Des Moines School Board President Norris drops out of US Senate race

DES MOINES — The chair of the Des Moines School Board has announced she’s dropping out of the race for the United States Senate.

Jackie Norris was vying for the Democratic nomination to run for the US Senate seat currently held by Joni Ernst. She now says the arrest of the former Des Moines Schools Superintendent Ian Roberts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents has put the school board, the community, and her personally in the crosshairs of what she calls vicious and coordinated attacks.

Norris says the “superintendent crisis” makes it clear that she needs to focus on the work at hand for the school board and she’ll no longer be a candidate for the US Senate.

Five other Democrats have declared they are running with current state legislators Zach Wahls and Josh Turek, former state representatives Bob Krause and Richard Sherzan, and Mason City native Nathan Sage, who is the former executive director of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce.