Iowa congressional candidate Lanon Baccam has run his campaign as a moderate Democrat, but the former Obama administration bureaucrat touted his progressive ideals at a far-left conference in 2018.
Baccam that year sat on a panel, "Rural ≠ White," at the Netroots Nation convention, which bills itself as the "largest annual conference for progressives." That year, the event featured Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Cory Booker (N.J.), as well as then-Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.). Vox described the convention as "Warrenmania."
"Rural areas are ripe for big gains for Democrats and progressives, and having this conversation about how rural is not white will show us a way in which we can organize and do outreach to rural areas into a community that will be sympathetic and empathetic to our causes and our issues," Baccam said ahead of the panel.
"Making sure we tell our story, spread our message, and have that hard conversation that people don’t want to have in these rural areas is key," he continued. "And you’d be surprised how many people will be willing to support folks who are progressive and have our types of ideals."
The panel, according to Netroots Nation, featured "rural leaders of color across the country working to pass progressive reforms at the state, local, and federal level." A panelist next to Baccam accused the United States of a "long, ongoing history of colonization and genocide."
Netroots Nation would go on to push the defund the police and anti-Israel movements. In 2020, it held a seminar entitled, "What we mean when we say defund the police, and how we plan to do it," explaining how the group would remedy police brutality by reducing police budgets. The group’s 2024 conference featured keffiyeh-clad anti-Israel panelists and speakers from the far-left "Squad," including Democratic Reps. Cori Bush (Mo.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), and Greg Casar (Texas).
Baccam, meanwhile, has taken a moderate position since launching his congressional campaign against Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, likely in an effort to woo voters in the rural swaths of Iowa’s Third Congressional District, which also includes Des Moines. Last week, the Cook Political Report changed its rating of the race from "Lean Republican" to "Toss Up." In the last election, Nunn defeated the incumbent Democrat by less than 1 percentage point.
Besides opposing a national abortion ban and touting a need for tighter border security, Baccam has staked few policy positions during the race. Instead, he’s leaned on his past military service and work in the Obama Department of Agriculture and has spoken in generalities. In a campaign ad, Baccam, sporting a ball cap and a flannel shirt, describes building barracks in the Afghan desert and keeping "an old truck running with elbow grease and duct tape."
Baccam is one of six Democratic congressional candidates who hasn’t endorsed Vice President Harris as the party’s presidential nominee. He also deleted posts on X promoting the 2020 Biden-Harris campaign, criticizing former President Donald Trump and disapproving of Iowa’s limited pandemic restrictions.
"Joe Biden will be a commander in chief who understands and supports our veterans, service members, and military families when confronted with the hardest situations," Baccam wrote in a deleted August 2020 post. "A little empathy goes a long way especially when none exists currently with the President."
In July 2020, Baccam praised Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary for the Obama and Biden administrations and former Iowa governor, calling him a "great mentor and friend." Vilsack has defended race-based loans through the American Rescue Plan that discriminated against white farmers and tried to tax Christmas trees. He also holds a cozy relationship with Eric Kessler, the founder of the dark money behemoth Arabella Advisors.
When a moderator asked Baccam to explain why he deleted those posts during a Tuesday night debate, he avoided the question entirely, leading the moderator to press him.
"I don’t have a recollection of what all those posts are, but people delete tweets and they clean up social media. That stuff happens all the time. I’m not hiding from any of that," Baccam responded. "And as a matter of fact, it seems like everyone knows about it now."
Baccam did not respond to a request for comment.
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