Washington, DC — Iowa Senator Randy Feenstra of Hull is becoming Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra. And he’ll be one of only two men representing the state in Washington.
For the first time ever, women will be the majority of Iowa’s congressional delegation. Mary Ellen Miller is the former executive director of “50-50 in 2020” — a group formed in 2010 to encourage women to run for office.
(as said) “The reason we set up the program to recruit and train women was because Iowa was in a unique situation as being only one of only two states that had never sent a woman to Congress or elected a woman governor and in 10 years that has all been turned around,” Miller says. “I’m just, of course, very proud of our work, but also amazed at how quickly it has all changed.”
Congresswoman Cindy Axne of West Des Moines will be the dean of the Iowa delegation in the U.S. House, where she’ll be joined by two other women and a man. Joni Ernst will be sworn in for a second term in the U.S. Senate, too, so women will hold four of the six seats in Iowa’s D.C. delegation. 50-50 in 2020 aimed to have Iowa women serving in at least half of elected roles and disbanded last January. Miller says there are now several organizations doing the same work of encouraging and coaching women to run for office.
(as said) “Very proud of our work, very excited,” Miller says, “but also kind of blown away by the speed at which the whole landscape reversed itself.”
Miller says the landscape has shifted partly due to generational change.
(as said) “If you at the age of women running, they’re much younger. They grew up in a time of post-women’s liberation, post-birth control,” Miller says. “They’re of an age that really are not intimidated by the customs, so to speak, of our public servant environment. It was always the ‘good old boys’ club’ and they just don’t have any patience with that.”
Another contributing factor is the increasing numbers of women running for office.
(as said) “Once women see other women running then they go, ‘Oh, I can do that,’ but at the beginning, they just didn’t have those role models,” Miller says. “They didn’t have those images that looked like them.”
Miller predicts the next shift in Iowa and elsewhere will be toward electing more people of color and new American citizens who become active in the political process.
Iowa’s Congressional Delegation will consist of:
· Northeast Iowan and Republican Ashley Hinson as the new representative from District 1.
· Southeast Iowan and Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks as the new representative from District 2. It is worth mentioning that the election results are still contested by Democratic Candidate Rita Hart.
· Southwest Iowan and Democrat Cindy Axne, who began serving in 2019
· Northwest Iowan and Republican Randy Feenstra as the new representative from District 4.
· Iowa’s Junior Senator Joni Ernst, who won re-election in 2020 and is next up for election in 2026
· Iowa’s Senior Senator Chuck Grassley, who last won re-election in 2016, and is next up for election in 2022. Grassley also serves as President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and as such, is third in the Presidential succession line after the Vice President and the Speaker Of The House.
