Leila Staton.

GRUNDY COUNTY – Leila Staton’s campaign for Iowa House District 54 recently announced the endorsement of U.S. Representative Ro Khanna, a founding voice of the modern progressive movement and one of the most consistent champions of working people in Congress.

Khanna is not a stranger to Iowa. He has traveled to this state specifically to fight for the kinds of communities that national politics tends to overlook.

He has worked to bring economic opportunity to rural towns and pushed back on a system that has let corporate consolidation hollow out small-town America while the people who live there foot the bill.

“Leila Staton is part of a generation that grew up watching corporate greed hollow out their communities and instead of leaving she decided to fight back. She wants to keep the local hospital open, make sure schools have what they need, and make rent something people can actually afford on what they earn. That is who we need in office right now. I am proud to endorse her.”

The endorsement comes on the heels of an endorsement from Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The progressive movement has a long history of spotting its champions early, and it has found one in Grundy County.

Khanna has spent nearly a decade in Congress arguing that the Democratic Party wins when it stops triangulating and starts delivering on healthcare, wages, housing, and keeping rural communities alive.

“The fight for healthcare, corporate accountability, and a working people’s economy is one I am proud to be in and I am honored to have Ro Khanna’s support in this race,” Staton said. “Like Congressman Khanna, I reject corporate PAC money, advocate for term limits, and promote local control of our communities. When we look at our ballots in November, the choice is clear: more of the same old, or a life we can actually afford and enjoy.”

Staton’s platform centers on expanding rural healthcare access, fully funding public schools, making housing affordable, raising wages, and keeping young Iowans in the communities where they were raised.

She has pledged to refuse all corporate PAC contributions and to answer only to the people of District 54.

About Leila Staton

The daughter of a single mother, Leila Staton grew up in Grundy County, Iowa. An advocate for child sexual assault survivors and co-founder of a local advocacy organization, Leila represents the new generation of leaders that puts people over profit, communities over corporations, and truth over power. She is ready to fight for clean water, healthcare access, and fully funded public education. Leila believes that if you’re not at the table, you are on the menu.