DES MOINES − Craig Lang, a Brooklyn dairy farmer and former Iowa Farm Bureau Financial president, today submitted his nomination petitions to appear on the June 5 Republican primary ballot as a candidate for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture and encouraged any GOP opponents to join him in a series of debates in different regions of the state. Lang, who was required to collect at least 1,000 signatures from a minimum of 10 counties, gathered more than 2,880 signatures from all 99 counties. He was the first candidate to submit signatures for any office this morning and the first to file for secretary of agriculture. Bill Northey, a Republican who is serving his third term in the post, has been nominated to a U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary position.

Lang said his priorities will be to improve Iowa’s water quality, soil health and rural economy. He proposed four debates before the June 5 primary. Lang has been farming more than 40 years. He and his two sons, who are the family’s sixth generation of farmers, milk a 650-head dairy herd, farm 1,200 acres and run a cow/calf beef operation. He was one of the longest serving leaders of both the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, where he served as president from 2001 through 2011, and the FBL Financial Group, where he served as chairman of the board for a concurrent term. He also was chairman of the Grow Iowa Values Fund and chairman of the State Board of Regents.

The candidate filing period for state and federal offices in the June 5, 2018 primary election began Monday, February 26. It runs through Friday, March 16. Candidates can file their nominating petitions and affidavits of candidacy with the Office of Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, either in the Capitol Building or in the Lucas Office Building. An updated list of candidates whose papers have been received and accepted will be published to the Iowa Secretary of States’ website at the end of each day, and will also be updated periodically. That page is available here and will also be accessible from the home page of the Secretary of State’s website, https://sos.iowa.gov/.