After years and years of Iowa getting tsk-tsked for never electing a woman to Congress (I went into some reasoning for this in 2012), we shouldn’t let this year go by without pointing something out: Seven of the 10 major-party candidates running for Iowa’s five federal seats this election cycle are women. Iowa’s delegation will be either 3-3 or 4-2 women depending on the 3rd District race.
If Joni Ernst loses to Theresa Greenfield, she will become the third woman ever to lose a Senate seat to a woman (behind Elizabeth Dole in NC and Kelly Ayotte in NH)*. She would be Iowa’s first one-term senator since 1984 — but Iowa’s only HAD three senators since 1984, when Tom Harkin’s win was the third of three in a row ousting one-term incumbents. If Ernst wins, she’ll still be Iowa’s first female U.S. senator.
There’s a more personal milestone here, too: The 1st Congressional District race is the first one where both candidates are younger than I am. I didn’t** hold that against them. (Annoying my phone on a college football Saturday, on the other hand…)
For locality reasons, I’ll also point out that Christina Blackcloud, the Democratic candidate for Tama County’s Iowa House district, would be the first Native American in the Legislature if she unseats multi-term incumbent Dean Fisher. Jane Svoboda is the only woman who has represented Tama County in the Legislature (1987-90).
* UPDATE 10/27: Maine’s Susan Collins is in the same boat.
** Yes, past tense. Had to break with tradition for a couple reasons.