Statewide Iowa — Brenna Bird will take over Monday as Iowa’s attorney general, the first Republican to hold the office in 40 years, and the second female to hold the office in Iowa history.
Bird’s central campaign promise was to, in her words, see Joe Biden in court.
Bird is still developing a proposed budget for the office, but one of her first moves will be to ask the Republican-led legislature to approve funding for more prosecutors.
Bird, who has been Guthrie County Attorney, says she’ll miss prosecuting cases at the local level. She plans to review the state’s Crime Victim Assistance program.
In 2021, the Iowa Senate unanimously voted to create a unit in the Iowa Department of Public Safety that would focus on unsolved murders and missing persons cases, but the bill then stalled and didn’t become law. This past year as Bird campaigned, she talked about creating a cold case unit in the attorney general’s office, because most other states have one.
Bird also wants to establish what she calls a “special victim’s unit” in the office.
Bird criticized her predecessor, Democrat Tom Miller, for failing to travel the state and meet with local law enforcement. Bird says she intends to visit every one of Iowa’s 99 counties each year. Bird has announced her top deputy will be Sam Langholz, who had served as chief legal counsel for Governor Reynolds until Miller hired him in 2021. Bird ran against Miller 12 years ago and lost by 11 points. She won this year’s campaign against Miller by one-point-eight percent.
Over the past few election cycles, multiple state legislative candidates from the KIWA listening area have made it part of their campaign to create a cold case unit.
