Iowa Libertarians have new candidates for lieutenant governor and the 3rd District House race in November.
The Libertarian Party of Iowa voted Wednesday to nominate Charles Aldrich for lieutenant governor and Jacob Heard for Iowa's 3rd Congressional District race.
Aldrich and Heard will replace Jules Cutler and Marco Battaglia, respectively, after they were removed from the ballot by the State Objection Panel in June. The panel determined they were ineligible because Cutler did not file the required affidavit for candidacy, and Battaglia did not file to run under his legal name, Mark Thomas Andersen.
Battaglia dropped out of the congressional race earlier this month following a medical emergency.
A Polk County judge ruled to uphold the panel's decision in July, but left it open so that gubernatorial candidate Nicholas Gluba could still be on the ballot with a new lieutenant governor candidate.
Libertarian Party of Iowa Chair Stephanie Berlin said the party wanted to replace Cutler to keep Gluba on the ballot.
"Why are we doing this? Eight thousand and change people signed petitions to put Gluba on the ballot," she said. "It's a huge miscarriage of justice to disenfranchise that many Iowans. In order to run as a gubernatorial candidate, we must have lieutenant governor candidate."
Aldrich, who previously ran for Iowa's 4th Congressional District in 2024, told the party he's "ready to run as lieutenant governor."
Heard was not present at the virtual meeting Wednesday night, but Berlin said Heard is ready to step into the competitive congressional race, where he faces incumbent Republican Rep. Zach Nunn and Democratic state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott.
"He is ready and happy to move forward with this nomination," she said. "For those of you may not know Jake, he is a criminal defense attorney. He's absolutely wonderful, well-spoken."
