Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan

“It’s a pleasure to speed-date with you today,” said Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, the third Democratic candidate to speak on the State Fair’s Des Moines Register Political Soapbox on Aug. 10.

Right off the bat, Ryan outlined a long list of issues he would address as president: breaking up large concentrations of wealth, moving to a public-option health-care system, improving water quality, moving toward a regenerative agriculture industry, and transforming the immigration and criminal-justice systems.

“This isn’t left or right, this is new and better,” he said.

Ryan would create a position in his administration, a “chief manufacturing officer,” he said, who would report directly to him and work to dominate industries by breaking up big monopolies. He said he would invest in rural towns and communities of color and create jobs for Americans in the auto industry.

“We’re going to start making things in America again, I can promise you that,” Ryan said.

On health care, he said his public-option plan would allow small businesses to buy into Medicare and contended that a policy that would completely dissolve private health insurance is a dangerous proposal. He also said that the next transformation of the health-care system is addressing chronic diseases that are preventable, such as type 2 diabetes.

Woodward nurse Connie Lendt is at the fair advocating for autism research, along with Ryan Sempf. Both said candidates have touched on chronic illnesses, but there needs to be more of a focus on the issue.

“We’ve got a long ways to go with chronic illnesses,” Lendt said. pic.twitter.com/lf4hZQPp7d

— Daily Iowan Politics (@DIpolitics) August 10, 2019

He also said he would put a mental-health counselor in every school in the U.S. and implement social and emotional learning and trauma-based curricula.

“This isn’t left or right, this is new and better,” Ryan said.

Regenerative agriculture, he said, would help the process of reversing climate change while also helping farmers to make more money. He said that by enforcing conservation farming practices and investing in small towns, he could help famers make money again.

Ryan wants to move to regenerative and sustainable agriculture in the U.S. he said that would involve planting bumper crops and not tilling.

— Daily Iowan Politics (@DIpolitics) August 10, 2019

“[Farmers] will make a hell of a lot more money off of President Tim Ryan than [they] ever will with Donald Trump,” he said.