Cedar Rapids native announces run for open Iowa Senate seat

CEDAR RAPIDS — A leader on competition policy and antitrust enforcement is running for the Iowa Senate in an open northeast Cedar Rapids-Marion district.

Cedar Rapids native Austin Frerick, 32, is seeking the Democratic nomination in Senate 37 where no incumbent senator currently lives.

However, Democratic Rep. Molly Donahue of Cedar Rapids also is seeking the nomination. Donahue, a teacher, has represented much of the area in the new Senate 37 district in her two terms in the Iowa House.

Frerick said he is running to offer a new vision for the Iowa Democratic Party.

“I plan to work across the aisle to improve Iowans’ water quality, to fight for a fair and progressive tax structur, and to ensure a level playing field for locally owned farms, restaurants and businesses so that they have a fair shot to compete against foreign corporations,” Frerick said in his campaign announcement.

Frerick is a seventh-generation Iowan, a graduate of Jefferson High School, Grinnell College and the University of Wisconsin. He said he is the first member of his family to graduate from college.

Frerick, who lives in Cedar Rapids, works remotely as the deputy director of the Thurman Arnold Project at Yale University, which encourages research related to competition policy and antitrust enforcement.

He recently organized a conference, “Big Ag & Antitrust: Competition Policy for a Sustainable and Humane Food System” at Yale Law School.

Frerick said he has fought to level the playing field in favor of family farmers, workers and consumers.

His writing has appeared in publications across the political spectrum, including Vox and The American Conservative, and he has been quoted by New York Times, Reuters, NPR and National Geographic.

Frerick advised the presidential campaigns of Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg on ag policy and subsequently served as co-chairman of President Joe Biden’s Agriculture Antitrust Policy Committee.

He is a senior fellow at Data for Progress and serves on the board for the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee has endorsed Frerick.

For more information, visit austinfrerick.com.

Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com