Libertarians to run candidates in 3 of Iowa's 4 congressional seats this November

Libertarian candidates will be on the ballot in three of Iowa's four congressional races this fall as the party seeks to expand in the state and maintain major-party status.

Nicholas Gluba, a Lone Tree City Council member and former Marine is running in the 1st Congressional District in southeast Iowa. He'll face Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Democrat Christina Bohannan.

Marco Battaglia, the Libertarian nominee for lieutenant governor in 2022 and attorney general in 2018, is running in the 3rd Congressional District, encompassing the Des Moines metro and much of central and southern Iowa. He'll face Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn and Democrat Lanon Baccam.

Charles Aldrich is running in the 4th Congressional District in northwest Iowa. He'll face Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra and Democrat Ryan Melton.

None of the three candidates were on the June 4 primary ballot, but parties can hold a convention to nominate candidates until the filing period closes Aug. 24.

Libertarians qualified for major political party status in Iowa when the 2022 gubernatorial ticket of Rick Stewart and Battaglia garnered 2.4% of the vote, exceeding the 2% threshold needed to be considered a major party.

The designation allowed the Libertarian Party to hold state-run primary elections this year, and for the party to appear as an option on voter registration forms.

The Libertarians' presidential nominee, Chase Oliver, will need to exceed 2% of the vote in November to maintain that status.

Libertarian Party of Iowa Chair Jules Cutler said more people are seeing the party as a viable option.

She said the aim is to achieve 5% of the vote in Iowa this year, but she acknowledged that the presence of other candidates on the presidential ballot such as independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could complicate that.

"We fully recognize that with having RFK on the presidential ticket as well this will be a very difficult task," Cutler said. "But at the end of the day I think a lot of people are coming to the realization that Republicans and Democrats are two sides of the same coin. There’s really not much of a difference between the two when it comes to our everyday life."

In a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll found former President Donald Trump leading with 50% of the vote over President Joe Biden's 32% support.

The poll shows Kennedy with 9% support and Oliver with 2% support, while 3% say they would vote for someone else, 1% would not vote and 3% are not sure.

Nicholas Gluba: 'A loud and vocal voice in Washington against war'

Gluba said he was drawn to the Libertarian Party's antiwar stance.

"I am running to be a loud and vocal voice in Washington against war," he said. "As a former Marine that fought in Operation Iraqi Freedom, I believe it is in America and Iowa’s best interests to actively try not be more involved in foreign wars."

Gluba said he hopes to connect to average, working class Iowans during his campaign. He grew up on a cattle ranch before joining the U.S. Marines right out of school and now works at Whirlpool in North Liberty and as a chef at Price Creek Event Center in Amana.

Another major issue for Gluba is his opposition to the use of eminent domain. Landowners in Iowa have strongly objected to the potential use of eminent domain to build carbon capture pipelines that cross the state. Gluba said he opposes eminent domain for those projects and any other pipelines that he said would harm the richness of people's farmland.

"We have century farms that are being torn apart for all kinds of different reasons by private enterprise coming through and using government coercion through eminent domain to take farmers’ land," he said.

He'll face Miller-Meeks and Bohannan in a race that national Democrats have placed on their list of 33 Republican-held or open districts they hope to flip.

In 2022, Miller-Meeks defeated Bohannan by about 7 percentage points.

Earlier this month Miller-Meeks fended off a primary challenge from businessman David Pautch, who accused her of being insufficiently conservative. Miller-Meeks won with 56% of the vote to Pautsch's 44%.

More: US Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks staves off David Pautsch in 1st District GOP primary

Marco Battaglia: 'I'm going to be a different choice' in the 3rd District

Battaglia said he hopes to highlight policies that would support local farmers, end the Federal Reserve, which he said would help combat inflation, and protect Iowans' Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.

Battaglia lives in Des Moines with his family and works for the Iowa Department of Corrections.

Democrats are expected to heavily target Nunn as one of their best opportunities to pick up Republican-held seats in Congress this year.

"I think Lanon and Zach are great fellow citizens and they seem like they have awesome families," Battaglia said. "But when it comes to wearing that hat of a U.S. representative, I have a lot of concerns with actions that Nunn has taken and policies that Lanon has talked about. So I think I’m going to be a different choice for the people that have my name on the ballot."

Battaglia said he's been disappointed with Nunn's votes on civil liberties and on spending, including a recent funding package for Ukraine and Israel.

"The budget bills, sending money to Ukraine and Israel without so much as discussion on how is this going to be used, who is this going to harm, does this make us complicit," Battaglia said. "It’s just very, very disappointing to me."

More: Lanon Baccam wins Democratic nomination in Iowa's 3rd District, will face US Rep. Zach Nunn

Nunn defeated Democratic U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne by just over 2,000 votes in 2022 to win his first term in Congress.

In 2020, Libertarian candidate Bryan Jack Holder received more than 15,000 votes in the 3rd District, which was more than double Axne's margin of victory over Republican David Young in that race.

Battaglia said he thinks looking at the Libertarian candidate as a spoiler is "a really shortsighted way of looking at politics." He said he hopes the Libertarian Party's recent success in achieving major party status helps Iowans think of the state as a multi-party system and levels the playing field for more independent candidates to run.

"I disagree with people that kind of frame it as spoiling a race," he said. "Because I honestly I think that sort of language has just been used to keep anybody that’s disagreeing with the incumbents down really."

Charles Aldrich challenging Randy Feenstra in 4th District

Aldrich, a Marine veteran and industrial engineer from Clarion, has run for office multiple times. He unsuccessfully challenged Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley in 2016, ran against GOP former U.S. Rep. Steve King in the 4th District in 2018 and ran for an Iowa House seat in 2022.

This year he'll be on the ballot with Feenstra and Melton.

Feenstra this month defeated GOP primary challenger Kevin Virgil, taking 60% of the vote to Virgil's 40%. Virgil ran against Feenstra from the right, criticizing him over government spending and tapping into an anti-eminent domain sentiment in the district.

In 2022, Feenstra defeated Melton by 37 percentage points.

More: Rep. Randy Feenstra defeats Kevin Virgil in Iowa's 4th Congressional District GOP primary

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Libertarians fielding candidates in 3 of Iowa's 4 congressional seats