Iowa state senator Johnson will run for re-election as independent

SIOUX CITY - State Sen. David Johnson, the Northwest Iowa lawmaker who dropped his Republican affiliation over the direction of the party as Donald Trump neared the presidential nomination in summer 2016, announced Monday he will run for re-election in 2018 as an independent.

Johnson, who lives in Ocheyedan and represents Iowa Senate District 1, in a release said he will seek a fifth term 'in a rare but not unprecedented campaign.”

He changed his voter registration to No Party in June 2016.

'I will not stand silent if the party of Lincoln and the end of slavery buckles under the racial bias of a bigot,” Johnson said at the time, assessing where the Republican Party was headed.

Johnson isn't going back to the Republican Party as he aims for 2018. Johnson said he adheres to the concept that 'principle must come before party,” and is disappointed that politics in Des Moines has become 'bitterly partisan.”

Johnson said a wide range of constituents have encouraged him to run again.

'They are Republicans, Democrats and independents, and I am honored and humbled by their support. I believe in representing everyone to the best of my ability,” he said.

Johnson, 66, said if he wins in 2018, he would be the first declared independent to win an Iowa Senate seat since 1923.

Johnson said he wants to continue to serve to continue support for Iowa's K-12 schools and community colleges. He also is opposed to the state's move that privatized the Medicaid program.

Senate District 1 includes Clay, Dickinson, Lyon, Osceola and Palo Alto counties.

Zach Whiting, of Spencer, in 2016 announced he would seek the Republican nomination for the Senate post, citing Johnson's decision to leave the party.

Johnson was first elected to the Iowa House as a Republican in 1998 after winning a three-way primary. He won another House term in 2000, then won four terms in the Senate.

Earlier in December, Johnson criticized the Iowa Senate Republican leadership team for taking him off committee assignments.

Johnson said there is 'well-established” precedent in Iowa's legislative archives for Senate and House independent members to serve on committees.

'Like every one of my Senate colleagues, I represent about 60,000 Iowans, yet last session Republican leadership rejected my repeated requests to be appointed to vote on standing committees,” Johnson said on Dec. 4.