Bipartisan legislative work
What they say
In the October 1 debate, James described putting forward policies with colleagues across party lines every year in the Iowa legislature.
What the record shows ·
Named cross-party examples span 2019 through 2025: emergency-insulin HF 447 (2019, with Andy McKean before his April 23 party switch), mobile-home HF 2351 (2020), nonprofit-food-bank tax HF 579 (2021), Ukraine-support HR 108 (2022), magistrate-retirement-age HF 528 (2023), brain-health terminology HR 102 (2024) and adoptee-citizenship HR 14 (2025). Official sponsor lists and contemporaneous party records support these examples. HR 108 was adopted March 8, 2022; HR 102 on January 17, 2024; HR 14 on March 27, 2025. HF 579 and HF 528 remained proposals in the captured histories.
Why there is no assessment here
The literal every-year assertion through the October 2026 debate is not established: no additional substantive cross-party policy example for 2026 was identified in the captured sponsor/amendment records. That gap does not prove she did no bipartisan work in 2026.
Limit: Bills and nonbinding policy resolutions are distinct records. Sponsorship establishes participation, not that every proposal passed, every negotiation she joined, a federal farm-bill result or a future vote in Congress. The brain-health resolution did not itself change treatment or fund services.