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A new contender has entered the race for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District. Ashley WolfTornabane, a stay-at-home mom and former education assistant from Storm Lake, has announced her campaign, sharing her passion for everyday Iowans and the challenges they face."We all look around, and we see Iowans and the rest of the country hurting while the rich get richer and the rest of us just get left behind," she said.As a Democrat running in a district long held by Republicans, WolfTornabane decided to step forward after the Democratic Party’s previous candidate, Ryan Melton, withdrew. She describes her candidacy as an opportunity for voters to choose progressive leadership."I felt like God was telling me the time is now to help people in this way,” she explained. “I felt that it was really important to get a candidate, a progressive candidate, to pick up where he left off.”WolfTornabane is focusing her campaign on rebuilding and strengthening areas critical to life in small-town Iowa. "We need to rebuild public education, which is under attack right now. We need to rebuild small towns, and we need to provide rural health care and protect the vulnerable, such as those in the LGBTQ+ community who are under attack,” she said.A cornerstone of her vision is establishing universal health care.“The happiest countries on Earth have publicly funded universal health care,” WolfTornabane said. “That tells us that anyone who tries to make us afraid of that type of health care, saying that the taxes are too high or the wait times are too long … they’re speaking for the private insurance companies rather than for the everyday people they’re supposed to be representing.”Acknowledging the uphill battle in a deeply conservative district, WolfTornabane says her focus is on listening to constituents rather than playing into partisan divides."I'm an everyday person,” she said. “I'm really going to listen to everyday people, and I'm not going to serve the special interests. I'm going to serve you."Although the race poses challenges, WolfTornabane is determined to give Iowans a progressive voice and to focus her campaign on issues affecting families, small towns and rural communities.You can see our full interview with WolfTornabane below: