T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Republican candidate Brad Sherman tells the audience at Friday’s Pachyderm Herd meeting about issues he would address if elected to the governor’s seat. He is the third gubernatorial candidate to visit Marshalltown after fellow Republicans Randy Feenstra and Eddie Andrews.

Another Republican candidate for the governor’s seat stopped in Marshalltown on Friday.

The Marshall County Republicans hosted candidate Brad Sherman of Williamsburg during the Pachyderm Herd meeting at Legends American Grill.

Sherman, a former Iowa Legislature representative, made four promises during his speech:

• He will admit his mistakes, something he said people appreciate. Just because a person is elected, does not mean he or she is perfect;

• He will not please everyone, something he is confident he can keep. When someone is elected who had that desire, Sherman said that is the first step to compromising and failing. While he is open to hearing other perspectives and changing his mind, some principles must be held;

• He will not be bought. Sherman said government is not for sale, but it is being done and has an influence on policy and votes. That is foundational to the government, he said;

• He will seek God with all of his heart. This will help with making tough decisions, because sometimes the correct action is not always clear.

Sherman threw his hat in the gubernatorial ring early – in February – before U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) indicated his interest in May and state Rep. Eddie Andrews (R-Johnston) last month.

He told the more than 20 attendees that Marshall is the 40th county he has visited to talk about his campaign. Sherman provided free copies of his book, “The Freedom Quiz,” and said the results of people taking that quiz revealed more attention needs to be given to the education system.

“The average score was 26 percent,” he said. “That’s when I realized there is a real need for education, and we need to educate the general public. The general public is not very informed on how our government is supposed to work.”

Originally from Missouri, he said he helped dig ditches through a swampy area of the state to provide drainage.

“I have swamp draining experience,” Sherman said, drawing laughter.

He is also a pastor who spent time preaching at the University of Iowa. There, he saw the “Marxism, the socialism, the wokism.” Those ideals have moved into the mainstream and are on steroids, Sherman said.

“Folks, we’ve got a war on our hands,” he said. “We’ve been fighting Marxism, socialism and they’ve been planning this for 100 years.”

Reclaiming the narrative of the country and speaking the truth is something that needs to be done, Sherman said.

“That is one thing I hope to do in each of these meetings, if nothing else – stir people up to be truth tellers, and be afraid to tell the truth,” he said.

Sherman ran for the state House in 2022, but decided not to seek another term after the death of his daughter. After his term ended, people began telling him to run for governor, and he and his wife Carole began praying about it.

“If God can confirm something 20 ways, he confirmed it to us 25 ways,” Sherman said. “I’ve never been so confident of anything in our lives than this.”

He added that he is pro-life, which he extends beyond the unborn to the elderly and everyone in between. Sherman is also a Second Amendment advocate, engages in gunsmithing and is a member of SASS (Single Action Shooting Society), a cowboy action competitive shooting organization.

Issues

After providing a brief history of his life experiences, Sherman spoke about issues he wants to take on if elected. Some of the top priorities for him are placing education in the hands of the people and preserving the Constitution. He said when lawmakers see the Constitution get trampled, they want more legislation.

“Pretty soon, even if it’s not our intention, the government keeps getting bigger and bigger,” Sherman said. “The real answer, according to [Thomas] Jefferson is to educate the people. That’s the only truly safe place to preserve our liberty in the people. . . . If we don’t educate the people, the government will get bigger.”

To do that, the education system needs major overhauling. Sherman brought up the Creator providing people with the rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness found in the Declaration of Independence.

“The purpose of government is to protect the rights that God gives us,” he said. “If that principal alone was imparted to every school child in America, it would transform our nation in the next generation.”

Sherman believes the United States was founded on Christian principles and said the government should not force people to become Christian.

“If we did, it wouldn’t be Christianity anymore,” he said. “But we certainly can stand up for the values we believe in, because there is a mentality out there that says we have to be neutral, we have to be fair. All that is is code language for ‘You guys sit down and shut up and we will promote our principles.’ Neutrality is a myth. Somebody’s values will shape public policy, and we believe the founding principles laid out by our founders are absolutely the best principles.”

Sherman said pursuit of happiness is about property rights. Eminent domain is something he is strongly opposed to. Most of the people Sherman has spoken to believe private property should not be taken by the government and given to a private company.

“This ought to be a dead issue based on that alone,” he said, and added there is more to the situation, but did not elaborate.

Sherman told the crowd that human trafficking is another issue which must be addressed, as it is prevalent in the state and is stomach turning. He said there are 65 state agents who oversee casinos and two or three dedicated to trafficking.

“That needs to be flipped,” Sherman said. “We need to take some of those gaming agents and retrain them on this other issue. . . We have to get rid of this in Iowa. It’s not liberty, it’s slavery. This has to end, and there is a lot of attention we need to give to that.”

He also brought up the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and said that if he becomes governor, he will not shut Iowa down.

“Emergencies don’t cancel out the Constitution,” Sherman said, and added that he filed a bill during his time in the legislature to dial back the emergency powers of the governor.

He said if emergency powers are enacted, they should only run for 60 days, and then the legislature should decide whether or not to extend them.

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.