Iowa's 16th Senate district

Iowa's 16th State Senate district
Senator	Vacant Renee Hardman (Senator-Elect, Assuming Office TBD) D

The 16th District of the Iowa Senate is located in central Iowa, and is currently composed of part of Polk and Dallas counties. ^[1]

Current elected officials

The 16th District has been vacant since October 6, 2025, following the death of Senator Claire Celsi. ^[2] Prior to her death, Celsi had represented the district since 2023. ^[3] In December 2025, a special election was held. Democrat Renee Hardman won the election. ^[4]

The area of the 16th District contains two Iowa House of Representatives districts: ^[5]

• The 31st District (represented by Mary Lee Madison)
• The 32nd District (represented by Jennifer Konfrst)

The district is also located in Iowa's 3rd congressional district, which is represented by Zach Nunn. ^[6]

List of representatives

^[7]

Representative	Party		Dates	Residence	Notes
Eli Snow Wing		Democrat	1852-1853	Davenport, Iowa
Ambrose Cowperthwaite Fulton		Whig	1854-1855	Davenport, Iowa
William A. Loughridge		Republican	1856-1859	Oskaloosa, Iowa
Oliver P. Sherraden		Republican	1860-1861	Richland, Iowa
Issac Pearl Teter		Republican	1862-1863	Sigourney, Iowa
John Ferguson McJunkin		Republican	1864-1867	Washington County, Iowa
John A. Parvin		Republican	1868-1869	Muscatine, Iowa
Samuel McNutt		Republican	1870-1873	Muscatine, Iowa
Henry Thornburg		Anti-Monopoly	1874-1875	Dallas County, Iowa
Henry Thornburg		Republican	1876-1877	Dallas County, Iowa
John L. McCormack		Democrat	1878-1879	Knoxville, Iowa
James F. Greenlee		Republican	1880-1883	Marion County, Iowa
Eli Wilkin		Republican	1884-1887	Winterset, Iowa
Richard Price		Republican	1888-1891	Winterset, Iowa
Alva Lysander Hager		Republican	1892	Greenfield, Iowa	Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives is 1892.
Lucien Moody Kilburn		Republican	1893-1899	Greenfield, Iowa
James Judson Crossley		Republican	1900-1908	Winterset, Iowa
Arthur Criag Savage		Republican	1909-1916	Adair, Iowa
Edward McMurray Smith		Republican	1917-1924	Winterset, Iowa
John N. Langfitt		Republican	1925-1932	Adair, Iowa	Died in office in 1932.
Ora E. Husted		Republican	1933-1940	Winterset, Iowa
Harry Samuel Love		Republican	1941-1946	Bridgewater, Iowa	Resigned before the end of his term to accept appointment to the State Board of Social Welfare. [8]
John Lyle Musmaker		Republican	1947-1948	Greenfield, Iowa
Raymond R. Gillespie		Democrat	1949-1952	Winterset, Iowa
Lorin B. Sayre		Republican	1953-1956	Winterset, Iowa
Raymond R. Gillespie		Democrat	1957-1960	Winterset, Iowa	Died in office in 1960.
Joseph B. Flatt		Republican	1961-1964	Winterset, Iowa
David M. Stanley		Republican	1965-1966	Muscatine, Iowa
Roger John Shaff		Republican	1967-1970	Clinton, Iowa
James A. Potgeter		Republican	1971-1972	Steamboat Rock, Iowa
James V. Gallagher		Democrat	1973-1982	Vail, Iowa
Dale L. Tieden		Republican	1983-1992	Elkader, Iowa
Lyle E. Zieman		Republican	1993-2000	Postville, Iowa
Mark Zieman		Republican	2001-2002	Postville, Iowa
Julie M. Hosch		Republican	2003-2004	Cascade, Iowa
Tom Hancock		Democrat	2005-2012	Dubuque, Iowa
Dick L. Dearden		Democrat	2013-2016	Des Moines, Iowa
Nate Boulton		Democrat	2017-2022	Des Moines, Iowa
Claire Celsi		Democrat	2023-2025	Des Moines, Iowa
Vacant			2025-

Historical District Boundaries

Source: ^[9]

Map	Description	Years effective	Notes
	Scott County	1852-1855	From 1846 to 1857, district numbering was not utilized by the Iowa State Legislature. This convention was added with the passing of the 1857 Iowa Constitution. Numbering of districts pre-1857 is done as a matter of historic convenience. [10]
	Mahaska County	1856-1859
	Keokuk County	1860-1863
	Washington County	1864-1867
	Muscatine County	1868-1873
	Dallas County Madison County	1874-1877
	Marion County	1878-1883
	Madison County Warren County	1884-1887
	Adair County Madison County	1888-1962
	Cedar County Muscatine County	1963-1966
	Clinton County	1967-1970
	Franklin County (partial) Hamilton County Hardin County Wright County (partial)	1971-1972	In 1970, the Iowa Legislature passed an amendment to the Iowa Constitution setting forth the rules for legislative redistricting in order to abide by the rules established by the Reynolds v. Sims Supreme Court case. The first reapportionment map created by the Republican controlled legislature was deemed unconstitutional, but was still used for the 1970 election. [11]
	Benton County (partial) Black Hawk County (partial) Buchanan County Linn County (partial) Tama County (partial)	1973-1982
	Allamakee County Clayton County Winneshiek County	1983-1992
	Allamakee County Clayton County Fayette County (partial) Winneshiek County (partial)	1993-2002
	Delaware County (partial) Excluding Coffins Grove Township Delaware Township Elk Township Honey Creek Township Oneida Township Richland Township Delaware Dundee Earlville Edgewood Greeley Masonville Dubuque County (partial) Excluding Dubuque Township (partial) Portions of Dubuque Township north of the city of Dubuque are part of District 16. Table Mound Township Washington Township Dubuque Jones County	2003-2012
	Polk County (partial) Des Moines (partial) Consisting primarily of the central city north and east of the Des Moines River Pleasant Hill	2013-2022
	Dallas County (partial) Northeasternmost corner of the county, bounded by Jordan Creek Pkwy and Ashworth Rd Polk County (partial) Bloomfield Township (partial) Section West of IA-28 only Walnut Township Clive (partial) Region south of US-6 Windsor Heights

Recent election results from statewide races

Year	Office	Results [12]
2008	President	Obama 52–47%
2012	President	Obama 51–49%
2016	President	Clinton 51–41%
	Senate	Grassley 54–42%
2018	Governor	Hubbell 57–41%
	Attorney General	Miller 79–21%
	Secretary of State	DeJear 53–44%
	Treasurer	Fitzgerald 65–33%
	Auditor	Sand 57–40%
2020	President	Biden 59–39%
	Senate	Greenfield 56–42%
2022	Senate	Franken 57–43%
	Governor	DeJear 54–44%
	Attorney General	Miller 63–37%
	Secretary of State	Miller 51–49%
	Treasurer	Fitzgerald 64–36%
	Auditor	Sand 64–36%
2024	President	Harris 58–40%

See also

• Iowa General Assembly
• Iowa Senate

References

1. "SENATE DISTRICT 16" (PDF). Iowa General Assembly . Retrieved March 28, 2024.
2. Gruber-Miller, Stephen (October 6, 2025). "Democratic Iowa Sen. Claire Celsi, remembered as 'an absolute force,' dies at 59". Des Moines Register. Retrieved October 11, 2025.
3. Agency, Iowa Legislative Services. "Iowa Legislature - Legislator List" . Retrieved July 15, 2016.
4. Schoenbaum, Hannah; Fingerhut, Hannah (December 30, 2025). "Democrat Renee Hardman wins Iowa state Senate seat, blocking GOP from reclaiming a supermajority". AP News. Retrieved January 3, 2026.
5. "Iowa House Districts" (PDF). Iowa Legislative Services Agency. Retrieved July 15, 2016.
6. "Iowa Congressional Districts" (PDF). Iowa Legislative Services Agency. Retrieved July 15, 2016.
7. "Historic Legislator List SD 16".
8. "Samuel Love Factsheet Iowa Red Book".
9. "Iowa historic district map database".
10. "1846 Iowa Constitution" (PDF).
11. "Reapportionment in Iowa". Archived from the original on April 3, 2023. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
12. "IA 2022 State Senate". Dave's Redistricting. Retrieved January 23, 2026.