Defeating one of the longest tenured politicians in American history is anything but an easy task, but Mike Franken is on a mission to show voters he’s the right man for the job.

The 64-year-old retired Navy Admiral and engineer swung through Marshalltown on Thursday and held a meet and greet event inside of the log cabin at Riverview Park with at least 20 people in attendance. State Rep. Sue Cahill (D-Marshalltown) introduced Franken before he took center stage, welcoming voters who may have supported other candidates in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary as well as independents and Republicans looking for a change from his general election opponent, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). Grassley, 89, has held his current seat since 1981.

“We should have powerful, strong leaders. I don’t plan on being the junior senator from the state of Iowa. I plan on being the leading senator from the state of Iowa,” Franken said.

Franken dove into his own personal background growing up in rural Sioux County, working his way through college at the University of Nebraska with a slaughterhouse job, joining the Navy and eventually traveling across the world as a three-star admiral — including a stint as a high-ranking officer in the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) — before retiring during Donald Trump’s presidency.

Shifting the focus back to issues pertaining to his Senate campaign, he then referred to his “Republican farmer friends” and expressed a desire to work across the political aisle on issues like ethanol, input costs and agricultural trade deals, arguing it’s past time for a change in Washington, D.C.

After wrapping up his initial remarks, Franken opened the floor up to a question and answer session with audience members that ran just shy of 50 minutes, discussing everything from the recent Jan. 6 hearings to energy production to gun policy in light of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting and a Supreme Court ruling on concealed carry laws.

Cahill asked Franken about what he would do to keep kids, families, schools, churches and grocery stores safe in light of recent violent events.

“I just am really tired of reading ‘Five people killed at the Kroger,’ ’19 students and two adults killed in a school.’ It just keeps going,” she said. “What are we going to do to stop this trend? We don’t see it in other countries that are civilized.”

In response, he cited his extensive military background and knowledge of weapons as evidence that he would be “the biggest problem for the NRA — ever” and called the current debate “a designed culture war.”

“Nobody’s going to gunsplain me. I’ve been around it all my life,” Franken said. “When I was a kid, a firearm was a tool. You respected it. You put it away. You didn’t sleep with it, and you didn’t worship it.”

He also recalled time spent living in Stuttgart, Germany, a city of about 635,000 residents, where only three murders occurred over a two-year period. If elected in November, Franken said he would advocate for strict background checks, training periods and insurance requirements.

An attendee who is affiliated with Save the Children Action Network asked Franken about his thoughts on soft diplomacy as it related to improving life expectancy and conditions in developing countries, and he touted his experience building women’s health clinics and working with leaders in those areas who asked him to “make my people live longer.”

A few more major topics Franken touched on before hitting the road were health care — although he acknowledged that terms like “Medicare for All” and single payer often have negative connotations in the U.S., he believes every American should be entitled to the same quality of care he received in the military — and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

“I’m a firm believer that everybody should have the type of healthcare that I had, that my daughter has, irrespective of income or where you live, you should have that cradle to grave healthcare,” Franken said. “Call it what you want. That’s what everybody should have.”

On the other matter, the candidate offered his take on what Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes to gain out of the invasion of Ukraine and how he views America’s role in funding the country’s defense.

“Vladimir Putin will not be denied. He’s not going to die. He’s not going to be overthrown from within. He’s not going to have the epiphany of sensibility. He needs to be beaten on the battlefield,” Franken said. “I understand his psyche. I understand his id. I understand how he thinks. I understand where he came from. I understand that he’s building a legacy for a 71-year-old for himself and what white Russia used to be.”

Ultimately, Franken said his goal is to bring Iowa to a more “liberal and progressive” place as a state and improve educational opportunities at all levels. Jeanine Grady, the chair of the Marshall County Democrats, was excited about the energy he brought and his potential to unseat Grassley in November.

“I think he’s making believers out of a lot of people,” Grady said. “I’m really looking forward to getting him elected.”

During a subsequent interview, Franken took the time to discuss what sets him apart from Democrats who have challenged Grassley in the past and how his background and military service counteract stereotypes about his party.

“I don’t believe that any political party owns patriotism, owns service, owns rural America, education, healthcare, etc.,” he said.

Despite his bona fides, however, he did offer criticism of military spending, which routinely tops $800 billion per year, especially when President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan, estimated to cost $150 billion, was deemed too expensive.

“I’m not so sure we’ve got our priorities completely aligned,” he said. “I can’t be buffaloed on defense budgets… I’m certainly well schooled in this area, perhaps moreso than any other senator by a long shot, and I also have more years in a combat theater in command than, I believe, all of the Republican senators combined.”

The final question of the night came in a more lighthearted vein as Franken, himself a retired Navy man visiting the hometown of “Top Gun: Maverick” director Joseph Kosinski, was asked for his impression of the smash hit film. Although he’s flown in an F-18 and landed on an aircraft carrier, Franken hasn’t yet seen the movie, but a campaign staffer called it “delightful” and “better than the first.”

——

Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.