on the public rolls — as a donor for a Democrat. The guy said, “Go get ‘em, Mike.” At the golf course, an evangelical Christian who doesn’t see eye to eye with Frantz on much, donated $25. Frantz says, “He wasn’t so much donating to me as he was contributing to the democratic process.”
Mike Frantz sees running for office as an extension of his volunteer work. “This isn’t an ego trip for me,” he says. He just wants to help Iowans who are struggling. “You do it for your neighbor,” he says.
“Why the hell wouldn’t you do it for everybody?”
Today, candidates like Mike 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 Mike and his 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.
