Iowa Congressman Bruce Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, formally announced his run for a fourth term today in the new first district in the northeast corner of the state. Braley made the announcement in his hometown of Brooklyn, and then talked with reporters from his mother’s home.
“One of my top priorities is to try and create the same type of opportunities for the middle class that I experienced growing up here in Brooklyn, Iowa,” Braley says. “That’s a chance to have a good-paying job, decent health care, an opportunity to save for retirement, and to have a safety net in place to help you to get through tough times. And that’s what I’ll be focusing on in the months ahead when I’m out on the campaign trail.”
The reconfigured district means Braley will campaign in nine new counties, and lose Scott, Clinton and Butler counties which he represents in the old first district. The approval rating of Congress is at an all-time low, which Braley says is due to a “broken system.” Even though he’s an incumbent, Braley says he’s part of the solution, not the problem.
“One of the reasons I’ve supported legislation like the No Budget No Pay Act, is because something has to happen to change the way congress does its business,” according to Braley. “I’ve said over and over that when I was growing up here in Brooklyn, Iowa, and you had a problem, nobody asked you what political party you belonged to — they ask for your help and they got it. And that’s not how congress functions now.”
Braley says he has worked hard to get bipartisan support on the bills, including the first one he sponsored where he sought out a Republican congressman from Alabama to help get it passed. “And because of that I was able to break down those barriers and get things done. That’s what we need more of in congress, and that’s why I want to go back and serve a fourth term to try and encourage more of my colleagues to come together, use common sense, and solve these tough problems,” Braley says.
Braley, an attorney, won his third term by under two-percentage points over Republican Ben Lange of Independence two years ago. Lange is running again and will face Dubuque businessman Rod Blum in the Republican primary.