Dr. Doug Butzier, a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Iowa, died in a plane crash Monday night, the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald and KCRG report.

Butzier was a Libertarian candidate running against Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley and Republican Joni Ernst. His wife confirmed to KCRG he was the victim in a plane crash near the Dubuque Regional Airport in Iowa.

A release from Lynn Lunsford with the Federal Aviation Administration’s public affairs office said a single-engine Piper PA-46 crashed about a mile north of the runway after taking off around 10 p.m. from Ankeny Regional Airport. Key West Fire Chief Brian Arnold said the plane crashed near the 8700 block of Military Road.

The Dubuque Telegraph-Herald reports Butzier was an emergency room physician at Mercy Medical Center-Dubuque. In a Des Moines Register profile of Butzier published Oct. 8, he said his "only political experience has been with various elected positions on hospital medical staffs."