Generational majorities shifting in Iowa Legislature

DES MOINES — Forget Republicans vs. Democrats. There is a new, emerging rivalry in the Iowa Legislature: baby boomers vs. millennials.

When the Iowa Legislature convenes today for the 2025 session, among lawmakers in the Iowa House there will be an even split for the generational majority between boomers and millennials.

And in classic Generation X fashion, that “middle child” generation is a distant third in the House.

Coming out of the 2024 election, there are now 37 lawmakers in the House who are from the baby boomer generation and 37 who are classified as millennials.

The generations can be defined differently by different research organizations, although the ranges typically vary only slightly. For this report, The Gazette used parameters established by the Center for Generational Kinetics:

The Gazette analyzed the biographic and demographic information of the 149 state lawmakers who will make up the 91st Iowa General Assembly when it convenes at the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines.

Eventually, there will be 150 lawmakers. There is one seat vacant in the Iowa Senate because former Sen. Chris Cournoyer, R-Le Claire, recently was selected to serve as lieutenant governor. A special election to fill that seat has been set for Jan. 28.

The figures in this article are based on available demographic information for all members of the Iowa Legislature, gathered by The Gazette from multiple sources including the legislators themselves, election candidate information and news reports.

Iowa Republicans head into the 2025 session with history-making majorities: their 67 members in the House and 34 in the Senate (it was 35 before Cournoyer’s resignation) give them their largest majorities since 1970.

But the partisan political breakdown aside, there are other noteworthy shifts in the makeup of the Iowa Legislature.

Younger generations catching up

Younger generations continue to catch up to boomers in the Iowa Legislature.

Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, and Iowa House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl, a Republican from Missouri Valley, are both millennials. Both are 41 years old.

There are 23 Gen X members in the House.

Boomers regained their majority in the Iowa Senate as the chamber got older after the 2024 election. Generation X had taken a majority in the Senate in the 2023 and 2024 elections; but going into 2025, boomers are once again the majority. There are now 21 boomers in the Senate and 17 members of Gen X.

Millennials are third in the Senate with 10 members.

The average age of Iowa state senators is 59.5 and the average age of Iowa representatives is 52.5.

Gender out of balance

The Iowa Legislature continues to be well out of balance with the state’s gender demographics.

Men comprise 73 percent of lawmakers in the Iowa House and 71.4 percent of legislators in the Iowa Senate.

That means women make up just 27 percent of the Iowa Legislature, even though they comprise 49.9 percent of Iowa’s population, according to U.S. Census data.

The Iowa Legislature will have its first transgender state lawmaker this year. Aime Wichtendahl, a Democrat from Hiawatha, was elected to the Iowa House.

Minority representation flat

After increasing in the 2020 and 2022 elections, the number of minority state lawmakers remained flat coming out of the 2024 elections.

The 91st General Assembly begins the same as the 90th: with 12 minority state lawmakers. While some of the individual members changed, the overall number of minority legislators remained the same.

The House continues to be the far more diverse chamber: there are 11 minority members in the Iowa House and just one in the Iowa Senate.

Those figures also lag far behind Iowa’s demographics. Minorities make up just 8 percent of the Iowa Legislature but 17 percent of the state’s population, according to census data.

Lawmakers’ day jobs

The Iowa Senate is very much farmer-led: 12 members listed farming as their occupation, the most of any occupation given.

However, business people also are well-represented in the Senate. There are eight members who are business owners and another eight who work in business or as professionals.

The business folk comprise the majority in the House, with 16 business owners and another 15 who work in business or as professionals. There are just nine farmers in the House.

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