Legislative Hate

Keep Sandy Salmon and Matt Reisetter Out of the Legislature

by Doug Smith

October 17, 2026

In May 2025, State Senator Sandy Salmon (R-Janesville) tried to legislate hate. Senate Concurrent Resolution 3, which she introduced into the Iowa Senate in the final week before adjournment, was an attempt to reverse the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision which legalized same-sex marriage. Fortunately, the legislature adjourned before it could be acted on, but if she got her way, she and her fellow Christian nationalists would invalidate the marriages of untold thousands of our fellow Iowans! And if she is reelected, she may bring this bill up again. Why does she hate them so much?

She interprets the Bible as anti-gay, so she is trying to write her religious interpretation into state law. The problem is that no one’s opinion about the Bible should be influencing legislation! I don’t care what she or anyone else believes from a religious perspective. The point is nobody has the right to force all Iowans to follow their personal interpretation of the Bible. This is not a theocracy! We pass laws for the common good, not to implement religious ideology.

We also have to ask ourselves if a candidate for Iowa House District 76, Matt Reisetter, would vote for that if he is elected to the legislature. Based on his statement that he believes that “same-sex families always deny children either their mother or their father. A loving, compassionate society never intentionally creates motherless or fatherless families, which is exactly what every same-sex home does” we must assume he will, if given the power to do so.

There is actually a bigger picture here. Salmon and her fellow Christian nationalists in the Iowa Republican Party are trying to distract us from the misuse of our tax dollars. They took $314 million of our tax money last year and gave it to private Christian schools, with another $350 million this year, depriving our Iowa Public Schools of the money they need to educate the next generation. And they are robbing the Taxpayer Relief Fund to cover our massive $1 billion budget deficit. AND as if that wasn’t enough, they’ve already passed a state income tax cut that further strangles the state budget but gives the richest Iowans (and campaign donors) a huge reduction in taxes.

Apparently, the strategy is to get us arguing amongst ourselves (and threatening vulnerable citizens) about overturning legal same-sex marriage protections, while they quietly reward campaign donors with a huge windfall in their taxes and pay for it with our money! That’s despicable, Senator Salmon! Even though this resolution didn’t come up for a vote in 2025, we know they’ll keep proposing this kind of legislative hate every session. If Republicans stay in power, someday they might very well pass it.

How can we stop it? Vote Sandy Salmon out of office and vote for Jim Vowels! Don’t elect Matt Reisetter in HD 76, vote for Calvin Horn! We need to vote out all of the Christian nationalists in the GOP majority in the midterm election. They don’t deserve the power they wield.

Learn more about Democratic candidates for all local elections here:  https://sites.google.com/blackhawkdemocrats.com/black-hawk-county-democrats-ca/home 

Find your sample ballot here:  https://blackhawkcountyelections.iowa.gov/search/ 

If you like this blog post, please consider sharing it on your social media platforms.