FROM FOX NEWS: Des Moines Public School Board (DMPS) Chair Jackie Norris ended her bid for Iowa’s open U.S. Senate seat Thursday after facing backlash for urging “radical empathy” toward former superintendent and illegal immigrant Ian Andre Roberts.
Roberts, the former superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district, has an extensive criminal history and was living and working in the U.S. illegally.
He submitted his resignation Sept. 30 after his Sept. 26 arrest by immigration authorities, which involved a brief car chase.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said agents allegedly found a gun, hunting knife and $3,000 in cash in his car.
Norris said the “superintendent crisis” demanded her full attention as board chair and put her “in the crosshairs of vicious and coordinated attacks.”
“Those realities took time and oxygen away from the work I set out to do: stand up for our kids and families — and the backbone of our communities, their educators and caregivers,” Norris, a Democrat who previously served as first lady Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, said in a statement.
“It’s clear I need to focus on the work at hand.”
Des Moines school board chair Jackie Norris ends her U.S. Senate bid, citing fallout from the superintendent immigration scandal that’s rocked Iowa’s largest school district. pic.twitter.com/c2VIZAiNcq
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 16, 2025
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