Conservative radio host Sam Clovis announced Monday evening that he would be running for the Iowa Senate seat currently held by Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, who is not seeking reelection.
Since Harkin made his announcement in late January, the Iowa GOP has failed to recruit a top-tier candidate to run for the seat, according to the Des Moines Register.
Clovis, a retired Air Force colonel and a tenured professor in the business and economics department at Morningside College in Sioux City, says on his campaign website that he wants to freeze federal spending, repeal the Affordable Care Act, repeal Dodd-Frank and abolish the federal personal income tax. He endorsed Rick Santorum in the Iowa caucus last year.
As of now, he will be running for the nomination against former U.S. Attorney Matt Whitaker and former U.S. Senate staffer David Young, two relatively unknowns in Iowa politics. State Sen. Joni Ernst, former state Rep. Rod Roberts, businessman Ron Langston and retired energy company CEO Mark Jacobs are also seriously considering a run.
“I am running to expose the advance of crony capitalism, to halt the outrageous spending of taxpayer money and the wasteful entity that government has become. Lastly, I am running to flip ‘politics as usual’ on its proverbial head,” Clovis said at his announcement Monday, according to the Des Moines Register. I will not be an establishment candidate, and I will run off the engine of grass-roots support from folks all across the great state of Iowa.”
Congressman Bruce Braley is seeking the Democratic nomination.
