State Rep. Mary Madison

05/30/2026

I voted early and I voted right!

05/27/2026

Early bird tickets for our Liberty & Justice celebration won’t be available for much longer. Make sure to get yours while they’re here and stay tuned to see who our keynote speaker will be!

Find more details and grab your tickets here: secure.actblue.com/donate/lj2026tickets?refcode=socials

05/27/2026

The new V**e tax will supply $3 million for children’s cancer research. A good start for our community and the research we need!

Today the Governor signed a bill that puts the first $3 million from a new v**e tax toward pediatric cancer research at the University of Iowa. That's a good thing. The families who fought for it, led by parents like Scott Kaas, earned every bit of that win, and the kids who walked into that signing room deserve a state that fights for them. Credit where it's due: this was bipartisan, and it should have been.

If we're serious about cancer in Iowa, and we are second in the nation and still climbing, then we have to be serious about what's causing it. This spring the Harkin Institute and the Iowa Environmental Council released a year-long report naming nitrate in our water as a likely driver of Iowa's cancer rates, alongside pesticides, PFAS, and radon. In some parts of the state, farm runoff accounts for 80 percent of the nitrate in the water.

Here's the part that doesn't sit right with me.

🔹 The University of Iowa ran a network of around 80 nitrate sensors, the eyes and ears that tell us where the contamination is.

🔹 In 2023, the Legislature pulled the funding and the Governor signed it.

🔹 This spring, lawmakers had the chance to restore it and chose not to.

🔹 By this summer, that network drops to about 20 sensors. Three out of four, going dark.

You cannot celebrate cancer research at a university one day and switch off that same university's cancer-tracking sensors the next, and call it a plan.

I'll celebrate the kids and the families today. They earned it. But the work doesn't stop at a signing ceremony. If we want fewer Iowa families in that hospital, we fund the science that finds the cause, and we keep the sensors on.

05/22/2026

Thank you Des Moines Business Record on your Women of Influence honorees!

05/21/2026

Thank you Business Record for the honor of being recognized in this way. Congratulations to all the other honorees! It’s a great day in the neighborhood!

The Business Record is proud to announce the 2026 Women of Influence. These awards celebrate the work of Central Iowa women who have attained success while helping others along the way. From a variety of career paths and walks of life, they've devoted their time to making an impact. They've spent co...

05/12/2026