(Atlantic) – A northwest Iowa man who announced in mid-February his bid for the U-S Senate, was in the Cass County area Monday afternoon. Iowa Republican Senator Jim Carlin, from Sioux City, plans to run for Chuck Grassley’s seat, regardless of the senior senator’s decision on running. The 87-year old Grassley is serving his seventh term in office. He has not yet announced if he will seek re-election. A recent Iowa Poll by the Des Moines Register and Mediacom, shows that most Iowans don’t want Senator Chuck Grassley to seek another term.

Carlin told KJAN News, he commends some of the work Grassley has done in office, especially on the last Supreme Court nomination that Carlin stood behind, but he still has concerns about the direction the country is going.

He says the country is “Not going in the right direction,” with regard to our freedoms. Carlin is a trial lawyer and Veteran of the Army, serving from 1983-85. He served in a Field Artillery Unit in Ft. Lewis, Washington, and set up a solo law office in Sioux City in 1992, specializing in medical malpractice and injury litigation. Carlin has served in the Iowa Senate since 2017. Carlin says he stands behind former President Trump’s assertion election fraud was the reason for Joe Biden’s win in November, 2020.

**FILE** Shown in this Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017, file photo is State Rep. Jim Carlin, R-Sioux City, at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Carlin says “”When there’s evidence of fraud, the people of this country rely on [their leaders] to pursue the truth and define where the problems are, where the leaks are, and to hold people accountable.”

As for his accomplishments in the Iowa Legislature, Carlin says who served one-year in the house and won a Special Election in the Senate, says they were able to get some “Good things done” in the just ended legislative session.

Carlin says if Senator Grassley does not decide to retire, HE won’t drop out of the race.