SIOUX CITY | After floating the possibility last week, Jake Jungers, of Sioux City, will not run as a minor party candidate for the Iowa House District 6 seat in a Jan. 16 special election.
On Friday, Jungers said he would collect signatures on a petition in order to get his name on the special election ballot. He said he was checking into whether he would run as a member of the Libertarian Party or No Party, the designation for independents on Iowa ballots.
However, Jungers decided not to pull the trigger on his second attempt to be on a Siouxland ballot in less than a year.
"After several recent with discussions with political leaders throughout the state, I have come to the decision to announce that I will not be running for state representative in Iowa House District 6," Jungers said in a message to the Journal.
Third-party or no party candidates had until Tuesday to file nomination papers with the Iowa Secretary of State's office.
The seat is open because Jim Carlin, the former representative, won a Dec. 12 special election for the seat in Iowa Senate District 3.
Rita DeJong, a Democrat and former Sioux City teacher and principal, and Jacob Bossman, a Republican who lost a bid for Iowa House District 6 in 2016, when Carlin won the position, are the nominees of the respective parties for the Jan. 16 election.
Jungers said he is endorsing Bossman.
Jungers unsuccessfully ran for one of three Sioux City Council positions earlier this year.
The winner of the Jan. 16 election will fill the last year of Carlin's two-year House term.
Carlin, a first-term Republican, defeated Democrat Todd Wendt, of Le Mars, 55 percent to 45 percent in Senate District 3.
The Senate District 3 vacancy was created by the resignation of two-term Sen. Bill Anderson, a Pierson Republican who in September accepted a job heading the Cherokee Area Economic Development Corporation.