There are three candidates on the ballot for Iowa’s Third Congressional District race happening in less than a week.

Democratic incumbent Cindy Axne, Libertarian Bryan Jack Holder, and Republican David Young are campaigning to represent the southwest portion of Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives. Axne says she is running for reelection to fight for the issues faced by Iowans, especially those brought to light by COVID-19 and the derecho, “Protecting Iowans and their access to affordable healthcare, especially for our seniors and folks with preexisting conditions, those who can’t afford prescription drugs. We’ve got to expand economic opportunity as that’s taken a hit as a result of COVID, certainly in both rural and metro areas across the state. Looking out for everybody: small business owners, farmers, our workers, and of course we need to grow our economy. So we need to pass an infrastructure bill and many other pieces of legislation that will help us with that.”

Holder says his main campaign issue is to increase the state’s representation, including dividing up the 3rd District into three areas represented in Council Bluffs, Creston, and Des Moines, “They’ve pretty much proved through the pandemic that our representatives don’t need to go to Washington to vote on bills. They can do their conference work, their committee work through Zoom and through the internet. They can vote remotely, and so there’s really no need for all of them to go to Washington, because that’s what leads to a lot of the problems, the corruption that we hear about is that they go away to the ‘swamp,’ and then they get sort of taken in by it.”

Former congressman Young shares his campaign platform, “We need somebody who has experience, who understands both the needs of Iowans, both in our rural areas and our more suburban and urban areas and who has accomplishments in getting things done and in my service in the 3rd District for four years I never missed a vote. I worked across party lines to make sure that we delivered what was essential for Iowans, especially sitting on the House Appropriations Committee, making sure that rural Iowa did not get left behind. And you have to be strong and you have to have a voice and you have to be at the table and that’s how you get things done.”

You can hear more from all three candidates during Raccoon Valley Radio’s Meet the Candidates Special In-Depth Magazine.