Lanon Baccam, the Democrat challenging Republican Congressman Zach Nunn’s bid for a second term, says securing the southern border is “critically important” and a bipartisan plan developed this spring would have taken important steps in that direction.
“Yet for purely political purposes, reasons it was killed,” Baccam told reporters late Monday afternoon. “…Every time there’s a chance to actually do something and get something done, politics gets in the way. Iowans are tired of it. They want to see their representatives actually get something done in congress…When I get up there, I will do everything I can to make sure we can pass something.”
Baccam, in describing the bill that stalled, said it would have assigned more agents to the border and deployed technology to identify drugs being smuggled into the country. “Those are things that actually could have made a difference,” Baccam said.
Baccam spoke late Monday afternoon at The Des Moines Register’s Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair, then answering reporters’ questions afterwards. Baccam’s Republican opponent, Congressman Nunn, told a crowd at the Fair on Friday there is “no greater threat” to the U.S. than the situation at the southern border.
Baccam said the number one issue he hears about from voters is about keeping their public schools.
“Iowans know that these systems have worked in the past, they want to continue to see these services delivered and so they’re worried about what’s going to happen to their communities,” Baccam said.
The third congressional district includes counties in central and southern Iowa. Baccam, a native of Mount Pleasant, now lives in Des Moines. Nunn lives in Bondurant.
