Career
Ganske worked as a plastic surgeon in Des Moines until he challenged veteran Democratic Congressman Neal Smith in 1994. Ganske campaigned in a cream 1958 DeSoto (Smith having won his first congressional race in that year),playing songs from that era. Ganske was also helped by the 1990s round of redistricting. Smith had previously represented a district that was more or less coextensive with the Des Moines metropolitan area,but redistricting had pushed it into southwestern Iowa,an area Smith did not know and that did not know him. In one of the biggest upsets in recent congressional history,Ganske defeated Smith by six points,largely by running up large margins in southwestern Iowa.
Ganske was nearly defeated for reelection in 1996,but was reelected with little difficulty in 1998 and 2000. He was considered a relatively moderate Republican,which played well in a district dominated by traditionally-Democratic Des Moines.
After the 2000 round of redistricting,much of the 4th district was shifted into the 5th district,which created a district that covered all of western Iowa. However,Ganske's home city of Des Moines was drawn into the 3rd district,represented by Democrat Leonard Boswell. Rather than running for reelection,Ganske ran for the United States Senate against incumbent Democrat Tom Harkin. He easily won the Republican nomination,but lost to Harkin by 10 points. Following that election,he resumed his practice in Des Moines.
Thomas Richard Harkin is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as a United States senator from Iowa from 1985 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously was the U.S. representative for Iowa's 5th congressional district from 1975 to 1985. He is the longest-serving senator to spend his whole tenure as a state's junior senator.
James Allen Nussle is an American businessman and retired politician who has been president and chief executive officer of the Credit Union National Association since 2014. Nussle served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1991 to 2007 and was the Republican nominee for the 2006 Iowa gubernatorial election, losing to Democrat Chet Culver. He was then appointed director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in 2007 by President George W. Bush, an office he retained until 2009.
Leonard Leroy Boswell was an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Iowa's 3rd congressional district from 1997 to 2013, a district based in Des Moines. A member of the Democratic Party, he was defeated for reelection in 2012 by 4th district incumbent Tom Latham, who decided to run against him after redistricting. Boswell left Congress in January 2013.
Thomas Paul Latham is an American politician who served as a U.S. representative for Iowa from 1995 to 2015. He is a member of the Republican Party. On December 17, 2013, Latham announced he would not seek reelection next term, becoming the third member of the U.S. House to announce his retirement on the same day.
Neal Edward Smith was an American politician who was a member of the United States House of Representatives for the Democratic Party from Iowa from 1959 until 1995, the longest-serving Iowan in the United States House of Representatives.
David Wayne Loebsack is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Iowa's 2nd congressional district from 2007 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he also is an emeritus professor of political science at Cornell College, where he had taught since 1982. On April 12, 2019, Loebsack announced he would not seek reelection.
The Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Iowa.
Staci Lynn Appel is an American politician from the U.S. state of Iowa. She served in the Iowa Senate as the Assistant Majority Leader from 2007 to 2011 representing the 37th district. A Democrat, in 2014 she unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives for Iowa's 3rd congressional district.
John Robert Hansen served one term, from January 3, 1965 to January 3, 1967, as a Democratic U.S. Representative from Iowa. Until the election of Cindy Axne in 2018, he and Tom Harkin were the only two Democrats to have represented southwestern Iowa in the U.S. House since the end of the Great Depression.
The 2002 United States Senate election in Iowa was held on November 5, 2002. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Tom Harkin sought re-election to a fourth term in office. Harkin was opposed in the general election by U.S. Congressman Greg Ganske, who fought off a difficult challenger in the Republican primary. Though Harkin narrowly defeated his opponent six years earlier, he was able to defeat Ganske by a comfortable margin to win re-election.
The 2014 United States Senate election in Iowa was held on November 4, 2014. Incumbent Democratic Senator Tom Harkin did not run for reelection to a sixth term in office.
The 2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Iowa were held on Tuesday, November 4, 2014, to elect the four U.S. representatives from the state of Iowa, one from each of the state's four congressional districts. The elections coincided with the elections of other federal and state offices, including Governor of Iowa and United States Senate. Primary elections were held on June 4, 2014. As no candidate won more than 35% of the vote in the 3rd district Republican primary, that nomination was decided at a party convention on June 21.
The 2018 United States House of Representatives elections in Iowa were held on November 6, 2018, to elect the four U.S. representatives from the State of Iowa, one from each of the state's four congressional districts. The elections coincided with the gubernatorial election, as well as other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate, and various state and local elections. The state congressional delegation flipped from a 3–1 Republican majority to a 3–1 Democratic majority. The Democrats had last won the majority of Iowa's seats in the 2010 elections.
Cynthia Lynne Axne is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative from Iowa's 3rd congressional district from 2019 until 2023. She is currently a senior adviser to the U.S. Department of Agriculture under the Biden Administration.
Mariannette Jane Miller-Meeks is an American physician and politician serving as a U.S. representative since 2021, representing Iowa's 1st congressional district. Her district, numbered as the 2nd district in her first term, includes most of Iowa's southeastern quadrant, including Davenport, Bettendorf, Burlington, and Iowa City. A member of the Republican Party, Miller-Meeks served as Iowa state senator for the 41st district from 2019 to 2021.
The 2018 Iowa House of Representative elections took place on November 6, 2018, to elect representatives from all 100 districts. The winners of this will serve in 88th General Assembly, with apportioned among the states based on 2010 United States Census. The Republican Party retained control of the House, while losing a net gain of 5 seats to Democratic Party.
The 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in Iowa were held on November 8, 2022, to elect the four U.S. representatives from the State of Iowa, one from each of the state's four congressional districts. The elections coincided with the other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate and various state and local elections. These was the first congressional elections held in Iowa after the 2020 redistricting cycle.
The 2022 Iowa gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of Iowa. Incumbent Republican Governor Kim Reynolds won re-election to a second full term in a landslide, defeating Democratic nominee Deidre DeJear.
A general election was held in the U.S. state of Iowa on November 8, 2022. All of Iowa's executive officers were up for election, as well as a United States Senate seat, all four of Iowa's seats in the United States House of Representatives, 25 (half) of the seats in the Iowa Senate, and all 100 seats in the Iowa House of Representatives. Primary elections were held on June 7, 2022.
