Jim Carlin discusses 2026 campaign bid for U.S. Senate
IOWA (KCAU) — One of the candidates running for the U.S. Senate seat that Iowa Senator Joni Ernst currently holds is speaking out.
Jim Carlin is running as a Republican and was a state legislator from 2017 to 2022. He ran for U.S. Senate in 2022 but was defeated by Republican incumbent Chuck Grassley in the GOP primary.
During his time in the Iowa Legislature, Carlin said he helped passed the fetal heartbeat bill and exposed abuse at the Iowa Veterans Home. The Republican candidate said as a state lawmakers, he introduced a measure to implement active shooter training in all schools in Iowa.
Carlin said the reason behind this campaign run is that Senator Ernst has not lived up to her promises. He said that Iowans deserve to have a voice in Washington, D.C.
'Well, I think a lot of people right now feel like they're not being represented, particularly in government. The government's done a lot of things that I've heard people. We saw a 20% inflation last year; we have a massive deficit, but my big concern is the fact that these trends are going to be realities that our children and our grandchildren's future. That's why I ran the last time,' said Jim Carlin (R), candidate for U.S. Senate.
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Carlin said he would be glad to debate Senator Ernst. The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate said he would bring the voice of Siouxlanders to the nation's capital in multiple ways, including calling for the red tape to be cut.
'I think the process is largely driven by big corporate interest at the expense of the people, and that's affected the agriculture sector, the pharmaceutical sector, the big tech sector, the finance sector. I mean, they're all being affected by the centralization that's kind of taken over our government well that not having a voice in the marketplace ends up hitting the political sphere. We have to be aware of that. We have to deregulate certain industries,' said Carlin.
Carlin said he wants bring back some semblance of fair market capitalism into the U.S. He said the country needs to own its responsibility of the national debt, which is more than $36.2 trillion, as of June 9.
The GOP candidate said there also needs to be campaign finance reforms. Carlin said he supports President Trump's America First agenda.
'Because since World War II, our economic interests have taken a back seat in almost every turn. Our manufacturing base has been shipped overseas. We have been treated very unfairly, and we footed the bill for a lot of wars, you know, overseas, the never-ending wars that we've paid for. We can't stay those courses. In limited instances, yes, but, but the never-ending wars we found ourselves in with trillions of dollars being spent, we can't do that,' said Carlin.
Carlin is set to hold a family-friendly launch event for his campaign on June 12 in Cedar Rapids.
There are at least 3 other candidates in the race so far. Those are Democratic candidates Iowa State Rep. J.D. Scholten and U.S. Army & Marine Corps veteran Nathan Sage. The other Republican candidate is U.S. Navy veteran Joshua Smith.
Senator Ernst has yet to formally announce her re-election bid. She did hire a campaign manager for her re-election campaign on June 6.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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