The Libertarian Party candidate for the U.S. Senate in Iowa has died in a plane crash, according to local news reports.
Doug Butzier, who was running in the battleground Senate race against Republican Joni Ernst and Democrat Bruce Braley, died after crashing his Piper PA-46 late Monday night near Dubuque Regional Airport.
“I have practiced Emergency Medicine in the Twin Cities, Tucson, Arizona and have now been in Dubuque for 17 years,” Butzier said on his campaign website. “I am still practicing emergency medicine and I’m also the medical staff president at Mercy Medical Center.”
A PPP poll from September showed Butzier winning about 2 percent of the vote.
Iowa has a history of small plane crashes: it was in Clear Lake in 1959 that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and “The Big Bopper” famously were killed.