Lanon Baccam, USDA and Biden campaign alum, weighs House run in Iowa's 3rd District

Lanon Baccam — a former U.S. Department of Agriculture official, veteran and Democratic campaign operative — is exploring a run for U.S. House in Iowa's competitive 3rd District.

Baccam, a Des Moines resident and Mount Pleasant native, confirmed he was weighing a candidacy in an interview Wednesday with the Des Moines Register. He is the first Democrat to publicly announce a potential challenge to Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, who flipped the seat red in 2022.

"A lot of people have reached out to me, really encouraging me to look very closely at this district and this race," Baccam said.

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He has yet to determine a timeline for whether he will join the race, telling the Register he would "let the elections that are happening on Nov. 7 go forward first" before making any formal decision. Two other Democrats — Melissa Vine and Tracy Limon — have filed paperwork as candidates in the district but have yet to make any formal announcements or report fundraising.

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Baccam most recently served as deputy chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, his latest of several roles within the agency under the Biden and Obama administrations, led by former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. He previously worked as an under secretary for farm and foreign agricultural services, as well as the agency's military veteran liaison.

He worked on Biden's 2020 presidential campaign, serving as deputy state director. He's previously worked in state government and for several other Iowa Democrats, including former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, former Gov. Chet Culver and former U.S. Reps. Leonard Boswell and Bruce Braley, as well as then-Sen. Hillary Clinton.

"There's no question that I have a service-oriented mindset and want to deliver for the people of this district," Baccam said.

The son of Tai Dam refugees from Laos who settled in Iowa, Baccam enlisted in the Iowa National Guard at 17 and deployed to Afghanistan with the Army in 2004, serving as a combat engineer at a base in Kandahar. He's a graduate of Drake University.

Baccam said Iowans "are tired of the politics that Zach Nunn and the Republicans are playing right now," preferring "steady, balanced leadership."

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If he jumps into the race, barring any primary challengers, he'll take on Nunn — a former state senator and Air Force officer who defeated former U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne by just over 2,000 votes in 2022 as part of a Republican sweep of Iowa's congressional races.

Party leaders are optimistic that they can flip the district, which includes Polk and Dallas counties and areas to the south and west, back to Democratic control. Axne unseated former U.S. Rep. David Young, a Republican, in 2018. (She accepted a job at USDA earlier this year.)

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has Iowa's 3rd District on its 2023-24 "target list" of vulnerable Republican-held seats, and legislative leaders told supporters in September that Polk County was "ground zero" for gains after a disappointing 2022 cycle for Iowa Democrats.

Baccam's foray into the race is the first for Democrats in the district, who have yet to formally field a candidate a year out from Election Day 2024.

Nunn heads into winter 2023 with $1.4 million cash on hand, according to an October federal campaign finance filing. Spending in the 2022 race for Iowa's 3rd district totaled almost $15 million, much of which came from outside groups.

House Republicans' campaign arm has mocked the lack of Democratic candidates over the last few months, with spokesperson Mike Marinella saying in an Oct. 23 statement that "Democrats are slamming the panic button" as they tout a "severely unpopular agenda" nationally.

Galen Bacharier covers politics for the Register. Reach him at gbacharier@registermedia.com or (573) 219-7440, and follow him on Twitter @galenbacharier.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Lanon Baccam considers running for Congress against Zach Nunn