Mohrfeld takes questions in Montrose

(Editor’s Note: In full transparency Pen City Current's Chuck Vandenberg moderated the event below.)
MONTROSE – District 100 State Rep. candidate Matt Mohrfeld went almost unchecked at a Montrose forum, turned Q&A Tuesday night.
The forum was put on by the American Association of University Women’s Keokuk Chapter at the Riverfront Landing along the Mississippi River.
One glaring moment was when Mohrfeld (D-Fort Madison) singled out his opponent State Rep. Blaine Watkins (R-Donnellson) who indicated through a statement read at the outset of the event, that he wasn’t able to attend the gathering.
“I think that the fact that your representative is not sitting there is a level of political arrogance that is unacceptable,” Mohrfeld said to applause from the 43 people in attendance.
“That should not happen. You don’t win and lose at forums. You get to talk to people. I learned stuff tonight. I had good questions, we had answers and this is something we should expect out of all of our elections and all of our candidates.”
In Watkins’ statement he said he had been invited to attend the forum.
“But with harvest in full swing, I’m unfortunately unable to join you.”
Watkins had a social media video posted several hours prior to the event showing him in working garb with his family’s farmstead and running trucks and tractors in the background.
In his statement, Watkins wrote that he is committed to making this a place where families can continue to thrive, build careers, raise their children and call home.
He referenced five specific accomplishments from his time in the Iowa House. He defeated Fort Madison’s Nannette Griffin by 3.5 points in a November 2025 special election to replace Martin Graber who died suddenly.
Watkins said he helped deliver responsible budgeting, historic economic development in Lee County, including the potential Mesabi Metallics Steel Mill; stronger public safety, record-high investment in public education and reduce cellphone usage in classes; and improved health care including $3 million for cancer research and radon mitigation as well as millions of dollars to rural hospitals and doctor recruitment.
The AAUW sent out questions to Watkins and Mohrfeld prior to the event along topics of public education; the cost of higher education; child care; contraception and abortion care access;  the proposed amendment to the Iowa Constitution that requires a 2/3 majority vote in both chambers to increase individual or corporate income taxes; and his stance on the Equal Rights Amendment.
The forum provided a for a short give-and-take following each group of questions where attendees could push Mohrfeld for greater clarification on his answers. His toughest may have come following the equal rights discussion where he was pushed on transgender access.
Mohrfeld said he opposed the transgender impact in sports where transgender men participated in women events skewing competition. However he said society cannot penalize individuals who want to transition.
“It’s a complicated issue. We cannot vilify people who want to transition and at what point they fully transition to the gender they identify as, we have to respect that,” he said.
He said he would not allow a man into a women’s restroom, but would allow a fully transitioned man that became a women into those bathrooms.

“I am making a distinction there. These are not pedophiles. These are not perverts. These are people that are trapped in what they are going to determine as the wrong sex. And although I may not fully understand that, I’m prepared to accept that.”
Mohrfeld, whose son went to a private school addressed the issue of public savings account saying there is no accountability in the current program. He said the state needs to mandate independent audits like they do every others governmental agency and not only audit finances, but teacher and curriculum qualifications.
The state has spent $640 million on the Educational Savings Account program with about 40% of that funding going to families that were already in non-public systems. But Mohrfeld said you have to get politics out of the way.
“Politics has no place in public education,” he said.
Watkins wrote in his statement the state spent $4 billion in aid to public schools.
With regard to higher education the way to keep students from being priced out of education is to have transparency in front of the process, Mohrfeld said.
“I want to suggest a different approach. Let’s attack this on the front end. Let’s make sure when kids are going into a college or trade, there is more transparency on what that’s going to cost,” he said.  
U.S. students carry $1.9 trillion in student loan debt, according to the Education Data Initiative, and of that amount about $340 billion to $515 billion is interest based on a standard interest range of 6.1% to 9.2%. 
On the issue of childcare, Mohrfeld said the economics of child care are tough and the answer lies in industry participation. He said some industries are standing up employee childcare like Southeastern Community College and Great River Health System, and more of that needs to happen.
He said GRHS is the better answer for medical services in Keokuk as well.
“Insight is not the path forward. They’ve had their chance at it and haven’t moved it forward,” he said of the Michigan based company looking at reopening the former Keokuk hospital.
“Keokuk will never get a hospital back, but they need a 24/7 emergency room. We can’t have a town the size of Keokuk without an emergency room. Everyone in this room is going to access an emergency room and how far is too far to access emergency care?”
He said the Rural Emergency Hospital concept is a good federal program and a good model that he would like to see move forward.
The retired Fort Madison businessman also addressed the proposed steel mill saying that Lee County has learned from the Iowa Fertilizer plant  and has some idea of the path going forward with that venture. But he said there are environmental, human, and resource impacts that have to be considered locally. Mohrfeld said he supported bringing the facility to the area if that’s where it lands, but care needs to be taken to ensure local benchmarks, including natural gas extension in the area, are part of the equation.
He said there will be growing pains and construction pains, but most of those will disappear when the construction is complete in the 10-year buildout.
“There's a lot of nuances along the way. How is the county going to afford infrastructure expansion? What are they going to give away in incentives, if anything? There are questions to be answered, but there is potential gain and we’re going to learn some stuff,” he said.
“Maybe this won’t even happen. The rule is in economic development until you see dozer’s moving, you do not have the company. And we’re a ways from the dozers rolling on this.”
The general election is just two weeks away on Nov. 3 and early voting is underway at Lee County offices.