Iowa gubernatorial candidate Adam Steen said he would be ready to run the state executive branch on day one if nominated and elected this November.

“You’re looking at somebody with a faith background, you’re looking at somebody with a business background,” The former Iowa Department of Administrative Services (DAS) director said during a campaign stop at Pizza Ranch in Marshalltown on Saturday. “You’re looking at someone with a government operational background.”

State Rep. Dean Fisher (R-Montour) announced his endorsement of Steen during the event’s introduction.

“He [Steen] has got the values that I look for in a candidate,” Fisher said of his endorsement. “He’s got a lot of experience in state government and he’ll be able to hit the ground running and do extremely well for Iowa.”

Steen used the campaign stop to share his positions on education, water quality, property tax reform, and more.

Steen highlighted several of the projects he led as head of DAS under Gov. Kim Reynolds from 2021 until he stepped down to run for governor last August. Among the examples he shared were the Reynolds-led Alignment effort to consolidate state executive agencies, as well as the sale of the old Iowa Juvenile Home in Toledo.

To address rising concerns about water quality, as well as the comparatively high rate of cancer among Iowans, Steen advocated for a collaborative approach.

“I’m not putting this on the backs of our farmers,” he said, adding that harmful pollutants can also enter waterways from non-farming areas, such as golf courses, city lawns, and industrial sites. “This is a collective issue across the state.”

On education, Steen said he wants to strengthen the student-to-healthcare industry pipeline and increase offerings in trades education. On the latter point, he suggested partnering with the Trump Administration’s Million Apprenticeships program. Steen also made it clear that he would support further expanding school choice policies as governor, and contended that public school teachers are being forced to teach “woke ideology.”

Property taxes also play a prominent role in Steen’s campaign platform. With his background in business and managing taxpayer dollars at the state level, he believes Iowans “need to demand a zeroed-out budget” from the local government entities to which most property tax revenue goes, including public schools, city governments and county governments.

Steen is among five candidates vying for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, along with U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, State Rep. Eddie Andrews, former State Rep. Brad Sherman, and farmer Zach Lahn. All hope to keep the governor’s office in Republican hands with Gov. Reynolds not seeking reelection.

Both the GOP and Democratic gubernatorial nominees will be decided after the primary election on June 2.