Sen. Eric Giddens (D-Cedar Falls)

Beginning in 2022 northeast Tama County including the towns of Traer and Dysart will see a new landscape in their Iowa House and Senate districts.

On Thursday, October 28, the redistricting plan proposed by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency (LSA) was approved by a vote of 48-1 in the Senate and by a vote of 93-2 in the House. Sen. Ken Rozenboom (R-Oskaloosa) and Reps. Tom Jeneary (R-Le Mars) and Jon Jacobsen (R-Council Bluffs) were the only votes against the plan.

The new set of maps now await Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds’ signature before being enacted into law.

Starting with the 2022 election, those Tama County residents living in Clark, Perry, Geneseo, and Buckingham townships will no longer see state Sen. Jeff Edler (R-State Center) on their ballots — barring a move by Edler which is unlikely — when they go to vote.

Those four townships — which include the towns of Traer and Dysart — will now be part of Iowa Senate District 38. Currently, Sen. Eric Giddens (D-Cedar Falls) is the only incumbent in the new district.

The new Iowa Senate District 38

Giddens is in his first full term in the Iowa Senate — he was previously a member of the Cedar Falls Board of Education.

Following the vote on October 28 approving the new maps, Giddens posted on Facebook, “The Iowa legislature approved our new district maps today, and I’m excited to meet my new constituents in Senate District 38!”

In terms of the new Iowa House districts, the same four northeast Tama County townships — Clark, Perry, Geneseo, Buckingham — have been removed from the rest of Tama County and placed with a remade House District 76 that includes three rural northwest Benton County townships, the areas surrounding and including La Porte City Gilbertville, Evansdale, Elk Run Heights, and Hudson, as well as much of Cedar Falls proper.

Beginning in 2022, no longer will voters in those four Tama County townships find state Rep. Dean Fisher (R-Montour) on their ballots (barring an unlikely move).

Similar to the Senate district, the only incumbent within House District 76 is a Democrat from Cedar Falls.

Rep. Dave Williams (D-Cedar Falls)

Rep. Dave Williams (D-Cedar Falls) was elected to the Iowa House in 2018 and is the lone incumbent legislator serving the territory that will become House District 76. Williams retired as an engineer from John Deere in 2008 and was previously a member of the Cedar Falls Board of Education.

Clutier residents however will remain in Rep. Dean Fisher’s district — the new House District 53 which will stretch across the bulk of Tama County and the entirety of Poweshiek County.

Currently, Poweshiek County is represented by Dave Maxwell (R-Deep River) which means two GOP incumbents — Fisher and Maxwell — will reside in the same district beginning in 2022, setting up a possible primary.

On the state Senate side, Clutier residents — and the bulk of Tama County in general — will reside in state Senate District 27, a sprawling district stretching across the entirety of Hardin, Grundy, and Poweshiek counties in addition to Tama County.

Senator Annette Sweeney (R-Alden) of rural Hardin County near Buckeye is the only incumbent in the new Senate District 27 and recently announced she will seek re-election in the new district.

The new Iowa House District 76.

At the national level, Tama County remains in the same northeast Iowa district as its current U.S. House of Representatives member, Ashley Hinson (R-Marion) but the district will move from being Iowa’s first congressional district to Iowa’s second congressional district in 2022.

Sen. Annette Sweeney (R-Alden)