There is the typical coverage of a new legislative session by demographics, so this post is going to focus on geography. Last time, I made a map, but this time, that job has largely been done for me, so thank you Luke Elzinga. Through his maps, with the district boundaries, we can see the Republican dominance, which is reflected in the numbers as well: A supermajority in the Senate (34-16) and a near-supermajority in the House (64-36).
- 61 House districts have a Republican in both chambers.
- 29 House districts, all urban, have a Democrat in both chambers.
- 7 House districts have a Democrat in the House and a Republican in the Senate: 1 (northwest Sioux City), 20 (north half Council Bluffs), 41 (north half of Ankeny), 42 (south half of Ankeny), 44 (Urbandale), 52 (Marshalltown), and 59 (Mason City and a little more than half of Cerro Gordo County).
- Over four redistrictings, Mason City has gone from slightly larger than one district (1/100th of Iowa’s population) to exactly one district to slightly smaller to needing more rural areas.
- 3 House districts have a Republican in the House and a Democrat in the Senate: 28 (Adel, Van Meter, Dallas County portion of WDM; David Young’s district), 40 (Altoona and the east half of Saylorville, which can be split because it’s a Census Designated Place and not a city), and 76 (Traer’s district, with the south half of Cedar Falls)
- 13 House districts (6 R, 7 D) had elections where the separation between the candidates was less than 10%. Five of those were by fewer than 150 votes. The closest was 6 in District 20.
- In the Senate, that number was 4 (2 R, 2 D), including districts 21 (Ankeny) and 14 (Dallas County suburbs, perhaps the most prominent Senate race in the state).
I got information on the size of each district from the Legislative Services Agency. Because state law on setting up districts does not take into account size, only compactness and perimeter, these calculations don’t get made until after the districts are set.
- Largest House district: 13, in western Iowa from Monona County to Marcus, 2080 square miles
- Smallest House district: 34, north-central Des Moines, 6.76 square miles
- Democratic House districts comprise 2.2% of Iowa’s land area. This total is slightly smaller than House District 95 in southeast Iowa.
- Largest Senate district: 12, 6 whole counties and parts of three others, from southwest Dallas County to the Missouri line, 3450 square miles; Senate President Amy Sinclair’s district
- Smallest Senate district: 17, north-central and part of northeast Des Moines, 14.5 square miles; the two smallest House districts
- Democratic Senate districts comprise 2.245% of Iowa’s land area. The largest one by far is 38, which is Traer’s district, but including all of Cedar Falls, at 463.17 square miles.
By my calculations there are 319 public high schools in Iowa in the 2022-23 school year.
- 8 House districts contain zero high schools, but quite a few have one just outside.
- 29 House districts have 1 high school within their boundaries.
- At the other end, 1 district (95, southeast Iowa) has 8, and 2 (13, mentioned at top as the state’s largest; 17, southwestern Iowa from Afton to College Springs) have 9.
- In the Senate, 6 districts have 1 high school and 2 districts have 9. The most are in District 9, with 16; that district spreads across 6½ counties in southwestern Iowa.
- 3 Senate districts — 8, 9, and 12, covering southwest Iowa from Pisgah to Patterson to Plano — have nearly one-sixth of the state’s land area and one-eighth of the state’s high schools.