DES MOINES, Iowa — Vivek Ramaswamy is running for the Republican presidential nomination. On Friday he took a detour to wade into an issue that a number of farmers and land owners are dealing with across the state — a proposed Summit Carbon Pipeline.

A group called the Iowa Soil Coalition held the meeting with Ramaswamy and former Iowa congressman Steve King.

“Thanks so much Vivek again for your team for pulling this together here today,” said King. “I want to thank the Free Soil Coalition, we formed that organization on 8 July at Fort Dodge, Iowa. We called some people together and said let’s stand up for our property rights, they poured into that place about 400 of them altogether.”

“On every level from local to the presidential, we need leaders who are able to cut through to the bottom of what’s actually happening,” said Ramaswamy. “This is not about protecting the ethanol industry, in fact, this is one of the most long-term harmful deals to the ethanol industry. It’s bending the knee to markets that eventually will cause it to cease to exist.”

The group also heard from a landowner that would be affected by the pipeline since Summit wants to utilize eminent domain.

“We have six parcels affected by Summit Carbon Solutions so we are on their exhibit list, which means that they want to use the domain on us,” said Cathy Stockdale, a Hardin County Farmer. “If there is a leak on our farm, we will be dead. We are in the kill zone.”

Ramaswamy has expressed his opposition to the Summit Carbon Solutions carbon pipeline and the use of eminent domain. In a press

“What really stood out to me, was the use of eminent domain, the idea that, they were going to use our money to advance some other agenda that didn’t advance American interest to what end? Capture carbon dioxide and burying it in the ground? Come on this is one of many jokes that we’ve adopted in this country,” said Ramaswamy. “The GOP establishment does NOT approve of this message, and it’s pathetic I’m the only candidate to say it.”