

Sarah Abdouch
Republican | Iowa
Candidate Profile
Conservative
BIOGRAPHY
Name
Sarah Abdouch
Party
Republican
Election Year
2022
Election
Primary
Race
State Rep., Dist. 20
Incumbent
No
EDUCATION
Iowa Western Community College, Council Bluffs, Transfer, 2009
Wheaton College, Wheaton, Bachelor of Arts - English, 2011
WORK & MILITARY
Candidate did not provide
AFFILIATIONS
Convention of States, State Director
POLITICAL OFFICES HELD
Candidate did not provide
POLITICAL OFFICES SOUGHT
Iowa House District 15, 2020
Race
Previous Races
SELECTED CONTRIBUTIONS
CONSERVATIVE
GIVEN BY CANDIDATE (2)
Local, County, and District Republican Organizations (2020)
State Republican Party Organizations (2018)
RECEIVED BY CANDIDATE (4)
Dan Dawson (2020)
Jon Jacobsen (2020)
Local, County, and District Republican Organizations (2020)
Mary Ann Hanusa (2020)
OTHER INFORMATION
QUESTIONNAIRE
RIGHT TO LIFE
Under what circumstances should abortion be allowed?
Elective abortion should not be legal under any circumstances. Cases of medical care that may result in the death of the infant in utero while treating a mother in critical condition are not considered abortions, although they are often conflated to be such, and I would not support these cases being penalized.
Abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, should not receive funds from federal, state, or local governments (including Title X grants).
Strongly Agree
I support 'aid in dying' laws which legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Strongly Disagree
ECONOMY
What changes, if any, should be made to the tax code?
Property taxes should be outlawed because they deprive citizens of ownership of their property. The majority of taxes should be reduced or pared down into a single or a few limited sources.
What government spending would you reduce in order to balance the budget?
Administrative offices are often set up in response to managing regulation. Schools, for example, have seen massive increases in non-teaching administrative positions, while teachers continue to complain of being underpaid and their classrooms under-provided for. This is largely because of the increase in regulation from the federal branch. This is just one example, but regulations should be generally decreased to reduce the burden on the taxpayer of compliance. I also support reducing eligibility for welfare programs like foodstamps, which I have been able to witness being grossly abused through my work history, and I also believe programs like medicaid need to be cut or limited significantly. Hospitals generally have immense funds set up to cover medical costs for those who are in extreme circumstances, and I support private charity over governmental intervention since the latter is often abused and has no incentive to address the abuse.
Taxpayer-funded public education should be guaranteed through college.
Strongly Disagree
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Individuals and businesses should be required to provide services even if it would violate their moral and/or religious beliefs.
Strongly Disagree
Under what circumstances can government close churches?
None.
HEALTHCARE
What most closely matches your view on healthcare: A) Healthcare for all should be guaranteed and funded by the government with no private healthcare option. (includes "universal healthcare," "medicare for all," etc.) B) Healthcare insurance funded by the government should be available for all who want it, along with private healthcare options. C) Medicaid and Medicare should remain available, but no other taxpayer-funded programs are necessary. D)Tax-payer funded health care should be abolished in all forms, and Medicaid and Medicare should be de-funded.
D most closely matches my stance. If we were evaluating these programs from the standpoint of a new implementation, I might be a bit more starry-eyed about them, but the fact is, we've seen how they operate and it is a poor performance by any measure.
Under what circumstances (if any) should a government, school, or employer be allowed to require vaccinations?
None. Vaccinations are a private health choice and under no circumstances should they be mandated by any entity. I believe they should be encouraged in certain settings, like schools, especially those targeting very serious childhood diseases. However, that's still a decision parents should make for their children and adults should make for themselves.
NATIONAL SECURITY
What should the United States do to help eradicate the threat of Islamic terrorism?
Islamic terrorism stems from a very old war between Islamic nations and Christendom. We're never going to eradicate it because there are always going to be those who interpret Islamic law violently. However, the involvement of the Soviets in the Middle East caused the violence there to spill out into other places by destabilizing the region, to the detriment of everyone. I think it's best to let Middle Eastern countries that wish to institute Sharia, and have Islam be their nation's politics and religion, be, and allow them to spiral into their inevitable irrelevance globally. Let those who wish to be ruled by Islam live in Islamic countries, and let those Islamic countries fight amongst themselves about who's right and who's wrong. If those battles spill over into a Western democracy and threaten peaceful citizens, then anyone involved in such plots should be captured and executed as war criminals. Terrorism, from any source, that results in the shedding of innocent blood, must be met with equal force and utter shame.
I support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement to pressure Israel to withdraw from occupied territories, remove the separation barrier in the West Bank, allow full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and promote the rights of Palestinian refugees.
Strongly Disagree
Palestinians don't exist. It's a made-up nationality for Arabs in the region to give them the appearance of legitimacy. The presence of Jews in Israel is one of the oldest historical facts and the Jewish people should be allowed to settle and defend their homeland.
IMMIGRATION
The U.S. should do more to physically secure the southern border.
Strongly Agree
Who should be allowed to immigrate to the U.S. and under what circumstances?
Immigration to America should only be offered to a limited number of people who wish to be American and are demonstrably able to support themselves and contribute to the nation. The number should be based on how many people can be reasonably assimilated by the American culture. Asylum may be offered to those coming from directly-adjacent countries who are facing the threat of imminent death because of their beliefs or inherent characteristics. However, Asylum shouldn't be offered to those with many safe countries in-between. This is an act of charity though, and should not be treated as a right because the asylee is not an American citizen with the rights of such.
EDUCATION
I support school choice, including voucher programs, tax credits, charter schools, private schools, and home schools.
Strongly Agree
VALUES
Judeo-Christian values established a framework of morality which is necessary for our system of limited government.
Strongly Agree
I support adding gender identity as a specially protected class in non-discrimination laws.
Strongly Disagree
Marriage is a God-ordained, sacred and legal union of one man and one woman. No government has the authority to alter this definition
Strongly Agree
I agree with Critical Race Theory (CRT) which asserts that the institutions in the United States are fundamentally racist.
Strongly Disagree
Briefly describe your spiritual beliefs and values.
I'm a Christian. Anyone who knows me will say I'm fair-minded and very inquisitive, as well as, I hope, quite respectful of those who are acting in good faith even if we disagree strongly. I'm willing to listen to any argument and enjoy the process of rationalizing beliefs. However, there are fundamental tenants of my faith that are non-negotiable, such as the inherent value of every human life.
ELECTIONS AND VOTING
People should be able to vote without photo identification.
Strongly Disagree
What laws would you propose to change present voting practices?
Voting should only be day-of and in-person, except for absentee voting for the Armed Forces, or those who are bedridden/handicapped, and it should be a national holiday so that people are free to poll-watch, witness tabulation, and go vote themselves.
EQUALITY
Is racism a threat to domestic security in the United States? Why or why not?
There are significant political groups that are fomenting an idea of ethnic identity over a national one, and that will lead to societal disarray because it's encouraging those groups to make themselves into a permanent sub-class for the purposes of political expediency. This is a movement of Marxism at its core, because Marxism believed in a natural uprising of the poor underclass against the rich. In absence of that uprising, which was curtailed because of the success of the Industrial Revolution and American innovation, political groups that seek that social destabilization have had to instead create divisions on the basis of race, sex, and sexual orientation to create a new "proletariat", with the dominant American culture being targeted as the "bourgeoise". This has been somewhat effective, though only through the spending of enormous quantities of money to create the appearance of a strong grassroots where none exists. These political groups often encourage direct violence from their followers, and should be disbanded at the first sign of such.
Reparations should be given to people on the basis of race.
Strongly Disagree
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Which comes closest to your view? A) Stricter environmental laws and regulations cost too many jobs and hurt the economy. B) Stricter environmental laws and regulations are worth the cost.
My view is reflected by A. The government's role in infrastructure is to provide it and protect it, not put a finger on the scale in favor of some energy sources. Beyond that, Green Energy is an absolute sham, using massive quantities of land and spreading trash across once-verdant environments. They are unsustainable, unreliable, and can't even be disposed of in a clean way when they break.
I support the use of hydraulic fracking to extract oil and natural gas resources.
Strongly Agree
ABOUT YOU
What do you think is the general purpose of government?
The purpose of government is to impose certain limitations on the population to the extent that those people may not harm others by their actions. Additionally, the purpose of government is the promotion of the general welfare, like infrastructure, and maintenance of national defense and foreign relations.
When you consider your views on a wide range of issues from economic and social matters to foreign policy and religious liberty, which of the following best describes you overall?
Very Conservative
Please provide publicly available information, including interviews and media reports, validating your answer to the previous question (other than your website).
The Daily Nonpareil has featured interviews with me, as well as the Convention of States organization.
Have you ever been convicted of a felony or been penalized in either civil or criminal court for sexual misconduct? If so, please explain.
No.
What else would you like voters to know about you, including your legislative priorities?
The fact is, much of this questionnaire simply doesn't apply to the role that I would have, which would be to represent the local interests of my constituency in the Iowa House. My priorities are largely around very unsexy issues like long-term management of the Missouri River, reducing hunting fees and ensuring better management of natural resources by the DNR, and pushing for school choice so each parent can decide where to school their children regardless of their circumstances. I want to reduce taxes, and I want to reduce harms. I want people in my district to be freer and if people are infringing upon my constituents' rights to life and land and liberty, I want to deal with it. It's pretty simple at the end of the day.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE & PUBLIC SAFETY
Police officers should be personally immune from prosecution for conduct consistent with departmental policy (qualified immunity) while on duty.
Strongly Agree
I support redirecting funds from police departments to mental health and community programs.
Strongly Disagree
2ND AMENDMENT
What restrictions on gun ownership are needed to protect public safety?
None.
Victims of gun violence should be able to sue firearms dealers and manufacturers.
Strongly Disagree
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