Thomas Lahen, a third-party U.S. Senate candidate running in Iowa, shared his stances and policy proposals on agriculture, veterans, campaign finance and income tax ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
In 2018, Lahen was the first libertarian to hold an elected partisan office in Iowa as the Green County Attorney General. Lahen has since been reelected and is finishing his eighth year as he runs for the U.S. Senate.
Lahen, whether elected or not, wants Iowans to see the political system as it is in its current state.
“I want Iowans to realize that our political system is thoroughly corrupt and I say that not as a candidate, but as a former professor of American government and Constitutional law,” Lahen said.
Tariffs and eminent domain
Another focus of Lahen’s is addressing the tariffs and ending eminent domain.
“I will propose legislation… ending eminent domain abuse across the country,” Lahen said.
Lahen believes that President Donald Trump’s tariffs are unconstitutional, according to Article One, Section 10 of the Constitution.
“We’ve seen the results of these tariffs,” Lahen said. “What we see is inflation. What we see is that our farmers can’t get fertilizer. They can’t get nitrogen. They can’t get the inputs they need for their farms or they can only get exorbitant prices.”
Veterans
Lahen also prioritizes policies aiding veterans, including ending the Iran war and increasing medical care access.
“The best way to help veterans is to stop producing veterans,” Lahen said. “All the veterans I know who fought in World War 2 or Vietnam or Korea or Iraq, they went to war so we could be at peace. They didn’t go to war to be in a perpetual state of war.”
Lahen supports legislation that funds medical care for veterans at any hospital, not just VA hospitals.
“If a veteran wants to go to some other medical facility, they should be able to and the federal government should pick up the bill,” Lahen said.
As a third-party candidate, Lahen will not abide by party lines.
“That’s the beautiful thing about being a third party candidate,” Lahen said, “I anticipate I would be the kind of Senator who’s most easy to work with of all 100 Senators.”
Abolishing income tax
Lahen proposes to abolish income tax, noting it is a more radical change.
“You know you pay 30-40% of your income to the federal and state governments for income tax,” Lahen said. “Just imagine having your income increased by 30%. That would help individual Americans, individual Iowans tremendously.”
Lahen then proposed a less radical change of balancing the federal budget.
“If we could balance the budget, the federal budget right now, about 30%, some people estimate as high as 40% of what you pay in income taxes goes just to pay the interest on our national debt,” Lahen said. “So if we didn’t have national debt, we could lower taxes by 30%.”
Citizens United and campaign finance
One of Lahen’s main focuses is overturning Citizens United.
“The Supreme Court case that opened the floodgates to corporate spending in our elections,” Lahen said in reference to Citizens United.
Citizens United was a case the Supreme Court decided in 2010 that struck down old campaign finance restrictions, and began allowing corporations, unions, and other organizations to spend unlimited money on independent political communications.
“We can’t rely on the Republicans and Democrats to ever do meaningful campaign finance reform because they have a vested interest in the existing system,” Lahen said.
Background
Lahen grew up in Allison, Iowa. He graduated with a bachelor’s from Drake University and went to complete his master’s and a doctorate in political science at Louisiana State University, followed by a research fellowship at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Lahen then taught political science for four years at McNeese State University before attending the University of Iowa College of Law for his Juris Doctor.