Mike Naig wins second term as Iowa's agriculture secretary

Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig won a second term Tuesday leading the 345-employee state agency and guiding policy in a state that has one of the nation's largest farm economies.

Naig, 42, a Republican, was an agriculture industry lobbyist before becoming deputy agriculture secretary in 2013, then winning the top job in 2018. The Associated Press called the race for him as he led his Democratic opponent, John Norwood, 58, a business consultant and Polk County soil and water commissioner, by 23 percentage points, 62% to 39%, with 97% of the vote counted.

The two differed on whether Iowa is doing enough to protect the state's rivers, lakes and streams from farm runoff, the future of ethanol, and whether companies that propose building carbon capture pipelines in Iowa should be empowered to force landowners to sell them access for their projects.

Naig, whose family farms in northwest Iowa, said the results show voters support his agency's work to safeguard soil and water, increase markets for the state’s agricultural products, and get “government out of the way.” He plans to continue building on that foundation, he said, “scaling up and accelerating” conservation practices that improve water quality, and working to build more on-farm meat and dairy processing to help serve local consumers.

Norwood, managing director of TBL Ventures in West Des Moines, said he used the campaign to discuss declining rural economies and tackling water quality problems more effectively.

“Even though my opponent won, we still have serious issues to face,” he said.

Norwood has said the state's current approach to keeping fertilizer-laden runoff from polluting the state's waterways isn't working. He wanted the state to tackle several major projects at once to accelerate conservation adoption.

Naig has acknowledged Iowa still has "a significant amount of work" to do in watershed protection, but added that the state has put "more work, more partnerships and more resources" together to convince farmers to adopt a record level of conservation practices.

Addressing Iowa's nation-leading renewable fuels industry, Norwood urged farmers to look at what's next for ethanol and biodiesel production as the nation shifts from liquid fuel to electricity to power its vehicles. Tremendous opportunities exist for the renewable fuels in rail, air and marine transportation, he said.

Naig said domestic renewable fuel production makes "more sense than ever before" as the U.S. seeks to lower prices and reduce its reliance on foreign sources.

Both candidates expressed concern about the possible use of eminent domain by companies that propose building carbon capture pipelines. Norwood said he adamantly opposes the use of eminent domain and believes better solutions exist to tackle climate change. Naig said companies should be able to use eminent domain but only "after a significant number of voluntary agreements are in place." He said carbon capture pipelines could be a solution to making ethanol more viable.

Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com or 515-284-8457.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Mike Naig reelected as Iowa's agriculture secretary in Election 2022