We asked Iowa City’s council candidates about their priorities. Here’s what they said:

Three incumbents and three challengers are contending for three city council seats in Iowa City this fall.

The Press-Citizen asked each of the six Iowa City City Council candidates about their priorities ahead of Election Day on Nov. 4.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. Early voting began Oct. 15 and lasts through Nov. 3. The last day to submit a request for a mailed ballot is Oct. 20.

Newman Abuissa, who is part of the city’s four-person at-large race, did not respond to the questionnaire ahead of an Oct. 16 publication deadline. The five other candidates’ responses are listed below, first by council race, then alphabetically by last name.

More: Early voting kicks off in Johnson County on Oct. 15. Here’s where to go and what to know:

Iowa City residents can vote for two candidates in the at-large race and one in the District B race, even if they reside in Districts A or C.

Answers have been edited for length, clarity and style.

Who are the candidates in the at-large race?

Newman Abuissa

Abuissa did not respond to the survey as of Friday, Oct. 17. Abuissa is a Syrian-American who works as a traffic operations engineer for the Iowa Department of Transportation. He has often attended pro-Palestinian protests around Iowa City in the two years since the Israel-Hamas war began.

Megan Alter (incumbent)

Age: 55

Grew up in: Grand Rapids, Michigan

Occupation: Director of Academic Content (English Language Arts) at ACT. Prior to that, I was a visiting professor at the University of Iowa (Dept. of English and Sexuality Studies) and I also taught at Cornell College.

Education: Ph.D. English Literature from the UI. B.A. and M.A. from NYU.

Prior political experience: I have served one four-year term on the Iowa City City Council. Before that, I served one-and-a-half terms as a commissioner on the Housing and Community Development Commission. I served as vice chair of the HCDC for 2 years, and I served as Mayor Pro Tem during my first two years as a councilor. I have a long history with the Johnson County Democrats, mainly but not limited to helping run caucuses for District 10, and now my new District, 29. I have been a volunteer for presidential elections (first for the Human Rights Campaign, then Kamala Harris, Biden, and Harris again). I have door-knocked for county supervisors and House races.

Clara Reynen

Age: 28

Grew up in: Burlington, Iowa & Milbank, South Dakota

Occupation: Graduate teaching assistant & artist

Education: I have a Master of Library and Information Sciences from the University of Iowa, along with two bachelors degrees from Iowa as well. I went to high school in Burlington, Iowa.

Prior political experience: This is not a public or elected office, but I am on the Coordinating Committee for the Campaign to Organize Graduate Students (COGS) UE Local 896.

Bruce Teague (incumbent)

Age: 49

Grew up in: Chicago, Illinois

Occupation: Health care professional & business owner

Education: The University Of Iowa

Prior political experience: I have served on the Iowa City Council since 2018 and as mayor since 2020. Before and while on the council, I have served on several community boards and commissions that focused on social services, housing, public health, LGBTQ+ rights, migrants and immigrants, and elder and disability inclusion. During my time as mayor, I have worked to strengthen housing affordability, support small and large businesses, and expand equity and inclusion for everyone who calls Iowa City home. In every setting, I remind people that we all belong here.

Who are the candidates in District B?

Shawn Harmsen (incumbent)

Age: 52

Grew up in: Rural Clinton County, Iowa

Occupation: Professor

Education: Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, M.A. from the University of Northern Iowa, B.A. from Wartburg College

Prior political experience: I am finishing my first term on the Iowa City Council. Prior political work has been as a local Democratic volunteer.

Amy Hospodarsky

Age: 38

Grew up in: Davenport, but finished high school in Ottumwa, Iowa

Occupation: I am the director at Crowded Closet Thrift Shop

Education: I have a B.A. in Marketing from the University of Iowa

Prior political experience: This is my first time running for public office.

In your view, what is the top issue facing Iowa City over the next four years? If elected, how will you work to address it?

Megan Alter: ARPA support is ending; this is going to put a huge strain on our humanitarian and essential services. This will impact Iowa City exponentially because our direct-aid agencies are regional. Additionally, our city budget is shrinking because of rollbacks from the state and federal instability. In short, the need will become much greater and dollars are drying up.

This reality impacts the current and future state of affordable housing, shelter, food security, projects like a fifth fire station, maintaining our parks, supporting our arts and the library, improvements to our facilities and maintaining our roads. To address this reality, I am 100% in favor of passing LOST. But that isn’t enough. We must look to & support community wealth building (especially through land and property acquisition), attract more economic growth & work with developers to increase our tax base, thus helping to sustain all of our local priorities. We must focus intently to lessen our reliance on state and federal money.

Shawn Harmsen: Fear.

That’s the top issue facing Iowa City right now. There are so many things coming at us right now from the state and federal levels, which have left people in our community afraid. I see it in emails, I hear it on front porches and doorsteps when I walk our neighborhoods, and we all hear it in public and in private. But when others sow fear and seek our tears, we meet it with bold community and joyful demonstration of our love for each other and raise our voices, together, in peaceful public protest and private determination. That’s the vision and leadership I offer to the community to meet this moment we are in.

Amy Hospodarsky: One of the top issues Iowa City is facing is affordable housing. When we prioritize housing, we strengthen the foundation for everything else: economic opportunity, safe neighborhoods, strong schools, and the sense of belonging that makes Iowa City such a special place to live. Housing is the first thing every one of us pays for, and when it becomes unaffordable or unstable, it creates stress that ripples out into every other part of life. It affects whether families can put food on the table, whether workers can stay close to their jobs, whether seniors can age in place, and whether our neighborhoods stay vibrant and connected.

I’d work to address it by taking a proactive approach: rezoning for more diverse housing types, encouraging mixed-income developments, and ensuring that growth strengthens neighborhoods instead of displacing longtime residents.

Clara Reynen: Over the next four years, Iowa City will face increasing stratification between socioeconomic classes. Whether that’s due to inflation, federal cuts, hostile marginalization, or a combination of all of the above we need to be prepared for it. We can combat this by actively working on both short- and long-term solutions to improve material conditions for community members.

In the short term, this looks like actively prioritizing quality of life improvements to public infrastructure before pursuing new developments. It also means actively supporting community mutual aid endeavors to fill gaps in the system while we work to change it. Long-term, by actively expanding our definition of public safety to go beyond policing and encompass public health initiatives, it will become more clear how to improve safety for everyone in our community and to right historic wrongs, especially with those who have been harmed by policing in the past.

Bruce Teague: Division is the greatest challenge facing our nation and, in various ways, our city. We must restore unity, civility, and common purpose by leading with love, empathy, and understanding. I deeply value our community’s passion and engagement, but we cannot let emotion overshadow reason, respect, or compassion.

At the local level, we can counter national division by coming together, learning from one another, celebrating our shared humanity, and finding common ground even when we disagree. Affordable housing remains one of our most urgent issues, and I will continue working with developers, nonprofits, and community partners to expand housing options, encourage mixed-income neighborhoods, and support accessible developments. Equally important, we must ensure everyone feels valued and included, from our trans and LGBTQ+ youth to immigrants, unhoused residents, and all marginalized groups. Together, we can truly build a city where we all belong.

What are two or three other issues, outside of your top priorities, that you hope to address if elected?

Megan Alter: We must rejuvenate the IC Marketplace so that Iowa City has a thriving retail and commercial district right for the area. I see opportunity for mixed use, and we need interesting and affordable housing in this key spot. I want to see this space as an innovative next chapter in development that serves the community.

My other significant concern is to expand local child care solutions. We have a wage enhancement program in danger of ending without continued partnerships, and we must increase innovative options for parents and child care centers alike. A lack of affordable child care is an economic, education, and healthy community concern that affects everyone.

To ensure Iowa City’s essence, we must demonstrate our values by protecting our residents and the programs that help them. We must balance espousing our values with demonstrating them through funding and policy. This demands a delicate balance in a very hostile political climate. This is generally stated but absolutely essential.

Shawn Harmsen: Affordable housing. Continue working toward our goal of having the city become a more active developer of affordable housing, while working through zoning changes and tweaking our form-based code to open doors of opportunity for others to build all levels of much-needed housing in our community.

Transportation. Fare-free bus service was a big win for the community. I’m committed to maintaining that service while looking for ways to improve our public transportation system, from expanding hours on bus service to continuing our work on infrastructure that promotes pedestrian and bike travel.

General good government. In sharp contrast to some other levels of government, we can have a lot of say right now in how we operate here in Iowa City. Thoughtful and consistent decision-making, commitment to our strategic plan, and clear and steady directions to city staff are vital to meeting the day-to-day tasks of the city as well as the extraordinary demands of our current time.

Amy Hospodarsky: Government Responsiveness & Trust: Too often, city processes feel slow, opaque, or inaccessible. I want to improve how the city engages with residents, making it easier to understand decisions, provide input, and access services. Building trust requires responsiveness, accountability, and proactive communication that makes sense to the people we serve.

Accountability to the Strategic Plan: The city has a strong Strategic Plan, but residents don’t always see how decisions connect to it. I will push for clear public reporting, transparent metrics, and regular progress updates so we can measure results and hold ourselves accountable. Residents deserve to know not only what goals the city has set, but whether we’re meeting them.

Clara Reynen: As a librarian, it is my duty to educate alongside problem-solving. When community members have concerns, I want to prioritize teaching them how I found/researched solutions using publicly available tools. This will empower community members to actively participate in their own governance.

My future in Iowa City will hopefully include raising a family here. In order to do so, I need to know the environment will be protected long-term. Regulating the construction of future data centers will be a critical step to protect water quality moving forward.

Bruce Teague: Ensure everyone has a safe and dignified place to call home by expanding affordable housing and support for unhoused residents. Promote inclusion through diversity, accessibility, and civic engagement. Support small and large businesses, strengthen workforce opportunities, and ensure economic growth benefits the whole community.

Iowa City residents have increasingly been faced with a high cost of living in recent years. If elected, what do you think can be done to address housing in the community?

Megan Alter: We must stabilize what we already have; we cannot afford to lose ground. Passing LOST is crucial to keep funding stable and to increase options. To address the dire need for supportive housing and lower rents for the most cost-burdened, we must continue to work with partners like The Housing Trust Fund, Iowa City Housing Authority, Shelter House, and other nonprofits providing subsidized housing. We need all types of housing stock, though. I want to work with developers to find out how to create more missing middle and workforce housing. This is not the “Iowa City way,” but we need to look at incentives for housing development to meet projected and actual need so people can live in Iowa City.

Shawn Harmsen: In addition to some measures I have already mentioned, another piece of the puzzle is our partnerships with other entities in our community to expand housing and affordable housing. It is essential we work well with local housing nonprofits, ethical developers, student build projects with the school district, local building trades, and service providers like Shelter House and DVIP to keep making progress on a multi-faceted challenge to our community.

Amy Hospodarsky: Ultimately, the council’s role is to create the conditions where housing supports, not hinders, our residents’ lives. By aligning resources, policy, and accountability, we can ensure that Iowa City remains a place where everyone has a chance to put down roots and thrive.

As a council member, I would prioritize actions that make housing more attainable and inclusive. This includes supporting zoning reforms and policies that allow for a wider variety of housing types, protecting current city affordable housing funding and advocating for consistent increases, and working with nonprofit property owners and developers that prioritize cause, not profits.

Clara Reynen: In a state with so many restrictions on regulating landlords, city councilors must vocally advocate on behalf of tenants nonstop. Encouraging the growth of a tenants’ union puts the power back in the hands of renters, creating a united front against abusive landlords that plague our city. Additionally, regulating AI’s use in the private sector will prevent landlords and leasing agents from using discriminatory pricing and surveillance tactics to harm tenants. This will also protect business owners from predatory leases that are increasingly including algorithmically-set rent rates. For property owners, the LOST measure will hopefully alleviate some burden placed on individuals by property tax.

Bruce Teague: Iowa City residents deserve safe and dignified housing. We must expand affordable rental and ownership options, increase housing density strategically, and continue to welcome affordable units in new developments. The city is exploring becoming a developer to protect long-term affordability. We will partner to reduce barriers, identify funding, and lower costs. Addressing housing challenges, including support for unhoused residents, takes compassion, collaboration, and listening. Stable, affordable housing allows people to navigate life more easily, experience greater joy, and reduces overall community costs.

Iowa City’s local politics and priorities are often at odds with the current state and federal leadership. Will you work to address important local issues despite that challenge? How?

Megan Alter: Most important is to protect our residents. They are being deported without due process. Our housing voucher residents no longer have protections against landlords who do not want to rent to them. How to balance our outrage at these horrifying actions and ensure that our local government can continue to help? We must seek additional funding streams. LOST is one way to fund our community without racist and cruel riders attached to the money. We are looking at legal challenges to halt these federal and state mandates. Our response as a community and government needs to be collaborative, and both need to understand that we are working together, albeit in different ways. As with so many issues these days, there is no single answer. Not satisfying, but it is reality.

Shawn Harmsen: As a council, now more than ever, we have to be smart, strategic, and steadfast in our support for each other and especially the parts of our community being more aggressively targeted.

And we can’t be content with the current situation. You only have to look at the long list of accomplishments made possible in our community thanks to the Biden era programs to see what it has looked like — and will look like again — when we have state and federal leaders who share our values.

It’s not really a council duty per se, but I will keep doing the work I’ve been doing for over a decade, volunteering to support the Democratic candidates around this entire part of the state who will be state and federal leaders we CAN work with. But it’s going to take a lot of work, and so I hope you will join me. Together we will do great things.

Amy Hospodarsky: Local leadership matters most when it’s hardest, and I’m committed to acting decisively for Iowa City’s residents, regardless of political headwinds. I’ll approach this with the compassion to understand that not everyone’s experience of Iowa city is the same as mine, by using creativity to find new paths forward that protect our community and reflect who we are, and championing collective action in order to align city staff, council, and community members to build our shared future.

Clara Reynen: In a hostile state like Iowa, we need to do everything possible to protect individuals. Taking a “yes, and” approach is key. Investing time and energy into immediate actions can be a low-cost way to empower and create relationships with the community. Simultaneously, staff and councilors must be actively researching tactics to disrupt state authoritarianism to protect our community long-term. Additionally, making sure that surveillance is not being used to track our community members will become more and more important as marginalized groups are being tracked heavily and individuals are prosecuted for seeking services out of the state, such as health care for trans youth.

Bruce Teague: Yes, absolutely. Sometimes it feels Iowa City is targeted for being who we are in this time of partisan politics. I will continue to defend our values of equity, inclusion, and human rights for all residents, including LGBTQ, transgender, immigrants, unhoused, and those on Medicaid. We must lean into who we are, a city that is welcoming, diverse, and vibrant. By protecting our community and ensuring its safety, prosperity, and access to essential services, we show that in Iowa City, we all belong here.

What personal qualities or past experience do you think make you a good fit for the city council?

Megan Alter: A key quality I bring is perseverance; real life and politics do not grant clear wins right off the bat. What keeps me going is that it isn’t about me and my “win”; it is about whether I believe I am representing the community’s best interests. Accordingly, I have learned the importance of balance and of understanding context and specifics when making decisions as a councilor. I want to be consistent in my decision-making — to have a set of guiding principles — but simply being opposed to or in favor of something in principle cuts off possibilities that could otherwise serve residents well. I have strong opinions, but I also listen to other perspectives from the community and from councilors to help inform my decision-making.

Shawn Harmsen: Having been a journalist, I believe in the value of digging for verifiable facts, listening to lived experience, and working through difficult and complicated issues to get to their core. As an educator, I believe in meeting people where they are and working together to move toward growth and progress.

Amy Hospodarsky: As a single mom in a single-income household, I bring lived experience of how city decisions shape daily life for working families. My local governance experience spans many facets of Iowa City — past and present board service with organizations like The Englert Theatre, CommUnity Crisis Services, Big Brothers Big Sisters, The South of Six Business District and the Affordable Housing Coalition. These roles have given me a deep understanding of how our community functions and where it struggles. Professionally, I report directly to a Board of Directors which gives me a unique 320-degree view into what it takes to turn vision into action: I manage budgets, staff, and strategic goals, always focused on turning plans into action.

Clara Reynen: Personally, I view my work as a librarian as a vocation. It is in line with my religious beliefs and faith to take care of others and serve them, and libraries are the way I was called to do so. Serving others is a deep conviction and I know that with my experience in the community as an activist I will be able to advocate and fight for community members who are ignored and left behind. Everyone deserves to be seen, acknowledged, and validated. I truly believe I am one of the only candidates running who is prepared to take that duty on.

Bruce Teague: I lead with compassion, integrity, and collaboration. My background in caregiving and running a small business has taught me how to listen deeply, solve problems creatively, and work with people from all walks of life. As mayor, I have brought people together during challenging times, lifted marginalized voices, and turned conversations into real action. My goal is always to create a city where every person feels seen, valued, and included, because we all belong here.

What else should people know about you?

Megan Alter: I am a big bundle of contradictions: I am a social introvert. I love interacting with people, but need significant downtime. What else? I am afraid of heights, like I thought I was going to pass out on the gondola ride over the State Fair. But I was a Division 3 All-American 3-meter springboard diver in college. I have a Ph.D. in British literature concentrating on 19th-century aesthetics and gender, and I equally love reading spy craft and romance novels. I grew up with jazz — my dad was a jazz musician — and I unequivocally love Mariah Carey.

Shawn Harmsen: My hobbies are learning to play piano, singing enthusiastic but not amazing karaoke, and dancing. Although the last isn’t so much “dance like nobody is watching” as it is “dancing like nobody wants to watch.” I also enjoy reading, learning to speak Spanish and German on my Duolingo app, and of course the best thing in the world is being with my family.

Amy Hospodarsky: I live in the Longfellow neighborhood in the 100-year-old home of my dreams with my 12-year-old son, Brooks, and our Beagle, Maya. In my free time I like to read novels, take long walks, play and listen to music, watch documentaries, visit thrift shops, and spend time with my friends and family.

Clara Reynen: After a long day, I usually unwind in the art studio. For me, this looks like taking a deep breath and making paper. This is an ancient craft, and using it as a way to meditate and calm down is one of my favorite ways to reflect on current events and process my feelings. I’m an artist in addition to a librarian, so I also spend a lot of time letterpress printing using old-school metal and wood type. Otherwise, I’m at home playing piano and singing, playing video games, or feeding the baby kitten who wandered onto my porch last week!

Bruce Teague: I am a joyful person who loves connecting with others, singing at community events, spending time with my husband Colton, and being “Uncle Brucie” to my nieces and nephews. I now have the greatest honor of being Daddy Brucie to two incredible boys, biological brothers ages five and six. I believe leadership starts with loving unreservedly, and I bring that spirit into everything I do. I see the beauty in every person and believe deeply that we all have something to offer. Together, we are awesome and amazing, and we all belong here.

Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@press-citizen.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Who’s running for Iowa City City Council? Meet the 2025 candidates