A Marion man who previously campaigned for U.S. Senate will officially throw his hat into Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District race this Thursday and kick off his campaign with a three-city tour.

Christopher Reed, who narrowly won a three-way Republican primary to challenge U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin in 2008, will officially become a candidate for the U.S. House on Thursday, with a planned announcement in Ottumwa. Following the first stop, Reed also plans to visit the communities of Solon, his hometown, and Cedar Rapids, a part of the metropolitan area where he and his family currently live.

The tour, which the campaign has dubbed as “Defending our Children’s Future Tour,” will set the stage for a campaign that Reed said will focus on fiscal issues.

Christopher Reed was the only political candidate to appear in Postville during 2008, in the wake of a massive immigration raid at a meatpacking plant there. At the time he was the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, but this week he will announce his candidancy for U.S. House.

Christopher Reed was the only political candidate to take part in an anti-immigration rally in Postville following a massive 2008 immigration raid at a meatpacking plant. Reed, who was then a U.S. Senate candidate for Republicans, will announce his candidacy for U.S. House this week.

“I am embarking on this campaign to defend our future,” he said in a prepared statement. “I want to ensure that ours is not the last generation to know liberty and freedom. With out-of-control spending, 1,900-page health care bills and an ever-expanding federal government, we need to restore fiscal sanity in Washington, D.C. That is what I will do.”

This appears to be a switch of tactics from his campaign against Harkin. During that race, Reed made national news for his personal attacks on Harkin, especially his proclamation that Harkin was the “Tokyo Rose of Al-Qaeda” during an October 2008 debate.

Reed, however, is not the only individual who has been mentioned as a Republican candidate for Iowa’s 2nd district.

Steve Rathje, a Cedar Rapids businessman who faced Reed for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, has also been making statements on social networking sites that seem to indicate an interest in a congressional run. Although the titles of the pages on Rathje’s website continues to reference his past U.S. Senate aspirations, the overall theme of the site now simply references Congress, leaving open which chamber he is considering.

Ottumwa ophthalmologist Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who served as the 2008 Republican nominee for the 2nd district race, has also remained active — especially in the area of health care reform. While the domain associated with her former campaign site remains active, it automatically redirects to her personal blog, Doctor’s Notes, where she writes on numerous topics that are consistent with someone who is considering a second run.  Further, it is widely anticipated that she will be making her own announcement in relation to the 2nd district in the near future, and the fact that Reed has chosen her community of Ottumwa to spark his own campaign launch does little to tamper such speculation.

Since there doesn’t appear to be any Democrats positioning themselves for a primary run against incumbent U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, it is nearly certain that the Republican chosen during the primary process will challenge the Democratic incumbent. The 2008 election ended with Loebsack claiming 57 percent of the vote and, according to the Cook Political Report, Iowa’s 2nd district is considered the state’s most solid Democratic voting block with a partisan voting index of  D+7.