The Iowa state legislature approved new legislative and congressional district borders on Thursday, Oct. 28, in a continuation of redistricting after the 2020 Census.
Poweshiek County and neighboring Tama County will merge into one Iowa House district. Poweshiek County Rep. Dave Maxwell (R) will face current Tama County incumbent Rep. Dean Fisher (R) in 2022 to compete for the district seat.
In the Iowa Senate, all of Poweshiek County is represented by Sen. Dawn Driscoll (R) of neighboring Iowa County. The new map splits Iowa County and Poweshiek County into separate Senate districts, and Driscoll will be placed with incumbent Sen. Kevin Kinney (D).
Poweshiek County will move from the first congressional district, currently represented by Rep. Ashley Hinson (R), to the second congressional district. Hinson is the only incumbent U.S. representative living in the proposed second district.
Iowa’s non-partisan Legislative Services Agency (LSA) is responsible for creating Iowa House, Iowa Senate, and congressional district boundaries following each census. Once a map is proposed, the Iowa Senate must approve the district boundaries by a yes-no vote. On Oct. 5, the Iowa Senate voted down LSA’s first proposed map, citing concerns that certain districts were not compact enough.
LSA is not allowed to use any demographic information when creating districts except for population data. Districts are encouraged to be compact and are required to be contiguous. Counties cannot be split when forming congressional districts, but city boundaries may be divided when forming Iowa Senate and House districts. Grinnell has not been divided between districts.
