Ben Lange, a small town Iowan, born and raised in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, is the Republican nominee for Congress seeking to defeat the liberal Democrat incumbent, Bruce Braley, in the 2010 General Election. Ben won the 2010 Primary Election by 30 points, the largest margin of victory in modern times.
Ben grew up in a working class family in Quasqueton, IA, a small rural town in Eastern Iowa, population 499. As the son of a blue-collar meat plant worker, Ben learned the value of fiscal discipline and the dignity of an honest day’s work. Growing up in rural Iowa, Ben also learned the value of family, local communities, and local decision-making – pillars of the Iowa conservative ethic.
Ben’s boyhood home was a stone’s throw away from a local baseball field. When he was not in school, Ben could be found at that field – rain or shine – chasing his dream of playing major league baseball. After graduating from East Buchanan High School, he chased his dream all the way to Georgetown, TX, where he played college baseball for Southwestern University. Ben went on to earn his Bachelors’ degree in political science and became the first member of his family to earn a four-year college degree.
Three years later, Ben blazed another trail when he earned a law degree from Hamline University. During school, he joined the frontlines of the conservative movement when he served as policy advisor to U.S. Congressman John Kline, a conservative from Minnesota and a former military advisor who carried the nuclear launch codes for President Reagan.
It was also during school that Ben’s courtship with a girl from Masonville, IA began. Ben married Kelly Dolan, a farmer’s daughter, on November 27, 2004. In 2007, with the birth of their first baby girl, Addison, the Langes moved home to Buchanan County to raise a family and be closer to the grandparents. Ben and Kelly welcomed their second baby girl, Emelia, into the world in 2008. Ben now owns and operates a small business in Independence, IA and Kelly works at a local community college.
In January 2010, in the wake of what some have called the most radical legislative agenda in American history, Ben announced his candidacy for the United States Congress in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District. This district was represented by a Republican for 30 years until Rep. Jim Nussle vacated the seat in 2006 to run for governor. Independent voters account for 40% of all registered voters in the district, the single largest voting bloc.
The district is now represented by Bruce Braley, a liberal Democrat who has voted with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a liberal from San Francisco, over 98% of the time. Braley has been an outspoken champion of government-run health care, the failed stimulus program, and ‘cash-for-clunkers.’ He has supported cap-and-trade, bailouts for large banks and auto companies, increasing the national debt ceiling (twice), and expanding already historic levels of federal spending and government intervention into free markets, the private sector, and the lives of Eastern Iowans.
The policies that Braley and the liberal Democrats have championed have dramatically weakened the U.S. economy and America’s standing in the world. The unprecedented federal spending and other radical policies have undermined confidence in markets, cost Iowans jobs, and created substantial uncertainty for individuals and investors. We are now facing a national crisis of fiscal solvency which the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office have described simply as “unsustainable.”
Ben decided to run for Congress because if these policies continue, his daughters will know a significantly different America than the country he grew up in and the country his forefathers grew up in. At the same time, Ben believes strongly that conservatives cannot merely oppose bad policies, they must be prepared to offer compelling alternative solutions that will expand freedom and prosperity for Americans and Eastern Iowans. In the 2010 General Election, Ben intends to do just that.
