Chris Cournoyer

Voted to Send Your Tax Dollars to Private Schools

As a state senator representing Scott County, Cournoyer voted Yes on HF 68 (2023), which created private-school vouchers that funnel public, per-pupil dollars to private tuition — draining money from the public schools most Iowa kids attend.[1]

Voted for Iowa's Six-Week Abortion Ban

Cournoyer voted Yes on HF 732, Iowa's six-week abortion ban — which cuts off most abortions before many women even know they are pregnant.[2]

Voted to Pull Books From School Libraries

She voted Yes on SF 496 (2023), which forced books off school-library shelves and banned instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation through sixth grade.[3]

Voted to Gut Iowa's Special-Education Agencies

Cournoyer voted Yes on the 2024 overhaul of Iowa's Area Education Agencies (HF 2612) — including Mississippi Bend AEA, which provides special-education and related services to Scott County districts like Davenport, Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley and North Scott[10] — which restructured the special-education services families rely on, even as several of her fellow Republicans broke ranks and voted no.[4]

Voted to Weaken the Very Office She Now Wants to Run

Before she ran for State Auditor, Cournoyer voted Yes on SF 478 (2023) — a law that limited the powers of that very office. It barred the State Auditor from going to court to enforce subpoenas for records from state agencies and cut off the office’s access to certain records, sending disputes to a three-member arbitration board instead. Democratic Auditor Rob Sand called it “the worst pro-corruption bill in Iowa history.”[19] Now she wants to run the office she voted to weaken.[9]

Voted to Target Transgender Iowans

As a state senator, Cournoyer voted Yes on two bills that singled out transgender Iowans in schools and in health care.

• Barred transgender girls and women from female sports teams in Iowa’s K-12 schools, community colleges and universities (HF 2416, 2022)[13]
• Banned puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery for transgender Iowans under 18 (SF 538, 2023)[14]

Voted Against Iowa’s Safety Net & Its Kids

She also voted to tighten Iowa’s safety net and roll back child-labor protections.

• Imposed a $15,000 household asset cap on SNAP (excluding real property and one vehicle), plus new income and identity-verification requirements across SNAP, Medicaid, FIP and CHIP (SF 494, 2023)[15]
• Rolled back child-labor protections, letting 14- to 17-year-olds work later hours and longer shifts and opening some previously prohibited hazardous jobs to teens under work-training programs; a U.S. Department of Labor review found parts conflicted with federal child-labor law[20] (SF 542, 2023)[16]

More of Her Record

Her time in the Iowa Senate also included votes on guns, voting and immigration — each one moving Iowa further right.

• Let Iowans carry handguns in public without any permit and eliminated the permit-to-acquire background check at private handgun sales (HF 756, 2021)[11]
• Cut Iowa’s early-voting window from 29 to 20 days, closed the polls an hour earlier on Election Day, and tightened absentee-ballot rules — a law voting-rights groups called voter suppression[22] (SF 413, 2021)[12]
• Created a new state crime of “illegal reentry,” empowering Iowa police to arrest and judges to order the removal of certain immigrants; a federal judge later blocked the law and the U.S. Justice Department sued Iowa[21] (SF 2340, 2024)[17]
• Voted Yes on HF 2317 (2022), phasing Iowa to a flat 3.9% income tax; passed the Senate 32-16.[5]
• Voted Yes on SF 342 (2021), the ‘Back the Blue’ Act; passed the Senate 27-18.[6]

Calls the Auditor a “Watchdog, Not a Political Weapon” — After Voting to Defang It