Jim Carlin discusses 2026 campaign bid for U.S. Senate
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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Republicans are afraid of Mamdani in New York. That's a good thing.
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Some Republicans are even breaking with the party to denounce mass starvation in the region, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, who recently called the crisis a "genocide." Republicans are afraid of what Mamdani stands for. Good. Mamdani won the primary largely thanks to his mobilization of young voters. It worked out for him: voters under 40 made up 40% of early voting turnout. Now, the question is whether they'll turn out for the general election. I'm hopeful that they will. I have personally seen the way my generation has reacted to Mamdani's campaign. There is a palpable excitement reminiscent of Barack Obama's first run for the presidency, an excitement fueled by the idea that the Democratic Party can change, in spite of itself. Opinion: Zohran Mamdani rallied Gen Z voters. We can't abandon him now. The reasons conservatives are criticizing Mamdani are the reasons people my age voted for him. We believe in moving funding from the NYPD into areas like mental health care and community building. We support Palestinian rights. We want to see that working-class New Yorkers can remain in this city. We see taxing corporations and the wealthy as a good thing. Some may call these things unrealistic, and they may have a point. There's no way New York City becomes a socialist utopia if Mamdani is elected, since he must work with the city council, state and national governments to achieve many of his campaign priorities. But his very election could signal to the Democratic Party that they should run to, not from, progressive politics. Mamdani's path to victory is not an easy one. He will continue to face criticism from the right throughout the next few months. But if polling is any indication, he's still likely to be the next mayor of the largest city in the United States. Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter, @sara__pequeno
