Marshall County Democrats welcomed gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Andy McGuire (yellow jacket) and First District Congressional candidate Thomas Heckroth (Iowa Hawkeye T-shirt) during a party event Friday in Marshalltown.

Three 2018 Democratic candidates stopped by Riverview Park Friday evening, bringing their messages on healthcare, education, elections and more.

“Health care is a right, not a privilege,” said Democratic candidate for governor Dr. Andy McGuire.

The former Iowa Democratic Party chair spoke about topics like Medicaid privatization and mental health care to a crowd of about two dozen during the Marshall County Democrats fundraiser.

“This is 600,000 of our most vulnerable citizens, and we’ve put them at risk for access to care,” she said of the Medicaid privatization that began under former Gov. Terry Branstad. “As your governor, I’ll make sure every mom knows her children can get access to healthcare and that everyone can get access to health care.”

McGuire said the state’s low ratings in beds and care providers for mental health patients needs to be improved.

“Iowa is 50th in mental health beds, 47th into mental health providers,” she said, adding jails and emergency rooms are too often where people in mental health crises end up. “If we took that money and put it into counseling up front, think what we could do for those people.”

Additionally, McGuire promised to “restore Planned Parenthood funding that very first day,” if she wins the governorship. She also struck out after state Republicans on education.

“The Republicans have been starving education and underfunding it for seven years now,” she said. “We’ve got to treat [teachers] with respect and we’ve got to give them the resources they need.”

McGuire also said she supports a $15 minimum wage.

Also present Friday was U.S. Congressional candidate Thomas Heckroth, who is running in Iowa’s First District.

He said he wants to help “get the economy working again” and “get back to jobs that pay a living wage and provide equal pay for equal work.”

The three areas of focus to reach those goals, Heckroth said, are to “invest in people,” including in education and healthcare, to invest in research and development and to invest in infrastructure.

Iowa Secretary of State candidate Jim Mowrer also shared his thoughts at the event.

“My entire career has been in service to Iowa and service to my country,” the Iraq War veteran and previous congressional candidate said.

Mowrer went after current Secretary of State Paul Pate.

“As the chief elections officer, it’s very important to ensure that we have free and fair and open elections,” he said. “Unfortunately, right now, we have a secretary of state who’s focused on making it harder and more expensive for people to vote.”

The office’s business licensing and registration operations are also in need of improvement, in Mowrer’s opinion.