(Radio Iowa) – An eastern Iowa attorney who served two terms in the Iowa House is running for attorney general. Nate Willems, a Democrat from Mount Vernon, says his top priorities would be assisting county attorneys in gaining convictions for violent felonies and protecting Iowans from corporate crimes.

Willems is a practicing attorney in a Cedar Rapids law firm where he has pursued cases of alleged wage theft.

One of his biggest cases involved successfully challenging a University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics policy that delayed paying 11-thousand current and former employees by as much as a month for their overtime work.

State law says overtime pay must be paid within 12 business days of the pay period in which it was earned. Current Attorney General Brenna Bird, a Republican, based her 2022 campaign on the promise she’d sue the Biden Administration over its farm policies, student loan forgiveness and a variety of other issues. Willems questions Bird’s approach.

Bird has said she is considering whether to run for governor in 2026 rather than seek reelection as attorney general. Willems, who is 45, grew up in Anamosa, holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and earned his law degree from the University of Iowa. Willems served four years in the Iowa House, then lost a 2012 race for a seat in the Iowa Senate by about 550 votes.