Navy veteran launches bid for Iowa Secretary of State

DAVENPORT — A former U.S. Navy pilot from Davenport launching a run for statewide elected office says he wants to make it easier for Iowans to vote.

Ryan Peterman, 34, was set to his campaign Tuesday night from his family's bar, Grumpy's Saloon, in the Village of East Davenport. He filed paperwork to run for office earlier this month.

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Peterman, a Democrat and first-time candidate, grew up in Bettendorf and served as a pilot for the U.S. Navy as well as an honor education officer at the Naval Academy.

As a lieutenant, he was deployed to the Indo-Pacific region and then the Middle East for seven months. There, he led about 25 to 30 sailors and a three-to-four-man flying crew.

Peterman also spent a year as a legislative fellow for U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, working on defense, national security and veterans policy, he said.

Peterman said he decided he decided to run for Iowa Secretary of State because he has spent his life dedicated to public service and because he cares "a lot about democracy."

"I believe in democracy, and it's a lot of what drove me to join the Navy," Peterman said. "Our most foundational democratic right is the right to vote. That's how we make our voices heard about who we want to lead us and the policies we want to shape our lives."

The current secretary is Paul Pate, a Republican from Cedar Rapids, who has served in that role since 2015. Pate's campaign did not immediately respond to a question from a reporter on whether he plans to run for re-election.

Peterman said he believes in recent years Iowa has put in place "a lot of unnecessary restrictions on voting," citing fewer early voting days and earlier polling place closures. Iowa lawmakers since 2016 have shortened the early voting window from 40 days to 20 days before Election Day.

"I think we should be really doing the opposite," Peterman said. "A lot of these changes we've seen in voting, I think, have been driven by disinformation surrounding security and fairness of our elections. They've used that to sort of justify making it harder for folks to vote. I don't agree with that. I think we should be making it easier for folks to vote.“

Peterman said he would approach the office with participation, not partisanship, in mind.

"I promise to approach those duties without favor toward one party or another," Peterman said. "... I want to make sure when I'm in the office, folks know that it's the voters that are in charge."

Asked why voters should vote for him without experience in elections, Peterman acknowledged he does not have experience as Secretary of State.

"But I've still spent a lot of time with my career learning and excelling in new jobs, and through all those roles I've learned how to lead under pressure, how to make decisions based on all available information at the time, how to build trust within a team and groups and then how to get results," Peterman said.