Hundreds of protesters gather at Cindy Axne's office
Hundreds of students and parents marched to U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne's office to urge her to vote for the Green New Deal.
"My mom said that she wasn't going to lie about me skipping school," said Ellie Miglin, a participant. "So she isn't calling me in, so I'm just not at school."
The conversation is surrounding climate change.
"We want a generation that can live on this Earth and we want the future generations to be able to have a livable Earth and be able to see all the amazing things we've been able to," said Lydia Pesek, another participant.
Pesek believes officials are not taking the conversation seriously, especially Gov. Kim Reynolds.
"We have asked her before," Pesek said. "We had a petition with over 800 signatures and we asked her to declare a state of emergency and take action on climate change and she hasn't responded at all."
Police were called due to the large crowds outside Axne's office. None of the participants were arrested.
"They basically kicked us out," Pesek said. "Cindy Axne was not there because she was in Washington, D.C., for official business."
Protesters were given a statement by Axne, D-Iowa, thanking them for their activism and promised to meet everyone in person. But for some, that wasn't enough.
"They don't care about me," said Mona Abhari, a participant. "They don't care about you. They don't care about our future. They have billions to buy themselves more time while they leave us all behind to deal with the worst effects of climate change."
Protesters said they plan to keep the conversation going until they see change in Iowa and across the country.