Issued August 17, 2015
DES MOINES, Iowa—Today working people from Wisconsin followed Scott Walker to the Iowa State Fair, proving he can’t run from his terrible home-state record. A bus load of working women and men from Wisconsin joined working families from Iowa to attend Walker’s Monday morning speech from the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox. They remain at the Fair at this hour.
They are standing together—and they are standing out in the crowd, too. Many are wearing purple shirts indicating they’re members of SEIU, the Service Employees International Union. And those in the group from Wisconsin donned Cheeseheads of the variety known worldwide by sports fans. Throughout the morning, they tweeted their thoughts about Walker’s speech—demonstrating that the #RealScottWalker is a failure as a governor.
Many in the group are union or nonunion home care workers, part of the Home Care Fight for $15. They’re calling attention to low wages for long-term care providers, the need for quality and affordable care for consumers and the impending crisis faced by the industry. Some 4.5 million Baby Boomers will turn 65 before the election and many will need home care—but there’s a huge gap between the number of workers who will be needed and the number there actually are.
To find workers at the Fair before they leave, or to interview them by phone as they’re on their way back to Wisconsin later today, reach Beau Boughamer at 202/765-9143.
“As someone from Wisconsin, I want Iowans to know the truth about Scott Walker: he promised more jobs than he has delivered, he called the minimum wage ‘lame' and he even had the idea of a living wage deleted from state law,” said Tatiana Anderson, a home care worker from Madison, Wis.
“Our responsibility as Iowans is to pin every candidate down and make sure we know whether each one of them stands,” said Pauline Taylor, a retired nurse from Iowa City, Iowa. “It’s pretty obvious from his record and what he said today that Scott Walker stands against working people.”
Dozens of people endured an eight-hour bus trip from Milwaukee and Madison, Wis., to get to Des Moines because they felt so strongly that Iowans need to know the truth about Walker. They’re spending a few hours at the fairgrounds spreading the word (and sampling the best of the Fair) before heading back to the Badger State.