The 2023 Legislature: Diversity rises, still lags

DES MOINES — The diversity among Iowa’s state lawmakers once again has risen, but still lags well behind the state’s population.

When the 2023 session of the Iowa Legislature convenes today and the 90th Iowa General Assembly begins its work, there will be 12 minority lawmakers representing Iowans. That’s a 50 percent increase from the eight minority lawmakers who started the two-year general assembly in 2021, and triple the four who went to work in 2019.

And yet while the number of minority state lawmakers steadily has increased after each of the past two elections, the figure still represents only 8 percent of the Iowa Legislature. Meantime, twice that — roughly 16 percent — of Iowa residents identify as minorities, according to U.S. Census data.

The figures in this article are based on available demographic information for the 150 members of the Iowa Legislature, gathered by The Gazette from multiple sources including legislative and caucus staff, news reports, election candidate information and the legislators themselves.

Of those 12 minority legislators, 11 will serve in the Iowa House: eight Democrats and three Republicans. There is only one minority legislator in the Iowa Senate: freshman Democratic Sen. Izaah Knox, of Des Moines.

The group includes the first-ever Arab American to serve in the Iowa Legislature: Democratic Rep. Sami Scheetz, of Cedar Rapids.

Republican majorities

Iowa Republicans had another successful election in 2022 and thus enter the 90th General Assembly with strong majorities. In the Senate, there are 34 Republicans and 16 Democrats, and in the House there are 64 Republicans and 36 Democrats.

That means, in total, the 150-member Iowa Legislature is almost two-thirds Republican.

Ages and generations

Step aside, boomers. Generation X is taking over. At least in the Senate.

Members of Generation X — born between 1965 and 1980, according to Pew Research Center — comprise a majority of lawmakers in one chamber of the Legislature.

In fact, half of the Iowa Senate — 25 members — is Gen X. That outnumbers the 19 baby boomers in the Senate.

But boomers are still well represented in the House, where they hold a commanding 45-30 advantage over the Gen-Xers.

There are a total of 20 millennials — born between 1981 and 1996 — in the Iowa Legislature: 16 in the House and four in the Senate.

And there are two members of Generation Z, born after 1996. Both of the youngsters — Carter Nordman, a Republican from Panora and Adam Zabner, a Democrat from Iowa City — are in the House.

At 23, Zabner is the youngest member of the 90th General Assembly. A Latino, he is also one of the dozen minority legislators.

The oldest member of the Legislature is 82-year-old Sen. Julian Garrett, a Republican from Indianola.

The average age of a current Iowa state lawmaker is 55.

Gender imbalance

The Legislature made no gains in gender balance in the last election.

The second consecutive two-year general assembly starts with women comprising just 29 percent of all state lawmakers. Women make up 49.8 percent of Iowa’s population.

And again, Democrats remain far more gender-balanced: nearly half (46 percent) of Democratic legislators are women, while just 1 in 5 Republican legislators is a woman.

Senate Democrats are an exact 50-50 split of eight men and eight women.

House Democrats had featured a majority of women in the past two general assemblies, but this time around have more men than women, 20-16. However, the House Democrats’ leadership team, which is elected by their peers, is all women.

Education and occupation

Farmers, business professionals and owners, and educators account for the majority of Iowa legislators’ day jobs.

While some legislators listed more than one occupation, the Legislature has at least 24 business professionals and 16 business owners, 22 farmers and 13 educators.

More than 80 percent of Iowa lawmakers have at least a four-year college degree.

Odds and ends

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

Tom Barton and Caleb McCullough of The Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.