Former state representative and Sioux City Republican Jim Carlin pitched his campaign, based on stabilizing the value of the dollar, to a room of Johnson County Republicans at the Iowa City Miller Learning Center on Monday.
Carlin is vying for the seat held by Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, who announced on Sept. 2 that she would not run for reelection. He will challenge Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson for the Republican nomination.
Carlin formerly served in the Iowa State House for six years from 2017 to 2023 and is a U.S. Army Veteran.
Carlin is running on a platform of auditing the Federal Reserve, stabilizing the value of the dollar, and going to a gold-backed currency.
The Sioux City native emphasized a need for a U.S. Senate Oversight Committee to focus on the dominant market structure and the increased costs in housing.
“We are seeing a kind of unprecedented big economic squeeze that is creating a lot of monopoly sectors,” Carlin said.
Carlin said he is an “America First” Republican, focusing on restoring the nation’s wealth.
“We are a nation largely based on debt right now, and we need to be a nation whose economy is based on wealth,” Carlin said. “We can’t do that unless we are manufacturing and getting back to the manufacturing we formerly had.”
The former state legislator sees monopolization as detrimental to Iowans and wants to restore free markets.
“We reach our zenith when we are defined that [having free markets] way…and when we have a choice, we have a voice,” Carlin said. “The more monopolized our economy becomes, the smaller our voices and the folks that carry over into our government.”
Carlin sees young families getting the bill for inflation and the current, dominant market structure to be one where farmers have no voice on the price of beef, corn, and soybeans.
“If we lose our voice in the market, we eventually lose our voice in the political sphere,” Carlin said.
On immigration, Carlin said there is a need to secure and defend borders. During his time in the state legislature, he voted for a ban on sanctuary cities.
“Citizenship is something that should be honored and protected,” Carlin said. “If we don’t have a border, we don’t have a nation.”
Carlin said if elected, he will subject these issues to meaningful scrutiny and ensure all of these issues are scrutinized equally.
“I am going to be a person who is going to defend the middle class, the seniors, and the future of our children,” Carlin said. “I am going to look after economic interests, their health care, and their education.”