With the election a week behind us, let’s run through the superlatives of an unprecedented sixth (nonconsecutive) term for Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad:
- At the end of next year, he will be the undisputed longest-serving governor of all time. He is already the longest serving governor of any state as a state.
- He finally won Lee County this year, and went 98 for 99 in the state. In six statewide elections, he won all but 51 of 594 counties.
- If he serves out the full term and does not run for office again, in January 2019 he will have been governor for nearly 14% of Iowa’s time as a state.
- From July 1985 until July 2029, Branstad has/will have been governor for more than half my life.
Outgoing U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin has some records of his own. Harkin spent 30 years in the Senate and finishes as the most senior junior senator. He is only the second Iowan to hold that particular Senate seat for a decade (and the other lasted 11 years). He is Iowa’s third-longest-serving senator and second-longest popularly elected senator, behind Chuck Grassley and William B. Allison. He was one of the last “Watergate Babies” in Congress from the 1974 midterms.