Jim Carlin is finding himself out on Iowa’s byways.
“I’m on the road…on average four days a week I would say,” said Carlin by phone a few weeks ago.
Heading from Des Moines to his home in Sioux City, the Woodbury Republican is alternating between his duties in the Iowa legislature where he serves as a state senator and hitting the campaign trail as he seeks to win the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate race.
Carlin estimated he has put 80,000 miles on the family’s vehicle in the last 12 months.
Leading up to the primary, Carlin sees himself putting on even more miles, including a stop in Cresco March 4 as he seeks the nod.
Challenging incumbent Sen. Charles Grassley, one of the longest serving members of the Senate, is a big step, yet something Carlin sees as a necessity.
“It’s actually a pretty simple reason,” said Carlin. Asking himself a question back in 2020 put him on the path. “Do you think your grandchildren will be free in 20 years?” is the question Carlin asked himself. When the answer was “no,” Carlin was moved to enter the race.
For Carlin, the decision to enter boils down to concern over Grassley’s positions on a number of fronts, from his infrastructure vote to support Joe Biden, as well as going ahead with Biden’s picks including Attorney General Merick Garland and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. These should have been chances for principled opposition, Carlin believes.
An unprecedented supply chain crisis does not seem to validate confirmation for Biden’s appointment of Buttigieg. “There’s an awful lot of container ships off the coast that wish he was doing his job,” said Carlin.
Big Tech censorship of ideas, often in the form of naïve “fact checks” that are clearly out in left field suggest a need to confront the tech giants while China’s rising ascendancy and capacity to challenge American interests is alarming, Carlin argued.
Carlin’s fellow Senator Mike Klimesh, of Decorah, was recently the subject of an attempted “fact check” that highlighted the overreach of such attempts, seeking to shut down debate as if it were heresy that could not be voiced lest the orthodox feel threatened.
That’s not a free debate of ideas but rather a cult, something Carlin wants to see tackled aggressively.
Carlin is also vocal on free speech for college campuses. Shutting down opposing viewpoints there violates a fundamental sine qua non for a free society.
With vax mandates making headlines, Carlin is outspoken. “I’m against them,” said Carlin. Instead, he wants to see natural immunity, i.e. those who have become immune by catching and recovering from the disease classified as equivalent to being vaxxed.
It’s a simple recognition in Carlin’s view, one that acknowledges a basic fact of nature.
He is not opposed to the vax for those who choose it, but with health officials’ own VAERS reporting system confirming 20,000 deaths and 100,000 hospitalizations, Carlin sees concerns over the vax having at least some validity.
Election integrity is also key for Carlin, and he is following the Durham investigation. The latter drives home a problem as Carlin sees it. “There’s a different set of rules for the political class,” said Carlin. A full investigation to clear the air is needed. If wrong doing is found, then everyone should have the same rules apply. “Let’s have some people be prosecuted, and let’s have ‘em go to jail,” said Carlin.
Having worked on the heartbeat bill in Iowa, Carlin is pro-life. “I’m very much in favor of the heartbeat bill,” said Carlin.
With legislative efforts in Texas, abortions are now down 60 percent, according to media reports. “Which is a pretty incredible result in such a short period of time,” said Carlin. He said he is cautiously optimistic on the United States Supreme Court modifying its Roe v. Wade decision coming up.
As he gets out and about, Carlin has a takeaway for those he meets. “I’m going to stand up for them,” said Carlin. “I’m going to stand up for regular working people.”
