First Democratic challenger to Joni Ernst announces candidacy

Kimberly Graham, a lawyer from Indianola, is the first to announce a bid against Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa.

Photo+from+Kimberly+Grahams+U.S.+Senate+campaign+Facebook

Photo from Kimberly Graham’s U.S. Senate campaign Facebook

Sarah Watson, Politics Editor

Kimberly Graham, a lawyer from Indianola, launched her campaign for the Democratic nomination to face Republican incumbent Joni Ernst for a seat in the U.S. Senate.

She is the first Democratic challenger to announce a bid for the Senate seat from Iowa in 2020.

“I’m running because it’s time for us to be represented in the Senate by a working person who knows what it’s like to pay skyrocketing medical insurance premiums and to have too much month left at the end of our money,” she wrote in a post on Facebook.

Graham represents abused or neglected kids as their attorney and guardian ad litem in the Recovery Court program.

According to a post on Facebook, Graham supports “Medicare for All,” a higher minimum wage, campaign finance law changes to “create a more level playing field for small farms and small businesses,” and anti-trust legislation to get money out of politics.

According to a Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll conducted in February, 57 percent of Iowans approve of the job Ernst is doing.