A Paulista Wins Nomination For State Senate

Linn County Republicans nominated first-time candidate Ryan Flood to challenge incumbent Liz Mathis for the Senate District 34 seat. Flood was nominated in a special convention to replace the former candidate and flaky flameout Randi Shannon who quit the race.

26-year-old Flood is a financial advisor. Politically he has worked for Ron Paul's 2012 campaign and the "Liberty for All" PAC in Texas.

Flood has tried to distance himself from previous candidate Shannon, who listed him as campaign chair. “I actually didn’t really know about that until it was on the news,” Flood said. “I was down in Texas and she asked me to come up and help her out. I knew she was trying to get some paperwork done at the last second, so it doesn’t surprise me that she put me on there.”

Flood is calling for reductions in state government and taxes. “It’s time to say ‘Enough is enough’ and cut the spending and cut the red tape so job creators can do what they do best – create jobs,” Flood said.

Even though the GOP has a slight lead in voter registration in District 34, Liz Mathis will be difficult to defeat. Not only is she an incumbent but she's also a former local news anchor with high name recognition value.  With his late entry into the race, Ryan Flood has his work cut out for him.