Two candidates are running for Congress…but only Rod Blum showed up

My name is Jon Fossum and I’m the Founder and former President of the University of Northern Iowa chapter of Young Americans for Liberty. We are a diverse group of young people that are concerned with the future of our country and the issues that affect it.

Earlier this fall our chapter invited both Congressional candidates to speak to our group about why they were running, what they believed in, and why their oath to the United States Constitution is important to them as elected officials. When we quickly got back a response from Congressman Rod Blum that he would indeed speak with us, I was excited that we would have both candidates appear and would be able to compare and contrast them.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. Monica Vernon’s campaign not only failed to make time for us—candidates are very busy and I understand—but neither she, nor her campaign, even gave us the courtesy of acknowledging our invite and completely ignored us. This was disappointing on multiple levels; the worst of which were my members were unable to find out where she stood on the issues we care about.

 Partially, from Rod’s visit I learned he was fighting for a lot of the things I find wrong with politics today. As a younger American, the system in place is passing bills and creating debt that I will have to pay for eventually—and they are doing it seemingly without concern for the consequences. We need fundamental change, and Rod Blum is determined to provide it.

-Jon Fossum

Senior, political science major