Last week, Stuart area lawyer and farmer Warren Varley announced his intent to seek Iowa District 20’s House seat after current Representative Clel Baudler announced his retirement. Varley is already active on the campaign trail, making stops in Greenfield, Guthrie Center, and Perry this week.

Varley’s father Andrew served as a Republican legislator for twelve years. While he considers himself more of a moderate, and will be running as a Democrat, Varley hopes to resurrect the political values of his father’s generation. “There are some people in politics who have really vilified government and treat it like it’s some kind of alien entity that’s out there to make their lives more miserable or more difficult. I think that’s a really dangerous perception. We need to remember that we’re in a democracy and the government is us. We have to take responsibility for that government.”

While Varley hopes to bring a level of moderation and party cooperation to Des Moines, he’s also focused on restoring rural communities. “I want to do whatever we can to support rural Iowa. Not just in (the) economic development area, but also in the quality of life area. As the state and country as a whole becomes more urbanized, we need to be savvy about sticking up for the rights of rural areas. So it’s important that we have effective representation both on the state level and the national level.”

To hear more from Varley, listen to today’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County program.