Suzanne Herzog

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Suzanne Herzog

Independent

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 3, 2020

Personal

Birthplace

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Contact

Campaign website

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Suzanne Herzog (independent) ran for election to the U.S. Senate to represent Iowa. She lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.

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

Biography

Suzanne Herzog was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She earned an associate degree in nursing in 1993, and she later earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Iowa State University in 2009. Herzog's career experience includes working as a registered nurse with emergency departments in hospitals in Iowa and Puerto Rico from 1993 to 2011 and as a healthcare data analyst and reporting consultant with nonprofit hospital networks. These included Mercy Medical Center from 2011 to 2013, Conifer Health Solutions from 2013 to 2016, Kelly Services in 2016, and United Audit Systems Inc. of Cincinnati from 2016 to 2019.

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

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	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.
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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.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Paul Rieck (R)

Campaign themes

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Suzanne Herzog completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Herzog's 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.

Suzanne Herzog was one of seven children born and raised in rural Cedar Rapids where her family hosted foster children for Iowa DHS, and exchange students from South America, Europe and Africa. Scholarships, and detasseling corn to earn travel money enabled her to study Spanish and other cultures in Mexico and Costa Rica, and to participate in an American Cancer Society summer research program in high school. By 1993 she was raising her own two children when she completed an A.S. nursing degree, and went on to work for a VA hospital, and in emergency departments in Puerto Rico and Iowa for 17 years as a RN. She served on medical disaster relief teams in El Salvador in 2001, and in LA after Hurricane Katrina with FEMA in 2005. In 2008 while studying economics at Iowa State, another scholarship granted her statistics and survey methodology internship work and studies in Washington D.C. (a joint program of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and the University of Maryland). She graduated with an economics B.S. degree in 2009. Her work since that time includes independent economics research, and professional analyses of healthcare systems.

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?

• Economist whose life's work will contribute to the most fair, effective, and rapidly-implementable healthcare reform with practical solutions that the major political parties ignore.

• Independent leadership promoting: more-functional, less-divisive government, Congressional term limits, ending pensions for member of Congress, and offering an alternative to duopoly, money-hungry politics.

• Prepared to help ensure more government accountability and transparency with evidence-based legislation, and impact monitoring- to get the most out of every taxpayer dollar spent.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Economic justice with fair access to essential resources for all; healthcare, education and work opportunities, an environment that offers a better quality-of-life, etc., so that more people can achieve their full life potential. We have to end the mistake of ever associating private health insurance with employment. I want to help realize a far fairer and efficient justice system that will improve many legal aspects our lives- from just and more expeditious immigration policies, to legal protections for workers, and criminal justice reform. Our federal student loan programs need an overhaul with future-income-based-percentage repayment plans for all current and future student debt. Repayment should start at income levels no lower than $30,000/year, and we have to deny funding to low-quality, high-cost scam schools. I will co-sponsor and support legislation to establish a public-works-style program with public-private partnerships and designated mentors so that people may serve their country in other meaningful, compensated ways in addition to military service. I will execute the duties of the Senate office to restore and enforce our system of checks and balances among the branches of government- for example, I plan to play a major role in restoring the powers of Congress to direct our international trade policies (ending recent recklessly-imposed tariffs). I plan to help our agriculture sector with incentives and support for sustainable agriculture practices.

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

As a child born to Catholic parents who had considered entering the Peace Corps in the 1960s, back then I might have said that I admired Mother Theresa, or "Sister Jean" the nun who worked with inner-city kids in Minneapolis and was the recipient of pounds of our Halloween candy we donated to her efforts every year. When I was about 7, I remember telling someone I wanted to be a "missionary doctor" when I grew up. Then I looked up to my Grandpa Joe Herzog who had been a beloved surgeon in Milwaukee, and after retiring spent the summer with us every year, using his old surgeon's hands to do household repairs or tend our gigantic vegetable garden.
Today I admire public servants with integrity and sincere commitment to their constituents, and to our constitutional democratic republic- people who put fair, functional, and effective government before their own self-interests, or any political-party agenda. Independent Senator Angus King of Maine is a worthy example to follow. I believe Iowan's are looking for a similarly thoughtful and objective Senator who is prepared to represent the majority of Iowans, and is one oblivious to simplistic sociopolitical labels. I am ready to assume Iowa's leadership role in the U.S. Senate to set an example for the rest of the nation- how being genuinely responsive to, and engaged with the people I serve, and how substantiating and advocating for evidence-based, practical, and more simply-transparent legislation is the way forward. I will honor my official duty to enforce our system of checks and balances currently neglected by far too many Congressional leaders over the past few decades.

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

The core responsibilities for a U.S. Senator include a genuine dedication to public service, putting the best interests of constituents and Americans before self-interest, or any political party agenda. My goal is to manage the budget and staff for the senate office more efficiently and effectively than ever, focusing resources on being as supportive and responsive to constituents as possible, and attending to the previously under-served. I will ensure that my staff contributes to crafting ultimately well-substantiated, evidence-based, legislation. As Senator, I will honor my duty to enforce the essential checks-and-balances that make our government serve Iowans and Americans as it should. It is my responsibility to exercise and preserve (or in some cases, such as international trade policy- reestablish) the powers of the legislative branch. I believe it is my responsibility to establish a leadership role for our state in Washington, demonstrating a willingness to collaborate with anyone prepared to focus on tackling tough issues together, and my independent/non-partisan status will enable me to do that more effectively than any party-affiliated member of Congress. With the currently narrow major-political-party-majority in the Senate, I will be prepared to leverage our state's new independent senator status in the best interest of Iowans.

What legacy would you like to leave?

The legacy I would like to leave would be to establish a more functional approach to politics and government, and to finally realize the kind of healthcare reform for the people of our nation that is long overdue. I will set a new standards for what public service should be. I have pledged to limit myself to two terms, and will work to impose 12-year term limits for all Congressional members, while ending unnecessary entitlements- such as Congressional pensions, and the exclusive access to superior health insurance. My goal is to be most effective and efficient U.S. Senator Iowa has ever known. I plan to set a new tone for legislative collaboration, and will offer generous assistance to subsequent U.S. Senate office holders for Iowa who follow me- so that they are empowered to serve Iowans and Americans as effectively as possible from day one in this role. I will continue to advocate for ways to improve our democratic processes so that the U.S. may be a shining example for the rest of the world. Promoting ranked-choice voting, supporting full representation for Americans in Washington D.C. and U.S. territories like Puerto Rico, and finding the way forward to diminish the negative impact of an increasingly-skewed and less-representative electoral college- are worthy national endeavors that I would be pleased to be a part of as well.

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

Celebrating our nation's bicentennial when I was in the 3rd and forth grades at Hiawatha elementary school in Cedar Rapids. We created patriotic art projects and studied the admission Alaska and Hawaii as states in 1959. I recall being surprised to learn that had occurred less than 10 years before I was born. Sunday, July 4th, 1976 was a momentous day to celebrate the month before I turned 9 years old. I never dreamed that I would be officially filing my candidacy with the Federal Election Commission to run for U.S. Senate on that same date 43 years later.

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

Very first job that I was paid for (besides babysitting), was detasseling corn in my junior-high-school years for two summer growing seasons. Years prior to that I had done volunteer work as a "candy-striper" in a local hospital where I was born- delivering flowers or mail to patients, or helping to autoclave and stock reusable equipment.

What qualities does the U.S. Senate possess that makes it unique as an institution?

Clearly the public was reminded this year how the Senate has the sole power to conduct impeachment trials, essentially serving as jury and judge in such instances. The Constitution describes the Senate's power to review and approve or reject presidential appointees to executive and judicial branch posts (or Article 2, Section 2 has been interpreted and observed as such). It also gives the Senate the power to approve treaties made by the executive branch by a two-thirds vote, and allows it to amend or adopt changes to a treaty. These are examples of Constitutional provisions that make the U.S. Senate unique, but today this legislative body's disheartening dysfunction has to do with Senate rules that have developed over time, and have little if anything to do with the Constitution.
There is no original provision for political parties, so Senate rules granting the Senate majority leader king-like authority to choose what legislation is considered or "taken up", regardless of the amount of support such bills or acts have received in the House, is clearly inappropriate and must be limited. With the current narrow party majority in the U.S. Senate, independent/non-partisan senators may have a historic leverage opportunity for committee assignments and legislative collaborative efforts. (Offering some background for Senate rules for committee assignments- https://faculty.washington.edu/jwilker/353/353Assignments/SenateCommitteeAssignmentProcess.pdf) In both houses of Congress, it is disappointing to know that both major political parties require payment of "party dues" in the process of granting preferential committee assignments. At least in the Senate, rules require that all U.S. Senators be granted assignments of certain grades of importance or categories,- example: "Senators must serve on two "A" committees, and may serve on one "B" committee, and any number of "C" committees," etc.

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

As with all life experiences, the benefit gained from previous experience in government or politics depends very much on how any individual processes it. Though serving in the office of the U.S. Senate representing a state of more than 3 million people is challenging, tough work- it is not intellectually insurmountable or "rocket science". Other life experiences, like genuinely serving others in multiple communities throughout Iowa and our country for decades- helping them to access the resources they need, and repeatedly demonstrating effective communication and collaboration skills is also applicable experience. Our political system clearly is not serving Iowans and Americans as it should, so today someone who has not submitted to status-quo, major-political-party tactics will serve people better. National and statewide polls demonstrate a great enthusiasm for independent, non-partisan candidates and from what Iowa voters have told me out on the campaign trail, the time to elect and independent U.S. Senator for Iowa is now. Iowa's Sec. of State's office currently reports more voters registered independent 38%, vs only 30-32% each registered as Democrats or Republicans.

What do you think of the filibuster?

Offering a background resource for readers: https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Filibuster_Cloture.htm

So here it is worth noting the history: Early on in Congress, as House of Representatives numbers grew, revisions to rules there limited debate, but "In the smaller Senate, unlimited debate continued on the grounds that any senator should have the right to speak as long as necessary on any issue."... Filibusters were particularly useful to southern senators who sought to block civil rights legislation, including anti-lynching legislation, until cloture was invoked after a 60-day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1975 the Senate reduced the number of votes required for cloture from two-thirds to three-fifths, or 60 of the current 100 senators."
In a few words, I view the filibuster as an overused and mindless strategy that all too often prevents thoughtful deliberations and impedes efficient and effective legislation. Engaging in a filibuster is a shameful waste of time when we consider the work that U.S. Senators are paid by taxpayers to do. While Senate rules still require just a simple majority to actually pass a bill, several procedural steps along the way require 60 votes to end debate on bills. If Senate leaders know that at least 41 senators plan to oppose a "cloture motion" on a given measure or motion, they often choose not to schedule it for floor consideration.

At the very least the Senate must ban filibusters on particular motions- like the one used to call up a bill to start (or the "motion to proceed"). Though the likely way to limit the filibuster is to create a new Senate precedent, this tactic was misused in 2013(ending the minority party's ability to filibuster most presidential nominees), and in 2017(reducing the level of support necessary for a supreme court nominee). Sadly Mitch McConnell's intent to strip impartiality from judicial confirmations contributed to both consequential moves.

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Footnotes

[show]

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)