Letter to 1st District

Dear District Convention Delegate,

I've had the honor of representing the 2nd congressional district on the State Central Committee since 2018. With your support, I'd like to continue using my experience and background to make our party effective and efficient so we can elect more conservative Republicans. I have worked hard to improve the Republican Party of Iowa's finances, communications and governance and with your help our state party will be one of the best in the country. Together with 20 strong county parties in our new district, we will accomplish great things!

The Republican Party of Iowa has played a major part in the amazing progress that Iowa Republicans have made over the past 12 years. In 2010 Democrats controlled the governor's office and both chambers of the legislature. In 2016 they still controlled the Iowa Senate. Today Republicans hold 60 out of 100 seats in the House and 32 out of 50 seats in the Senate. Iowa Republicans are enacting conservative policies that are making a positive difference in the lives of Iowans.

I was proud to support President Trump as a delegate to the national conventions in 2016 and 2020 and look forward to supporting our nominee in 2024, starting with Iowa's first in the nation caucuses, made possible by the great work of the Republican Party of Iowa. It has been wonderful to see the results of Republican common sense in Iowa, and we all look forward to more great Republican accomplishments in our state. This fall we will bring Republican values back to leadership in the U.S. Congress, and two years later to the White House!

I am a 6th generation Iowa Republican. My dad was principal of Chariton High School when I was born, and we later moved to Boone and then Iowa City where he opened West High School, where I met my wife forty-four years ago. Her family has roots in Burlington, Sigourney, and Keota. We have two children, now grown and employed.

Together with my family, I have owned and managed businesses in Iowa, including apartment complexes in the Quad Cities, Iowa City and Coralville, and the Des Moines area. I helped to finance a dormitory for William Penn University in Oskaloosa and I have restored historic buildings in downtown Fort Madison that are making a significant contribution to the local economy. I have made many other investments all over Iowa, including several in rural parts of the 1st district.

I received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago, where I learned to appreciate the virtues of free markets from Nobel Prize winners such as Milton Friedman and Gary Becker. I then worked as an economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where I received a President’s Award for Excellence. My wife and I were happy to return to Iowa twenty-eight years ago to raise a family, start businesses, and teach and conduct research at the University of Iowa.

I was a junior delegate at an Iowa Republican convention in 1974, and I have been a state delegate several times. I am on the Johnson County Central Committee, and I was a member of the Trump Pence Small Business Advisory Committee in 2016. I serve on the Executive Committee of Governor Reynolds' Empower Rural Iowa Task Force, and Governor Reynolds also appointed me to the Iowa Board of Regents.

For those of you who have voted for me as delegates before, thank you for your support. If this is your first time as a delegate, congratulations! If I am elected I will work hard to earn your trust on the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Iowa. I look forward to meeting you in Coralville on April 23, and I would appreciate your vote!

Thanks for your support!

David Barker

barkergop@gmail.com