Name: Kelcey Brackett, Democrat
Office/District: State Representative District 91
Hometown: Muscatine
Profession: Information technology
Why running for office: “I’ve been on the city council for a couple of years now. I had originally decided to run for that office because I felt that our local leadership needed some new voices and we changed out a number of the seats on the council at that time. During my time on the council, I have found that we are hamstrung by a lot of things that go on in Des Moines and I feel that I could actually help our community in more ways by moving on to the statehouse seat.
“There are so many issues. There’s a lot of things that really impact our area. Mental healthcare is a really big thing. We’ve struggled with that here. Our county board of supervisors leadership has really struggled with that. It’s been all over different news with the issues that they’ve had with the mental health region. I think that’s something that we need done at the state level so that there’s more consistency across the state instead of it having to be this bizarre region-by-region thing that has caused quite a bit of problems.
“The privatization of the Medicaid program and how that’s been handled has been just a disaster. Going back to things that have been around for a while, but really haven’t gotten the attention they deserved — rural broadband. Being in IT, I understand what works and how to make that happen. At this point, we are holding back our farming businesses and rural businesses substantially by them being caught in this older technology where they can’t compete with somebody who has an office in a metropolitan area because the options for high-speed internet are just not there. That’s something that’s just really critical to businesses these days. I dealt with it as a consultant and so I understand what kind of needs they have there along those lines.
Website: Bracket for Iowa
Facebook: Kelcey Brackett for Iowa
