Navy veteran Ryan Peterman launches campaign for Iowa secretary of state as a Democrat
Brianne Pfannenstiel | Des Moines Register
U.S. Navy veteran Ryan Peterman announced he will run for Iowa Secretary of State next year as a Democrat, pledging to focus on ensuring all eligible Iowans are able to access the ballot box.
Peterman, a 34-year-old Davenport resident, said he’s always felt the pull of public service and believes his Navy training would serve him well in the office that oversees Iowa’s elections.
“Some of the things I learned were just how to lead and lead under pressure, whether it’s in the cockpit of a helicopter, whether it’s on the deck of a ship, or whether that’s in the halls of Congress,” he told the Des Moines Register in an interview. “I learned how to build trust with my crew, with my sailors, with my colleagues out in D.C. and in San Diego, deploy it around the world, and I learned how to get results. I think those are three things — leadership under pressure, trust and results — we need in the Secretary of State’s office.”
He said he would pair those traits with a commitment to nonpartisanship and professionalism.
“I think that’s how we can restore trust in the process and make sure that every voter across Iowa knows that our elections are fair, secure, and they can trust that their vote’s going to count when they show up to cast their ballot,” he said.
The office is currently held by Republican Secretary of State Paul Pate. Pate was reelected to a 4th term over Democratic Linn County Auditor Joel Miller in 2022. He has not yet said whether he intends to seek reelection in 2026.
Peterman grew up in Bettendorf and graduated from the United States Naval Academy after high school before attending flight school in Pensacola, Florida. He said he spent several years flying helicopters with a San Diego-based squadron and was deployed with the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group to the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East.
After that, he said he applied to be a legislative fellow and worked for U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, on policy related to defense, veterans and national security.
“That was kind of another eye-opening experience for me where I again saw the potential for what good government can do when it works right and when we’ve got faithful public servants showing up every day and doing a good job and working for the people,” he said.
Peterman later returned to work for the Naval Academy as an “honor, education and remediation” officer, as well as a speechwriter for the superintendent. And last year, he moved back to Iowa to be with his family when he learned his father was facing health issues.
Peterman started volunteering for political campaigns in the state, and Democrats began to ask him whether he had considered a run of his own, he said.
He said he’s running, in part, because he opposes Republican-led efforts to do things like shorten the early voting window in Iowa.
“If you’ve got the right to vote and the desire to vote, I think you should have the opportunity to vote,” he said. “I think we should be making it easier for eligible voters to cast their ballot and make their voice heard through the ballot box. And unfortunately, here in Iowa recently, we’ve seen folks try to do the opposite of that. That doesn’t sit right with me. So that’s what I hope to change as secretary of state when it comes to elections and voting rights and access to the ballot box.”
He said he believes it’s important to make sure only eligible voters are casting ballots in Iowa’s elections, and he called voter ID a “commonsense policy.”
“I think election security — and that includes making sure that it’s only U.S. citizens that are, in fact, able to vote and able to cast their ballot — I think that’s incredibly important,” he said.
But Peterman said it must be done in a responsible way.
“If (a person’s citizenship) is in question, we should at least let people know that their ballot has been questioned in a timely manner so they can rectify that and we can ensure that we’re not disenfranchising folks in the name of election security if that’s not actually the issue,” he said.
Peterman said he plans to spend the coming months introducing himself to Iowans and communicating his message across the state.
Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach her at bpfann@dmreg.com or 515-284-8244. Follow her on X at @brianneDMR.