The difference between Austin Stubbs and Brian Lohse (candidates for Iowa House District 45) is like day and night. “Day” being Stubbs and “night” being Lohse. You’ll see why below. Add to that, Brian Lohse’s paltry 20% rating by The Freedom Index for the 2025-2026 session, and you’ve got a Republican legislator who needs to be replaced.
Rep. Brian Lohse’s voting record in the legislature is filled with anti-family, anti-Republican votes that were so egregious that the Polk County Republican Central Committee voted to publicly rebuke him last year. Here are a few of those votes:
Illegal immigration (SF 2340)
— Lohse voted NO on a bill that imposed criminal penalties on illegal immigration. — Stubbs supports law enforcement and penalties for violation of our laws.
Harming or killing an unborn baby during crimes (HF 2575) –
— Lohse voted NO on increasing penalties. He also has stated that he believes human life does not begin until there is blood flow.
— Stubbs believes in what the Bible teaches and science proves – that life begins at conception.
Protecting children by prohibiting gender transition procedures from being done on minors (SF 538)
— Lohse voted NO to protecting children from those procedures.
— Stubbs believes that giving children puberty blockers, or conducting surgical procedures, to alter their normal biological development is abusive, impacts their physical, mental, and emotional well-being permanently, and should be illegal.
Protecting children K-12 from being forced to receive the Covid-19 vaccination (HF 2298).
— Lohse voted NO to letting families decide.
— Stubbs believes in parents’ rights to make medical decisions for their minor children, without government forcing them to undergo medical procedures against their will.
Protecting private property owners from having their property condemned by using eminent domain for CO2 pipelines (HF943)
— Lohse voted No to protecting property owners.
— Stubbs opposes the use of eminent domain to condemn private property to benefit private companies.
A multifaceted bill had several important sections that acknowledged scientific facts and protected girls and women (HF 583):
1. The bill stipulated that the sex of a person is determined at birth.
2. The bill removed gender identity (which gave special rights to transgenders) from the Civil Rights Code.
3. The bill protected girls and women from having to share bathrooms with biological males.
— Lohse opposed the bill and offered an amendment that would have dismantled the intent of the bill, confusing 10 Republicans into supporting his amendment. When the truth came out about the effects of his amendment, 8 of the 10 signers withdrew their support of his amendment and Lohse’s attempt to derail the bill failed.)
— Stubbs holds to science — that biological sex is determined at birth. He believes in human rights for all, but not special rights for individuals that define themselves by their sexual activities. And, he supports protecting girls and women from invasions of privacy by biological males who self-identify as females.
*** In fact –
NOTABLY — Stubbs has devoted years to fighting human trafficking and helping victims of human trafficking. While Lohse has been sitting in a chamber voting NO to protecting girls and women, Stubbs has been out there helping to rescue them and continuing to get them help to navigate their new lives that are still filled with trauma.
Parental Rights (HF 714) –
— This is the original parental rights bill introduced by Eddie Andrews. I was closely involved with this bill every step of the way, so can speak first-hand. Brian Lohse, as subcommittee chair, watered down the SEVEN rights that had been declared fundamental rights of parents by Iowa high courts and/or the U.S. Supreme Court to TWO.
— Then when the Senate planned to amend back in those five rights that Lohse had removed, Lohse threatened to kill the bill when it came back to the House.
— The watered-down bill was pulled by supporters because the new Iowa law would have given much weaker protection to parental rights than the existing court rulings.
— Thankfully, the governor included all seven rights in her bill a few years later, and Rep. Eddie Andrews and Sen. Ken Rozenboom added the important “fundamental rights” terminology that the court rulings also had prescribed.
It took years for these parental rights to be encoded because of Brian Lohse’s attempts to dismantle them.
*** The seven rights in the original bill were: Upbringing, Rearing, Associations, Care, Education, Custody, Control.
*** Lohse removed all except: Care, Custody.
Brian Lohse is NOT a friend of parental rights, and as his above votes on bills in the Iowa Legislature demonstrate, he also does NOT care about protecting families, children, women, and landowners.
In contrast, Austin Stubbs is an advocate of parents’ rights to direct all aspects of the upbringing of their own children.
Austin Stubbs is the complete opposite of Brian Lohse, and has gone even further by devoting years of his life to battling human trafficking. Austin Stubbs reflects Republican values, Biblical family values, and the Republican platform while Brian Lohse votes against them.
As a citizen, a parent, and a grandparent, I want AUSTIN STUBBS to represent me in our lawmaking body. Austin has proved himself to be a trustworthy, principled conservative, endorsed by The Family Leader and Americans for Prosperity.
- Barb Heki
