District 40 State Senator Ken Rozenboom has announced he will be running again for his seat in the Iowa Senate. Rozenboom has been the Senator for Pella, as well as Mahaska, Monroe, Appanoose and rural Wapello Counties since 2013. Senator Rozenboom is the chair of the Natural Resources Committee and the vice chair of the Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee. Additionally, he serves on the Agriculture, Appropriations, Education and State Government committees.

“I am proud of the work my colleagues in the Iowa Senate and I have done to help our rural communities and protect the agricultural industry,” said Senator Rozenboom in a statement. “We worked tirelessly to pass tax reforms, including the biggest income tax cut in Iowa history, and increased transparency for property taxpayers. We have increased K-12 education funding every year we have been in the majority and we have fully funded every promise we have made.”

“We eliminated regulations to ease the burden on job creators, helped wages rise for working families and improve career opportunities for Iowans. During the last several years, we have made a lot of progress and I want to continue our work encouraging growth in our communities and promoting conservative values in the Iowa Senate.”

One challenger has emerged thus far for Rozenboom’s seat, as Lance Roorda, the owner of Eunoia Counseling, announced in November that he intends to run against Rozenboom this year. Roorda is a Pella High School graduate living on his family farm near Leighton.

“I’m running to ensure that basic services exist in rural Iowa over the next decade,” said Roorda. “We need a new generation of leaders at the Statehouse that will focus on revitalizing the economy in all counties, improving access to health care, and improving education in our small towns and rural areas.”

“Our current state legislators have ignored our rural areas at the expense of the big cities and suburbs and out of state interests. Farm bankruptcies are on the rise, rural hospitals are shutting their doors, and we have left our schools without adequate funding for long enough,” Roorda said. “We need a better plan for current and future generations of Iowa families.”

Candidates can file for Federal and State Offices from February 24th through March 13th for the June 2nd primary elections.