Republican Attorney, Brenna Bird, is looking to unseat the nation’s longest serving state Attorney General, Tom Miller, in the upcoming November mid-terms. She was elected to serve as the Guthrie County Attorney in 2018, but prior to that, she worked under former Gov. Terry Branstad as his chief legal counsel. Miller has served as Iowa’s attorney general since 1978, excluding a four-year stretch after losing a bid for governor in 1990. Bird says Miller no longer represents Iowans’ values.
Most Iowans are not affected on a day-to-day basis by the Attorney General’s Office, so Bird says there is often some confusion about what the position actually entails.
She adds the attorney general needs to be willing to defend Iowa farmers from burdensome regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or pursue the criminals behind the state’s growing opioid epidemic. Bird says it is also the attorney general’s role to support local courts and prosecutors in their effort to ensure justice is served.
The 2022 mid-term is Bird’s second run for Iowa Attorney General. She ran in 2010 against Miller but lost by an 11-point margin.
