Joe Shelly of Perry has led his campaign for the Iowa House District 47 seat to meet-and-greet events in homes and businesses, to door-to-door canvassing across the district and to candidate forums, but he has also spoken with students taking a class in U.S. government at Perry High School.
Shelly is no stranger to working with students. The retired pipefitter taught welding for several terms at the DMACC Perry VanKirk Career Academy, and he is a volunteer reading tutor at a Des Moines library, but sitting for an interview with government students was a new wrinkle in his campaign, he said Saturday in the library of the Hotel Pattee, where he met with .
“These young people are alert and engaged and are asking challenging questions,” Shelly said, “with issues ranging from taxes to gun control to reproductive justice.”
Shelly took part last week in a forum in Jefferson with his Republican opponent, Carter Nordman of Dallas Center, who declined to participate in a forum in Perry, the largest city in the district.
