Kaufmann elected to another term as GOP state chair

DES MOINES — The man who has overseen wild success for Iowa Republican candidates and the preservation of Iowa Republicans’ first-in-the-nation presidential caucus status has been elected to lead the state party for another two years.

Jeff Kaufmann was unanimously re-elected Saturday as chair of the Republican Party of Iowa. Kaufmann, a community college history professor from Wilton, was given the vote of confidence by the party’s state central committee. It will be his fifth term.

Since 2015, when Kaufmann was elected to his first term, Iowa’s congressional delegation has gone from split to entirely Republican, and state government has gone from split control to all Republican control.

And in 2024, Iowa Republicans once again will start the national party’s presidential nominating process with the Iowa caucuses. The Iowa Democrats were stripped of their first-in-the-nation status last year.

“Over the past eight years, Iowa Republicans have achieved spectacular victories for the people of this great state,” Kaufmann said in a statement. “I am honored to remain at the helm of this great organization and see our party through another first-in-the-nation caucus and, ultimately, victory again in 2024.”

Linda Upmeyer, a former Iowa House speaker from Clear Lake, was unanimously re-elected as the state party’s co-chair.