Thank you to everyone who met with the Iowa Federation of Republican Women this year!
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On Tuesday, the Iowa Federation of Republican Women held their annual Legislative Day at the Iowa Capitol.
This year, I was tasked with planning the day’s events. It was a lot of work, but was well worth it. The opportunity to meet with so many people that daily affect the lives of Iowans is an opportunity that everyone should receive.
We began the day meeting with Governor Terry Branstad, Iowa’s longest serving governor! He was able to offer us a lot of insight into the upcoming races in the Iowa Senate and the Iowa House and what the Republican party in our state is doing to ensure we keep the House majority and turn the Senate red! He also shared with us a lot of the current bills that have been passed or are coming to his desk in the coming week and what we can expect to see. We were honored to have some time to meet with the Governor privately to discuss the Iowa landscape.
After a great meeting with the Governor, the ladies had to run (literally) to the Wallace Building to meet with Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, and back to the Capitol to meet with Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate. Our group was able to tour the Secretary’s personal office and take a photo with the Iowa Constitution!
After that, we met with Iowa Auditor Mary Mosiman (Iowa’s first elected female auditor of the state — a Republican!) Auditor Mosiman shared with us the importance of retaining and recruiting young people to work in various industries in our state. We also had the Auditor keynote our January meeting in Ames, and it was great to meet with her again.
Following our busy morning, we held a legislative reception for Iowa’s Republican legislators to come by and give a legislative update. We had around 20 legislators show up from across the state, and we were there past our original end date with so many great speakers to listen to.
It was refreshing to her Senate Majority Leader Bill Dix run down the Republicans that are running for Senate seats this fall, and with so many great candidates, we are excited at the prospect of turning the Iowa Senate’s majority over to the Republicans.
We also heard from Iowa House Majority Leader, Representative Chris Hagenow and Iowa Speaker of the House Linda Upmeyer. Representative Upmeyer is the first female Speaker of the Iowa House — and a Republican woman!
Speaker Upmeyer shared with us all of the great Republican women running for House seats this fall. It is refreshing to hear of so many women running for office and taking steps to become leaders and great mentors for the young girls of Iowa.
We had a fabulous day at the Capitol and would love to thank all of the legislators, Governor Branstad, Secretary Northey, Secretary Pate, and Auditor Mosiman for taking time out of their busy schedules to meet with us.
We are looking forward to next year already!
