Candidate Profiles

David May (nonpartisan)

Incumbent, Supreme Court

Justice David May, Polk City, was appointed to the Iowa Supreme Court in 2022. He was born and raised in Kirksville, Missouri. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri - Columbia, his Master of Public Health degree from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, and his law degree with high honors from Drake University Law School. While in law school, he served on the Drake Law Review and clerked for the Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers. After law school, Justice May practiced law with Hawkins & Norris, P.C., in Des Moines from 1998 to 2001. From 2001 to 2016, he practiced with Bradshaw, Fowler, Proctor & Fairgrave, P.C., in Des Moines. Justice May began his judicial service in 2016, when he was appointed as a District Judge on the Iowa District Court. He served there from 2016 to 2019. In 2019, he was appointed as a judge on the Iowa Court of Appeals, where he served until his appointment in 2022 to the Iowa Supreme Court. Justice May is a member of The Iowa State Bar Association, the Polk County Bar Association, the C. Edwin Moore Inn of Court, the Lincoln Inne of Court, the Iowa Judges Association, and the Drake Law School Board of Counselors. He has served on the Iowa Rules of Appellate Procedure Review Task Force and the Iowa Supreme Court Committee on Judicial Technology. Justice May is married and has two children.