Democratic State Representative Ako Abdul-Samad had a brain tumor removed Wednesday, the Des Moines Register reported.

LaVon Stennis Williams, a senior staffer in the non-profit organization Creative Visions, told the Register, “The surgeon was very pleased with how the surgery went and expects a full recovery.”

Abdul-Samad founded Creative Visions in the mid-1990s and served on the Des Moines school board before being elected to represent Iowa House district 66 in 2006. (Ed Fallon had vacated the seat in order to run for governor.) House district 66 covers heavily Democratic neighborhoods in Des Moines. Last summer, Abdul-Samad easily defeated a conservative primary challenger, who bizarrely accused the incumbent of facilitating racial profiling as well as supporting same-sex marriage and raising various fees. Abdul-Samad did not face a general election opponent in 2010. This year’s redistricting plan put him in the new Iowa House district 35, which includes some of the Des Moines areas he currently represents as well as neighborhoods to the northeast.

Here’s a map of Abdul-Samad’s new district, which should be safe for Democrats during the coming decade.