State Sen. Rick Bertrand, R-Sioux City, decided during the past several months that it is time to offer a fresh perspective for Iowa’s 4th District — but that means unseating a seven-term congressman who has easily been re-elected for the past 15 years.

Bertrand, who made his candidacy official last week, is set to go up against one of Iowa’s most known conservatives in the state with his challenge to U.S. Rep. Steve King. The Sioux City senator, businessman and developer will now spend the next several months trying to convince voters that he is better suited to represent them than King.

At the center of his argument on why he would challenge King: it’s time to put a fresh face in D.C. for Iowans.

We do not have term limits for members of Congress, Bertrand said, but we do have elections that can “give Iowans a choice” and a serious challenge for the first time since King has been in Washington.

“The Steve King of 14 years ago in the Iowa Senate would be saying the exact same thing that I’m saying right now,” Bertrand said in a sit-down interview with the Iowa State Daily on Tuesday. “He understands that [being a member of Congress] was not meant to be a job or a career.”

King, who worked in construction and founded his own business after college, was elected to the Iowa Senate and served six years before moving to Congress, where he is now in the middle of his seventh term.

King faced no primary challenge in 2014 and was re-elected with 61 percent of the vote.

King put out a statement following Bertrand’s announcement, saying he was influenced by “a couple of wealthy and petulant establishment Republicans who think they should own a Congressman.”

“I’ve now been informed an offer was accepted,” King said about Bertrand, also saying he should disclose what offer was offered to him to primary King.

Bertrand challenged King’s statement, instead saying the people King are talking about are average, everyday Iowans that he talked to and urged him to run, especially those in the agriculture industry who have taken issue with King on renewable fuels.

He said King is trying to “control the message,” and that statement is a signal that he is not doing the job he was elected to do in Washington.

“[King] had an opportunity to put his vision toward Iowa out,” Bertrand said. “Instead, he kind of adapted this ‘how dare you?’ attitude.”

Bertrand also said it makes sense for someone like Bruce Rastetter, a wealthy agribusiness leader in the 4th District who is known as a GOP donor in the state, to support his campaign because the two have known each other and have a history working together.

“I try to do the right thing in supporting people, but I wouldn’t support [Bertrand] if I didn’t also think he could win,” Rastetter told the Des Moines Register on Tuesday.

King has also irked many pro-agriculture conservatives in the state by backing Ted Cruz in the Iowa Caucus. Cruz supported phasing out the Renewable Fuel Standard, which mandates renewable fuels to be blended into transportation fuel and is popular among Iowans.

Bertrand traveled around the 4th District himself, he said, talking to the voters who allowed him to get the necessary signatures to get on the ballot.

Bertrand – “This election represents a positive reset opportunity for NW Iowa ides in Washington D.C.”

— Rick Bertrand (@SenatorBertrand) March 17, 2016

“It’s really easy to hire staff, or hire volunteers, have pizza parties, to go collect those,” he said. “I went out and beat on the doors myself, just like I did when I ran for my first Senate seat. I listened to the people at the doors, I listened to the business community and collected the signatures myself.”

Education policy

Bertrand said he sees students in Iowa who do not have an “end game” when they go to college for a certain major, so he thinks it is important students are more aware with what they can get out of their education.

In regard to the Pell grant program, he said it makes sense to possibly offer grants based on merit, and not just on financial need if a student is performing well in his or her field of study.

Government needs to get out of the student loan program, he said, which would create competition and bring down interest rates.

“You shouldn’t be burdened with these fixed options,” Bertrand said.

Another option to speed up a degree path and save money may be to offer credit for experience someone has already had, Bertrand said. If someone works a job before going to college, he or she should get credit for experience — for example, he said, someone who worked as an accountant for a few years could get credit instead of going through entry-level classes they do not need.

Iowa’s primary, where voters will chose between King and Bertrand, will take place June 7. The winner will face Democratic challenger Kim Weaver, the O’Brien County Democratic Party chair, in November.