Douglas Jensen is a combat veteran who is currently working on his doctorate in public policy and public administration at Auburn University. He said the biggest lesson members of Congress should learn is how to get along with each other.
“I get emotional when I think about the state of our country. I don't see our nation heading in the right direction, in terms of being able to work past our differences,” Jensen said. “It takes a strong leader to bring opposing viewpoints together.”
While mounting a campaign for Congress, Jensen said the most important job is taking care of his family, which includes a 5-year-old and a 10-year-old. His wife, Heidi, is an Air Force Lt. Colonel. Together, they spent seven years on active duty. After they were both stationed at the Pentagon, they moved back to Iowa and now live in the small town of Silver City, located about 30 miles southeast of Omaha.
“We spent more than half of that time apart, and when we started having kids we knew that for family stability one of us had to get out, and so that’s me,” Jensen said. “We were very deliberate in choosing a community we wanted to live in and to be able to raise our children in rural Mills County, having a good school district, but also having a small community where we can meaningfully give and have a lot of close-knit relationships.”
Currently, Heidi is attending the Joint Advanced Warfighting School at Naval Station, Norfolk, Va.
“My wife is nearing her retirement, and that's part of the reason why I’m staying here with the kids while she is away for a year in intensive schooling,” Jensen said. “We both grew up and were raised in Wisconsin, and we appreciate Midwest values.”
Despite being busy with his children and higher education pursuits, Jensen has also started a rental property business, works as an executive at a commercial concrete company and volunteers in the community.
Leadership and other priorities
Jensen is currently working on a dissertation on how leadership in Congress works, which he said is a precursor to running for office for the first time. During his research, he talked to sitting U.S. senators, representatives, along with their staffs, and found their insight “enlightening.”
“It really just boils down to simple human-to-human relationships. If you know someone and if you trust someone, you can work together,” Jensen added. “Long-tenured ones that have been serving for decades would say they used to be able to have a coffee with a colleague from across the aisle and have substantive disagreements. But now that’s frowned upon.”
Besides lawmakers finding a way to get along, Jensen’s top priority is the budget.
“In my 40 years of life experience, Congress has successfully passed all required appropriations bills one time in my lifetime,” he said. “A lot of economic turbulence we're seeing and the constant increase of inflation is tied to the government not passing a budget and not operating a surplus since the late 1990s.”
Jensen called the current government shutdown a primary symptom of a non-functioning Congress. He recalled a budget showdown between Republicans and Democrats in 2011. At the time, he was deployed in the Mediterranean, leading a team of Air Force airmen who were supporting operations in Libya during the deposing of Muammar Gaddafi as leader.
“They were concerned about their families back home. They said, ‘Will I get my paycheck on time, and will they be taken care of? Because my government is failing me, how can I focus on serving my country most effectively?'" Jensen said.
Jensen said while the current administration can improve, overall, it is serving the American people in the manner it deems best.
“There are some wonderful things that President Trump has been doing — including this recent peace deal between Israel and Hamas,” Jensen said. “I'm glad that we're finally on a track to resolving that, and possibly even seeing a lasting peace with having so many world leaders sign on to a process that’s unequivocally positive — I applaud him for that."
Jensen pointed to immigration as a perennial issue that he said is talked about more in terms of showmanship rather than solving the problem of people entering the country illegally.
“We also have very good, high-quality contributing members of society who want to be here legally and should be, but the system is so broken that they’re unable to get through the hearing process in any reasonable amount of time,” he added.
Jensen described himself as a constitutional conservative and champion of traditional family values. But legislatively, he identifies with a more libertarian viewpoint on social issues.
“Government should be as minimally involved in personal issues as possible. I am pro-life, but I'm also pro-health care, especially for the health care of children and pregnant women … challenges like that should be met on a compassionate level,” Jensen said. "It also relates to the mental health of people feeling isolated and ostracized for being different because they don't have good family, friends, support networks, to listen to them and talk through challenges.”
Growing group of candidates
Four other Republicans currently want to be the candidate on the ballot next November. The list includes: Chris McGowan, the president of the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce; former Iowa House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl of Missouri Valley; Iowa Tea Party Founder Ryan Rhodes of Ames; and farmer and software consultant Christian Schlaefer of Lakota.
The Democrats looking to move on to the general election are: former state lawmaker and prosecutor Dave Dawson of Lawton; stay-at-home mom Ashley WolfTornabane of Storm Lake; and Stephanie Steiner of rural Sutherland.
