Iowa District 3
President
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Iowa Senators
Eddie Mauro
Eddie Mauro is an insurance broker. You can find his campaign site here.
Mauro has a plan when it comes to climate change. He intends to introduce legislation to make America a net-zero CO2 emitter by 2045, and the rest of his plan outlines how he intends to reach this goal.
Mauro intends to increase funding from the federal government to renewable energy research and development. He wants to expand the economic benefits of introducing sustainable technologies in many different sectors, including agriculture and transportation, two of the major issues in Iowa. He acknowledges the role that climate change played in the flooding crisis of 2019, and how this has negatively affected farmers across the state. Mauro wants to introduce incentives to transition farmers to sustainable practices that won’t break the bank, while simultaneously working to restore wetlands and other vital ecological areas to cope with the changing climate.
Another awesome policy that Mauro supports is banning fossil fuel extraction on federal lands. This means no fracking, mining, drilling, or any other method of fossil fuel extraction in any area of a national park.
The real cincher on Mauro is his pragmatism. He acknowledges that climate change, at this point, is inevitable. He wants to upgrade and build infrastructure that reflects the change in our climate to protect the communities that are most at risk. He knows that farmers are the backbone of America, and that without the proper infrastructure and support, our failing agriculture system will snap under the weight of climate change.
Kimberly Graham
Kimberly Graham is an attorney. You can find her campaign site here.
Graham indicates that she supports creating more sustainability in two major areas of pollution: agriculture and manufacturing. She has a few points about creating incentives for farmers to decrease soil erosion and comply with more stringent clean water initiatives. Graham has suggested that she would increase anti-trust legislation, which has hurt sustainable agricultural practices in becoming widespread.
Overall, the lack of information that Graham gives is her downfall. Without platform details and with little expansion on her given endorsements, we can’t say for sure that she’s a strong candidate.
Michael Franken
Michael Franken is a retired Navy Admiral. His campaign site can be found here.
Franken does not have a solid platform for most any subject available, but the little information he does provide indicates that he has worked alongside many different governmental agencies to enforce environmental compliance issues and to facilitate new infrastructure projects. We think he has potential, but there’s just not enough information available to make an informed decision.
Theresa Greenfield
Theresa Greenfield is a real estate agent. You can find her campaign site here.
Greenfield acknowledges global warming and climate change, which is a step up from most of the Senatorial candidates. She has pledged to fight in Congress for good-paying clean energy jobs and to defend and strengthen environmental laws. She intends to stand up to the corporate special interests and wants to work towards solutions for Iowans affected by climate change, particularly flood victims, and to renovate infrastructure. She’s endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund.
Greenfield isn’t a BAD pick, she’s just a vague pick at this point.
Joni Ernst
Joni Ernst has been an incumbent since 2015, and her campaign site can be reached here.
Ernst is not what we would call a climate warrior. She has an LCV scorecard overall rating of 1 percent, but, in her defense, that score went up about 7 percent in the last year alone, so we think she may have what it takes to work across party lines. However, her voting record is one fat “screw you” to the environment. She pretty much votes party lines, which has been detrimental to Iowa in the last year, as a lot of the legislation she voted against would have been a stalwart defense for farmers during the recent bout of flooding in the spring of 2019.
As you certainly know, Iowa is an agricultural state. Y’all bring us the meat and cheese and bread we love. Ernst serves on several committees in the Senate that regulate and bring agriculture-related legislation to the rest of Congress, and her opinion MATTERS when people are voting on this legislation. Since her tenure as a Senator, she has consistently voted against protections for clean air and water. She voted with McConnell on his Coast Guard Reauthorization Act (which regulated clean water and invasive species prevention to the Coast Guard), has consistently ignored legislation to protect our prairies and farmland from fracking, and has been supporting legislation that favors coal barons.
Overall, Ernst isn’t very earnest when it comes to protecting the natural world and has consistently shown that she can’t see the damage her own political decisions have done to her state. We suggest looking elsewhere for a green and energy-forward Senator to keep Iowa from drowning in years to come.
Cal Woods
Cal Woods is a real estate agent. He does not have any information available on his stances.
Paul Rieck
Paul Rieck is a scrap metal worker. Rieck does not have an official website for his campaign, and there is no information available regarding his views on the environment or green energy.
Suzanne Herzog
Suzanne Herzog is an economist. You can find her campaign site here.
Herzog does not provide information on her stance on climate change or sustainability.
District 3 Representatives
Cindy Axne
Cindy Axne is the incumbent for district 3, serving since the last election cycle in 2018. You can find her campaign site here.
Her background in environmentalism takes place in Iowa, where she served former governor Chet Culver on his Agenda for Energy Efficiency and Clean Environment. This plan–which Axne was a part of for nearly a decade–helped the state of Iowa harness wind energy. This effort and others like it helped Iowa become second in the country for wind energy production. Axne values renewable energy for the obvious reasons–it’s good for the environment. But more so, she also sees the benefits renewable energy can bring to Iowa (and the country’s) economy with more jobs and increasing national security as our country becomes less reliant on fossil fuels from foreign lands.
Other sustainable issues on Axne’s agenda include concerns of the agriculture industry, particularly with soil and water. Without getting into the specifics, her campaign site demonstrates an acknowledgement of Iowans’ agricultural struggles, and promises a fight for research in soil health, carbon sequestration, and water quality. She is looking for an improvement in clean water and soil in order to create jobs and make the farming industry more effective while also increasing sustainable agriculture practices. As the agriculture industry accounts for one of the five main economic sectors responsible for carbon emissions, developing sustainable agriculture practices is a must.
Additionally, Axne is looking to develop and promote energy efficiency in all sectors, including transportation, appliances, buildings, and factories. Since Axne has only been serving in Congress since 2018, she does not have an LCV scorecard yet. However, during this time Axne has voted for environmental causes, including the Arctic Cultural and Coastal Plain Protection Act (HR 1146) and the Coastal and Marine Economies Protection Act (HR 1941), both of which protected lands from oil and gas drilling (votesmart.org).
David Young
David Young is an ex-congressman and ex-congressional aide. You can find his campaign site here.
Young, as an ex-Congressman, has a LCV scorecard rating of 3 percent. He’s taken some notable actions against the environment, like elimination of environmental justice grants, deregulation of methane production, and blocking protections for various endangered species. Young boasts about his 100 percent voting record, meaning he has voted on every single bill or piece of legislation, but 99.99 percent of the time, he has voted against environmental protections, stewardship, clean air and water, and sustainable energy and infrastructure development—he also voted in support of the elimination of pesticide oversights, which prevent oversign on chemicals that can cause cancer, harm to reproductive health, and nerve damage.
Young is looking to minimize government in any way he can, including in harmful reductions. His zealous hatred of government is at odds with his continuous passion to be working in government, reducing every aspect of it, whether good or bad.
Bill Schafer
Bill Schafer is a retired army Colonel. You can find his campaign site here.
Schafer does not address sustainability or environmental stewardship in his platform.
Brad Huss
Brad Huss is an Ankeny school board member. He does not have any information available about his campaign platform.
Josh Schoenblatt
Josh Schoenblatt is a media buyer. You can find his website here.
Schoenblatt does not have any information available about his platform.