Thomas Laehn announces campaign for U.S. Senate

DES MOINES — Thomas Laehn, the county attorney for Greene County, will formally launch his campaign for the U.S. Senate Saturday, Oct. 11 at 10:30 a.m. at the State Historical Building, 600 E Locust Street, Des Moines.

Laehn will announce his candidacy, outline his vision for Iowa and the nation, and take questions from the media and supporters, according to a press release from his campaign.

The event is free and open to the public.

Laehn, a Libertarian, believes that our nation's two major parties have come to distort, rather than to implement, the will of the people, with most voters on Election Day voting for the candidate they consider the lesser of two evils, the press release said.

According to Laehn, Iowans are ready to vote for someone rather than against someone.

"I am not running against the Republican candidate," Laehn said in the press release. "Nor am I running against the Democratic candidate. I am running against the two-party system itself. It is time to take political power away from the two major parties and to restore it to the people.“

If elected, Laehn has pledged to introduce legislation to stop eminent domain abuse in Iowa and across the country, to enact meaningful campaign finance reform and to check the abuse of executive power, according to his campaign.

Laehn’s biography says he’s a preacher's kid, professor, prosecutor and populist who has spent his life studying, teaching and applying the United States Constitution.

Laehn was raised in Allison, earned degrees from Drake University and Louisiana State University and spent a year as a visiting research fellow at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem before returning to Iowa to earn his law degree at University of Iowa and to begin a career in public service, his bio says.

As a university professor, Laehn studied the U.S. Constitution and taught courses in American government, political philosophy and constitutional law. He made history as the first Libertarian elected to a partisan office in the State of Iowa when he won election as Greene County Attorney in 2017. He was reelected in 2021.