Warren’s Voice sat down with Hollie Zajicek, the Republican candidate for Iowa Senate District 11. Hear her vision for Iowa and what motivated her to run for office.
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What motivated you to run for office?
For nearly 20 years, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside Iowa communities, businesses, entrepreneurs, families, and local leaders. I’ve seen firsthand what helps communities thrive, and what can hold them back. I decided to run because I believe we need more people in government who understand how decisions made at the Capitol actually affect businesses, taxpayers, families, and communities on the ground.
I love Iowa and the values that make our state and country the best in the world: faith, family, freedom, hard work, personal responsibility, service to others, and the opportunity to build a better life through your own initiative. I want those same opportunities to be available to the future generations of Iowans.
I’m not running because I believe the government has all the answers. In fact, I believe it is quite the opposite. Government works best when it protects our constitutional rights, provides essential services efficiently, maintains a level playing field, and then gives people, businesses, families, and communities the freedom to succeed.
After spending most of my career helping Iowa communities grow and solve problems at the local level, I felt called to take that experience to the State Capitol and serve in a new way.
What past experiences prepared you for this position?
My career has essentially been about bringing people together to solve problems and build stronger Iowa communities.
For nearly 20 years, I have worked in economic and community development, including my work with Warren County Economic Development and the City of Norwalk. I’ve worked with communities of all sizes, small businesses, major employers, developers, utilities, state and federal agencies, elected officials, and residents. That has given me a practical understanding of how government policy affects people differently from one community to the next.
I’ve helped businesses start, expand, and create jobs; worked on major development and infrastructure projects; helped communities expand their tax base; navigated regulations and government programs; and worked through the challenges that come with growth. Just as importantly, I’ve spent years listening to business owners and community leaders explain what they need (and sometimes what government needs to stop doing) to allow them to succeed.
I’ve also been a business owner myself, so I understand the responsibility and risk that come with signing the front of a paycheck, not just the back of one. I understand how taxes, regulations, inflation, workforce shortages, healthcare costs, and other government decisions affect the real-world decisions businesses and families make every day.
Being part of a military family has also given me an even greater appreciation for service, sacrifice, national security, and the God-given freedoms protected by our Constitution. This great United States of American was created as a Constitutional Republic- not a Democracy, for many critical reasons. Those core principals and fundamental values are worth standing up for and protecting. It’s what my family has served, fought, and bled for over the last two centuries. I will continue this effort; in the best ways I know how.
I believe all of those experiences have prepared me to approach legislation practically: asking not only whether an idea sounds good on paper, but what it will cost, who it will affect, whether government should be doing it in the first place, and what the unintended consequences might be.
What core values shape your approach to public service?
My Christian faith and the Constitution are foundational to how I view public service.
I believe our rights come from God, not government, and that government’s responsibility is to protect those rights, not gradually take them away. I believe deeply in freedom of speech, religious liberty, the Second Amendment, property rights, due process, parental rights, and the individual liberties protected by our Constitution.
I also believe in personal responsibility, hard work, strong families, service, and treating people with dignity and respect, even when we disagree.
As a conservative, I believe all levels of government should be limited, accountable, fiscally responsible, and as close to the people as possible. Local communities should have the freedom to make local decisions whenever appropriate. Government should focus on its core responsibilities, spend taxpayer dollars carefully, eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy, and resist the idea that every problem requires another government program.
I believe strongly in the free market and entrepreneurship. Government should create a fair and predictable environment where people can work, invest, innovate, start businesses, own property, raise their families, and pursue opportunity without unnecessary interference.
Above all, public office is a position of service and trust. Elected officials are accountable to the people..not the other way around.
What issues are most important to you?
Economic opportunity is at the top of my list because it touches nearly everything else. For almost 20 years, I have worked to help Iowa businesses and communities grow, and I want Iowa to remain one of the best places in America to start a business, raise a family, build a career, create their own prosperity, and retire without fear.
That means keeping taxes and the cost of living under control, reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens, supporting small businesses and Iowa employers, encouraging entrepreneurship, investing responsibly in infrastructure, strengthening our workforce, and creating high-quality career opportunities that give our young people a reason to stay in Iowa, and build their futures here.
I also believe strongly in protecting our constitutional freedoms and individual liberties, supporting law enforcement, first responders, our military and veterans, and maintaining safe communities.
Education is another priority. Iowa students deserve an excellent education grounded in strong fundamentals that prepare them for life, a career, skilled trades, college, military service, or entrepreneurship. Parents should remain the primary decision-makers in their children’s lives and education.
Healthcare (particularly access in rural Iowa) is also critically important. We need to continue efforts to recruit and retain doctors, nurses, specialists, and other healthcare professionals while protecting access to hospitals, clinics, emergency services, and quality care in smaller communities.
Finally, I want to protect local control and bring greater efficiency and accountability to the state government. Iowa should constantly be asking whether programs are working, whether taxpayer dollars are being used effectively, and whether decisions really need to be made in Des Moines rather than closer to the people they affect. The Iowa Legislature has done great work in this arena, and Iowa is becoming a state that others look to when trying to become more efficient, and less involved in areas they shouldn’t be.
My approach across all of these issues is fairly simple: protect freedom, strengthen families and communities, grow opportunity, spend taxpayers’ money responsibly, and make government work better, not simply make government bigger.
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