Thirteenth in a series interpreting the results of Iowa’s 2024 state and federal elections.
When the Iowa legislature reconvenes in Des Moines on January 13, fifteen state House members and six state senators will be sworn in for the first time. But one of them is marking more than a personal milestone.
Aime Wichtendahl will make history as Iowa’s first transgender state lawmaker. She starts her new job as a Democrat outnumbered by the largest GOP majority in the Iowa House since 1970. Not only that: House Republicans have recently approved or considered numerous bills that would discriminate against LGBTQ people broadly and transgender Iowans in particular. Wichtendahl has spoken against those bills in subcommittee meetings and at rallies.
Iowa’s first trans legislator spoke to Bleeding Heartland in November and December about her campaign, takeaways from the 2024 elections, and plans for legislative work.
BREAKING A SECOND LAVENDER CEILING
A record number of out LGBTQ candidates ran for the Iowa legislature in 2024, but Wichtendahl was the only non-incumbent to win her race. It’s the second “lavender ceiling” she has broken. She became Iowa’s first trans elected official in 2015 by winning a city council race in Hiawatha, a suburb of Cedar Rapids. Voters re-elected her to the council in 2019 and 2023.
House district 80 was an open seat because State Representative Art Staed ran for the Iowa Senate in 2024. The district leans Democratic but was not safe blue territory. It includes parts of Cedar Rapids and suburban precincts once represented by former House Speaker Kraig Paulsen and U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson. The area is home to many old-fashioned “never Trump” Republicans, who voted for Kamala Harris for president and for GOP candidates down ballot.
Wichtendahl defeated Republican nominee John Thompson by 9,070 votes to 8,242 (52.3 percent to 47.6 percent). Bleeding Heartland’s analysis of the precinct-level results showed Harris received 9,674 votes for president, while Donald Trump received 8,002 votes (a 53.5 percent to 44.3 percent margin).
Although the Iowa Democratic Party spent some $26,000 on direct mail supporting Wichtendahl, she raised most of what her campaign spent during the year. (House district 80 wasn’t one of the top-targeted seats where both parties spent hundreds of thousands of dollars.)
In addition to fundraising, Wichtendahl worked hard to identify and mobilize supporters throughout 2024. She and campaign volunteers knocked thousands of doors. Her background in local government clearly paid off, since she carried all three Hiawatha precincts, including one that traditionally leans conservative.
“REPUBLICANS ARE GOING TO DRAW THE WRONG CONCLUSIONS FROM THIS ELECTION”
Wichtendahl told Bleeding Heartland that the issues she heard about most from voters were the economy and education. She also heard concerns from older voters about who will care for them, in light of problems facing many nursing homes.
Iowa Republicans spent heavily on advertising attacking Democratic legislative candidates on transgender issues, specifically girls’ sports and bathrooms. A GOP-funded mailer to voters in House district 80 did not focus on trans people in general, but attacked Wichtendahl personally, using her deadname.
I asked Wichtendahl how she will approach being Iowa’s first trans legislator after Republicans centered that issue in such an ugly way during the campaign.
She believes that didn’t resonate with voters in her district. More broadly, she doubts Republicans won races because of anti-trans ads, in Iowa or nationally. In Wichtendahl’s view, the election was largely about frustrations with the economy. She noted that exit polls from other states show voters didn’t rank trans issues as the most important, and many LGBTQ candidates won races around the country.
Wichtendahl suspects many voters are “sick of seeing it as a wedge issue.” That said, she acknowledged,
I do 100 percent believe that Republicans are going to draw the wrong conclusions from this election, that they have carte blanche to do a lot of these just terrible social bills.
But at the end of the day, my message to voters is, listen, they won because you wanted a different alternative on the economy. So what are they going to do to improve your life? Because beating up on trans people isn’t going to make the price of eggs cheaper, it’s not going to make your groceries cheaper, it’s not going to stretch your dollar further.
It’s just at the end of the day, it’s targeting a group of people, a group of Iowans, for no other reason than you can. It’s a fundamental misuse of power. And if we’re really going to claim that we’re going to be a free and open country that celebrates freedom and liberty and justice for all, these bills are 100 percent an affront to freedom.”
“CLEARLY ME BEING TRANS WASN’T AN ISSUE IN MY DISTRICT”
Republicans introduced a record number of anti-LGBTQ bills in the last legislature. What can Iowans who support LGBTQ equality do to help resist the proposals that are likely coming in 2025?
Wichtendahl expects Republicans to introduce dozens of discriminatory bills again this year, and “run a couple of them seriously.” What people can do is show up, like many did during the 2024 session. Come to the capitol, write to their legislators, get friends and family to ask members of the majority party, “What are you doing for me and my family?”
Although Republicans had a lot of success in November, Wichtendahl doesn’t see the election result as an endorsement for the Project 2025 agenda. “Clearly me being trans wasn’t an issue in my district,” she said.
She doesn’t believe “this is what the average voter obsesses about day in and day out. […] They’re not concerned about micromanaging the lives of trans people.” At the end of the day, Wichtendahl believes, Iowans are “tired of working harder for less. They want to make sure that their dollar covers all of their needs, and they have enough left over.”
PLANS TO GET CREATIVE WITH LEGISLATIVE WORK
Wichtendahl will serve on the Iowa House committees on Local Government, Ways and Means, Veterans Affairs, and Economic Growth and Technology, and the Appropriations subcommittee on Transportation. Like other House Democrats, she expressed support for policies that will improve people’s lives, so they can live on the income from one job, and not have to worry about health care costs. She told me, “Working-class people have always been the focus of the Democratic Party.”
Given that the minority party doesn’t get to advance their bills, I wondered what will be the focus of Wichtendahl’s legislative work.
She’ll be looking for creative solutions. For example, she’s aware of funding issues related to veterans’ care and believes “we need to address that fundamentally.” She wants to address costs for seniors and caregivers, and find ways to offer forgivable loans for people who stay and work in Iowa after attending college here.
Wichtendahl wants to introduce a bill on funding for mental health liaisons to work with law enforcement. They’ve implemented that policy in Hiawatha during her time on the council, and she said it’s happened in Cedar Rapids as well. She thinks bipartisan work may be possible in that area, since “It’s a huge benefit to our communities” to connect people with resources instead of spending a night in jail or in a hospital bed.
She vowed to “fight for people’s fundamental freedoms,” not only for LGBTQ Iowans but also against any efforts to push for a “personhood” bill, which would ban abortion from conception.
Regulating artificial intelligence (AI) may not be on the radar for many politics watchers, but Wichtendahl is interested in the issue.
“GOOD THINGS WILL CONTINUE TO HAPPEN”
What would Wichtendahl say to the LGBTQ youth of Iowa, who may feel discouraged or inconsolable about the 2024 election? Her first reaction: “We’ll keep fighting for you,” to keep Iowa a place where “you can live your life without government interference.”
At the same time, Wichtendahl said, “I’m not going to sugarcoat it: 2025 is going to be a hard year,” maybe the hardest we’ve seen.
She believes “the majority of Iowans do not like these bills. The majority of Iowans recognize them for what they are. Most Iowans are still supportive of LGBTQ rights. And I still do believe that the future belongs to us.”
She recalled when President George W. Bush campaigned for same-sex marriage bans in swing states during the 2024 campaign. “It was hard, it was devastating to see.” The mood after that election was “very pessimistic, but we did in fact turn it around.”
Wichtendahl’s bottom line: “Iowans are a fair people” who value “individual freedom and personal liberty.”
Speaking on a personal note, Wichtendahl told me she never believed she would be able to transition. She never thought she would escape the closet. Now, “I know that good things that can happen, and good things will continue to happen.”
Her advice to young people: “Be unafraid to live your life, because the greatest act of rebellion you can do in these dystopian times is to live your life unafraid.” She also recalled a favorite saying of her dad: “Don’t let the bastards take your smile.”
After the election, many reached out to tell Wichtendahl her victory was “the single bright spot in an otherwise dark week.” She is happy to be “a light in the darkness” and an encouraging voice: “Don’t give up. When we stand together, there’s no end to what we can accomplish.”
Photo of State Representative Aime Wichtendahl at a desk in the Iowa House chamber was first published on her official Facebook page on December 16.