DES MOINES – “Everybody in. Nobody left out. Iowa should lead the way.”
Democrat Cathy Glasson’s campaign for Iowa Governor will launch its first television commercial this Thursday. The thirty second ad, entitled “Heart,” focuses on Glasson’s support for single-payer, universal health care.
“Good health care is not a privilege,” Glasson says in the commercial. “It is not a luxury. As an intensive care nurse, I’ve seen it up close and I believe in my heart that health care is a fundamental human right.”
The initial six-figure ad buy will air in the Des Moines and Cedar Rapids media markets. The campaign’s first commercial includes a dozen Iowans who participated in Glasson’s Listening to Iowa tour and recent town halls across the state. The spot features Glasson speaking at a recent town hall meeting with voters in Dubuque.
Creating a universal health care system is a central tenet of Cathy Glasson’s bold, progressive agenda to dramatically improve the lives of more than a million Iowans, along with raising the minimum wage to $15 and making it easier to join a union no matter where you work.
Glasson’s initial television ad campaign is slated to run through Iowa’s February 5th precinct caucuses. The television ad buy enhances the campaign’s extensive voter outreach program which includes statewide direct mail, statewide digital advertising, extensive social media and a grassroots field organizing program powered by more than 800 volunteers.
“We’re building a movement centered on the radical idea that regular Iowans deserve a voice in the Governor’s office again,” said campaign manager Brian Shepherd. “We’re seeing incredible energy everywhere Cathy goes to sit down and listen to Iowans who’ve been left out. Volunteers are turning out in ice storms and sub-zero wind chills to build this bold, progressive movement. We’re going to keep organizing to do politics differently in Iowa in 2018.”
Cathy Glasson, 59, is the President of SEIU Local 199 representing thousands of nurses, health care workers and school support employees across Iowa. She is a registered nurse who worked in the intensive care unit at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics where she led the effort to unionize her fellow nurses 18 years ago. She lives in Coralville, Iowa with her husband Matt, a labor educator.
