Cal Woods

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Cal Woods

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

June 2, 2020

Military

Service / branch

U.S. Navy

Years of service

1974 - 1979

Personal

Birthplace

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Religion

Methodist

Profession

Realtor

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Campaign Instagram

Personal Facebook

Personal LinkedIn

Cal Woods (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. Senate to represent Iowa. He lost in the Democratic primary on June 2, 2020. Woods unofficially withdrew from the race but appeared on the primary election ballot on June 2, 2020.

Woods completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Cal Woods was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Woods earned an undergraduate degree in May 1982 after studying at Central College in Pella and the University of Iowa. His professional experience includes working as a realtor. He served in the United States Navy from 1974 to 1979. Woods is affiliated with Tree Des Moines.

Elections

2020

See also: United States Senate election in Iowa, 2020

United States Senate election in Iowa, 2020 (June 2 Democratic primary)

United States Senate election in Iowa, 2020 (June 2 Republican primary)

General election

General election for U.S. Senate Iowa

Incumbent Joni Ernst defeated Theresa Greenfield, Rick Stewart, and Suzanne Herzog in the general election for U.S. Senate Iowa on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Joni Ernst (R)	51.7	864,997
		Theresa Greenfield (D)	45.2	754,859
		Rick Stewart (L)	2.2	36,961
		Suzanne Herzog (Independent)	0.8	13,800
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	1,211

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,671,828
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Iowa

Theresa Greenfield defeated Michael Franken, Kimberly Graham, Eddie Mauro, and Cal Woods (Unofficially withdrew) in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Iowa on June 2, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Theresa Greenfield	47.7	132,001
		Michael Franken	24.9	68,851
		Kimberly Graham	15.0	41,554
		Eddie Mauro	11.0	30,400
		Cal Woods (Unofficially withdrew)	1.2	3,372
		Other/Write-in votes	0.2	514

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 276,692
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. Senate Iowa

Incumbent Joni Ernst advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. Senate Iowa on June 2, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Joni Ernst	98.6	226,589
		Other/Write-in votes	1.4	3,132

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 229,721
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Paul Rieck (R)

Campaign themes

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Cal Woods completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Woods' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Cal Woods grew up on a Linn County hog farm, a fourth generation Iowan. His father also worked as a factory machinist at Universal Engineering in Cedar Rapids, a member of the Machinists Union for 35 years. Cal's mother worked at the Mount Vernon Bakery. Cal joined the Navy at 17 and served on board the USS Chicago in the Navigation Department. He served two tours overseas in the Western Pacific. Cal graduated from the University of Iowa and worked as a reporter in Colorado and Iowa for 16 years. After the news business Cal volunteered on a number of campaign including for Barack Obama in 2012. He was a precinct captain for Martin O'Malley in 2016 and also volunteered for Staci Appel in her congressional race and for Leonard Boswell's reelection campaign for congress.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• I will fight for health care for every American

• I will tackle our climate crisis with the sense of urgency it demands.

• I will fight for farmers and rural communities and fight to outlaw foreign ownership of packing plants.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

We have to address our climate crisis now. We can't continue to pump 45 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. That is unsustainable. I support the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act that will incentivize a reduction in fossil fuel consumption and an increase in more renewable energy from wind and solar. We must also subsidize farmers to plant cover crops to sequester more carbon on and in the soil. And if we plant billions of more trees on land now lying fallow, we can eventually remove a significant amount of the human-caused carbon from the atmosphere.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Robert Reich, secretary of labor in the Clinton Administration, he is a man of principal, empathy and very sharp on economics.

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

Winner Take All Politics by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson. The sub-title is "How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class. " A lot of people think the wealthy became wealthy primarily because of technology, education, access to capital and globalization. That's partly true but more relevant is the tax and regulatory code in Washington which provided distinct advantages to those who already accumulated or inherited wealth.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Empathy, compassion, tolerance, a willingness to hear opposing ideas, determination to fight for opportunities for the least among us. Any nation or civilization should be judged not on how the wealthy, well-educated and well-connected fair, but on the opportunities for the least among us to live productive, meaningful, purposeful lives.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

To serve constituents and ensure they are being treated fairly by federal agencies and to be their advocate when they are not. To be accountable to constituents. To be influenced by a commitment to do what is right regardless of pressure from well-healed lobbyists.

What legacy would you like to leave?

The most important challenge we face not only as a nation, but as a civilization is our climate crisis. For the sake of the next generation we must address the crisis now.

America takes on the big challenges. We built a transcontinental railroad across two mountain ranges, found a cure for polio, taught the world to fly, sent a man to the moon and brought him home again. We need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and sequester more carbon on and in the soil.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

The assassination of President Kennedy. 7.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

Washing dishes at Cornell College. A year.

What is your favorite book? Why?

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. What a great series of stories that chronicle the battle of protecting our greatest natural resources versus development and what Abbey calls industrial tourism.

What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Battling our climate crisis. We have already lost thousands of Americans to hurricanes, more than a hundred in recent wildfires and hundreds of billions of dollars in property damage and some politicians in Washington are still in denial about our climate crisis. Ignoring it will not make it go away. We need science-based facts and strategies for battling our climate crisis. If you care about kids and the next generation, you have an obligation to leave them a world that you can be proud that you did everything possible to make it a safe place to live.

Do you believe that it’s beneficial for senators to have previous experience in government or politics?

What criteria would you apply when deciding whether to confirm presidential appointees?

First of all are they qualified, do they have some expertise in the area? Rick Perry as Energy Secretary?Part of that job is to oversee Nuclear Energy Do they have a sense of fairness, compassion and empathy for the least among us? Ben Carson might have been a great surgeon general or secretary of health and human services, but HUD? Did he have any expertise whatsoever in housing?

Is there a particular senator, past or present, whom you want to model yourself after?

Former Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota offered incredible foresight during debate over the repeal of the Glass-Steagall act in 1999. He said that if the act that passed in 1933 to separate investment banking from retail banking was repealed it would lead to a financial catastrophe within a decade. Unfortunately he was spot on. He predicted the financial collapse of 2008 nine years ahead of time. He was one of just a few Senators to vote against the repeal in what turned out to be a real profile in courage.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also

2020 Elections

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External links

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Footnotes

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Iowa's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Joni Ernst (R)

Chuck Grassley (R)

Representatives

District 1

Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R)

District 2

Ashley Hinson (R)

District 3

Zach Nunn (R)

District 4

Randy Feenstra (R)

Republican Party (6)