DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Iowa Capitol Bureau) – For the first time this cycle, a presidential candidate has visited all of Iowa’s 99 counties. It’s not one of the more prominent candidates like Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis. It’s Dallas businessman and pastor Ryan Binkley. While he’s not relatively well known, he thinks he’s up for the job.

As the war continues on in the Middle East, Binkley says he’d encourage Israel to lead diplomatically, adding there’s a difference between Palestinians and Hamas.

“Hamas is a terrorist organization, it’s committed to the destruction of Israel, but not every Palestinian is that way. Not everybody in Gaza is that way. And I think we need to really encourage Benjamin Netanyahu to, you know, show humanitarian care, make sure he’s leading, communicating that across the globe,” Binkley said.

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade and no longer guaranteed access to abortion, control over the issue returned to the states. Binkley says he’s glad it’s a state issue, but Republicans can do better to show they support life.

“I want to start an adoption movement, you know, making adoption more affordable and accessible. We adopted our fifth child and even 10 years ago it was probably $25-30,000. So, it’s very expensive and needs to be more accessible, and I think as we do that with the foster care system as well, improve that, that we can change the culture and conversation of life,” Binkley said.

Binkley is the only presidential candidate to come out against proposed carbon capture pipelines in Iowa that would transport liquid carbon produced at ethanol and fertilizer plants.

“It’s not like I’m just totally against Summit. What I’m against is government money creating industries and so I have not seen one a private use for this, excuse me a public use, this seems to be for private use and the Fifth Amendment’s pretty strong in protecting landowner’s rights,” Binkley said.

Binkley says health insurance needs to be more flexible and competitive.

“Treat insurance like we do with car insurance. You can change it. You can shop for it. It needs to be a service that’s more readily available than it is today,” Binkley said.

Iowa has a shortage of mental health beds. Iowa HHS reports show that there were only 676 staffed inpatient psychiatric beds in the entire state. When it comes to expanding access to mental healthcare, Binkley says it’s a state’s issue.

“We start talking about everything legislative why the president would do. There’s also leadership things. We need to start talking to governors, talking to leaders of every single state making sure they are budgeting things in their in their budget for truly mental health,” Binkley said.

It costs a little under $9,000 a year to send a toddler to preschool in Sioux City. Binkley says the high cost of childcare can be blamed on federal spending.

“If we talked about college, healthcare, now childcare, this all comes from an overriding wave that you can’t beat unless you can control spending at the federal level,” Binkley said.

As of the most recent Iowa State University poll, Binkley is at two percent here in Iowa. Binkley says he’s not planning on a win caucus night, but hopes his profile grows even if he comes out in fourth or fifth place.

Watch the video here: https://www.kcrg.com/2023/11/14/caucus-conversation-one-on-one-with-ryan-binkley/