In the race for Iowa’s newly redrawn 2nd Congressional District, Bettendorf attorney John Archer is considered a “young gun.” In his race to defeat third-term incumbent Democratic U.S. Congressman Dave Loebsack, the 40-year-old Archer has received extra assistance throughout his campaign from the Republican National Committee’s program to back candidates who are facing what it sees as a weak incumbent.
Archer is originally from Springfield, Ill., and received his undergraduate degree in political science and business administration from Illinois Wesleyan University and his law degree from Southern Illinois University. He has been the senior legal counsel at John Deere & Co. for the past 11 years while earning his MBA for the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business.
Archer has visited Newton and Jasper County noticeably less than his opponent during the 2012 campaign, but the three-year Pleasant Valley School Board member has developed a competitive ground game in Newton and the 2nd Congressional District.
“I think I appeal to all walks of life,” Archer said in a Newton Daily News interview April 11. “Although I’m sitting here in a suit and tie today out of respect for you, I feel much more comfortable in a pair of blue jeans in a shirt with my sleeves rolled up working out on the farm.”
The Congressional hopeful has shied away from social issues during the campaign, not even including the issues on his website. He has stated publicly that he is attempting to keep the focus on job and economic growth but also has said publicly that he favors the traditional view of marriage between a man and a woman. In the abortion debate, he said he believes life begins at conception.
Unlike Loebsack, who has been fighting in Congress for a long-term extension of the wind production tax credit that subsidizes wind energy production and affects parts suppliers such as Newton’s TPI Composites and Trinity Towers, Archer argues for a short-term extension of the federal incentives over the next five to seven years.
Although he touts an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy embraced by President Obama, Archer aligns with the RNC platform advocating the removal of government assistance from the energy sector.
“We have to slowly wean these industries off all subsidies and let them stand and compete on their own,” he said in April. “We shock the system, so we have to give them a long enough runway — 5, 6, 7 years — in order to alter their business practices.”
Although Archer also has seen less of a need for farm subsidies in recent years, the Congressional hopeful also holds the stance that the federal government still needs to assist U.S. farmers to “mitigate risks inherent in this business that allow our country to have food security.”
Archer recently spoke at the Republican National Convention in Tampa Bay, Fla., in August. In a Cook Report political poll released last week, the Republican candidate has gained some ground against Loebsack in Newton’s new district but still is trailing going into the last six weeks of the campaign.
To learn more about Archer or his campaign, visit www.archerforcongress.com.