DES MOINES, Iowa — Former U.S. Rep. Jim Leach, who served 30 years as a politician from eastern Iowa and later headed the National Endowment for the Humanities, died Wednesday. He was 82.

Leach, whose death was confirmed by an Iowa City funeral home, represented Iowa as a moderate Republican until 2006, when he was defeated by Democrat Dave Loebsack in a midterm cycle that gave Democrats control of the U.S. House.

He was chair of the banking and foreign relations committees, and in 2002 he was among six Republicans, who then held the House majority, to vote against a resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq. The measure paved the way for the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, which Leach also opposed.

After leaving Congress, Leach endorsed then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, for president in 2008 over his party’s nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, in part for Obama’s opposition to the 2003 invasion — a decision he said wasn’t easy.

“Part of it is political parties are a distant analog to families and you really hate to step outside a family environment,” Leach told The Associated Press in an interview at the time.

Earlier this year, Leach joined with Loebsack to pen a Jan. 6 op-ed in The Des Moines Register, three years after former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory.

“This anniversary of the violent insurrection on our nation’s Capitol is a solemn reminder of how fragile the foundations of democracy are when extremists like Donald Trump are willing to undermine millions of voters and encourage a deadly mob all in the name of wielding power,” Leach and Loebsack wrote.

Loebsack told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he even voted for Leach before running against him, despite their difference in political party.

“Jim served our district and state honorably for 30 years. He was a man of principle and integrity and honor,” Loebsack said. “We’re gonna miss him. There’s no question.”

Leach worked as a professor for Princeton, his alma mater, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard before Obama tapped him to lead the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2009. He resigned from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2013 and he joined the University of Iowa faculty.

University Vice President Peter Matthes said in a statement Wednesday that Leach was a “relentless advocate” for Iowa. The university’s statement also said Leach donated his public and private papers to their libraries.

“He lived a life of service that we should all aspire to emulate,” Matthes said.

Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds offered her condolences Wednesday.

“As a member of U.S. Congress for 30 years, Jim dedicated his life to serving his country and the state of Iowa,” Reynolds said on the social platform X.

Leach is survived by his wife, two children and two grandchildren, according to his obituary.

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This story has been updated to correct that the op-ed by Leach and Loebsack was published three years after the Jan. 6 riot, not one year after.

Evan and Jacob Frost fell in love with wrestling at age six, seven or maybe eight.

They can’t pinpoint the exact age, but agreed that it was love at first scrap.

“(We) enjoyed it,” said Iowa State’s 133-pounder Evan Frost, who saw his twin, Jacob, join the Cyclones’ lineup at 141 at last weekend’s Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. “Just kind of beating up each other with rules set. I know when we first started it was more just us beating each other up because that’s what we did in the house, me and Jacob.”

 No furniture, the Frosts said, turned into crushed kindling before they delved into the art of structured wrestling as youngsters. Mom didn’t let that happen. But once they took to the sport, the Frost twins did plenty of damage on the mat, as both won three state titles for Holy Cross High School in suburban New Orleans. They then transferred to Dowling Catholic in West Des Moines as high school seniors before eventually committing to head coach Kevin Dresser’s Iowa State program. 

Evan won Iowa’s Class 3A title at 132 pounds as a senior. Jacob earned runner-up honors at 138. 

Now instead of being separated by six pounds, it’s eight, but that’s about as far apart as they get — both on and off the mat.

“If you can tell them apart, then give me the secret because they’re very similar in everything, and they both are very good wrestlers,” said Dresser, whose young and banged-up team took fifth at the Cliff Keen Invitational after winning the title last season.

Evan Frost became the Cyclones’ first 133-pound All-American since 2016 as a redshirt freshman last season while Jacob strained to earn a spot in the lineup. He recently won a wrestle-off with fellow 141-pounder Zach Redding to earn his spot in Las Vegas, where he finished fifth. His sixth-ranked brother reached the finals but fell, 7-3, to #5 Zeth Romney of Cal Poly in the championship bout. Evan took second for the second consecutive time in Vegas — and started the event by overcoming a late 10-1 deficit against Arizona State’s Julian Chlebove and pinning him in 6:59.

“All I could hear was pretty much (Iowa State assistant and two-time NCAA champ for Iowa Brent) Metcalf just saying, ‘Keep going, keep going, keep going,’” said Evan Frost, who, like his brother, is a mechanical engineering major. “He just kept saying, ‘We’ve gotta get one, we’ve gotta get one, we’ve gotta get one.’ Whether he believed that ending was gonna end how it did, I don’t know, but he just kept saying, ‘You’ve got to finish the match and see what happens.’”

That’s how Jacob approached rarely being in the lineup last season. He just kept going and going — and now he’s grappling alongside his brother, instead of squaring off against him like he did when they were six, seven or maybe eight.

“(Our mom), she didn’t like us wrestling each other much, and obviously fighting at the house too much,” Jacob Frost said. “That’s why I ended up always wrestling a weight class above him. We wrestled each other way back in the day a little bit, but she didn’t like that too much so we split.”

Only when it comes to competition. The Frosts naturally room together and take all the same classes. They’re joined at the hip in one sense, even as Evan has faced some struggles while cutting weight as Jacob can be relatively carefree in terms of his diet.

Dresser’s just happy to have both of them in his room — even though he finds it hard to tell them apart.

“If they wrestle really good, I’ll take twins all day long,” he quipped. “If they can’t wrestle worth a dang, I don’t want ‘em.”

Lineup Limbo 

Iowa State already lost All-American 149-pounder Casey Swiderski (who had dropped to 141) and promising sophomore 165-pounder Connor Euton to injury this season, while seeing 2022 All-American Yonger Bastida wrestle sparingly because of a knee strain.

Now current 149-pounder Anthony Echemendia — an All-American at 141 last season — will be out four-to-six weeks with a high ankle sprain.

“He really got that thing cranked on,” Dresser said. “I wish I could put a finger, or pinpoint (why there are so many injuries). I’ve been doing this a long time. One year when I was at Virginia Tech, we had a very similar year where we just couldn’t get healthy, and we’re in that situation right now. I wish I could pinpoint and say we need to do more of this and less of this. I think it’s just bad luck.”

How bad? Dresser said there’s a chance Bastida, who’s ranked fourth at heavyweight, could end up seeking a medical redshirt.

But there’s also a silver lining to the walking wounded situation, as younger wrestlers such as heavyweight Daniel Herrera have stepped up and performed well when pressed into duty.

The Cyclones will wrestle against North Dakota State this weekend at Dresser’s high school alma mater, Humboldt.

“You’re gonna see guys this weekend that you’ve probably never seen in a varsity singlet at Iowa State,” Dresser said. “And Daniel, when the opportunity arose, he took it. So we don’t know. We’ve got some things to figure out there.”

Coming home late from her election night watch party, Aime Wichtendahl, like many Americans, anxiously refreshed her phone for results. 

Her screen lit with the outcome. She had won a seat in Iowa’s House. 

Standing in her unlit living room past midnight, Wichtendahl learned she became the state’s first transgender legislator.

“I won,” she called to her son, Steven, who was gaming in the other room. 

As a Democrat serving on the Hiawatha City Council for eight years, Wichtendahl, 44, secured the open seat in Iowa House District 80, which includes the Cedar Rapids area. 

In retrospect, Wichtendahl said the whole ordeal was anticlimactic. Her campaign team rented a venue for a watch party, but her race results came in later than expected. The group had to leave when the space closed. 

Wichtendahl first made history in 2015, when she was voted onto the Hiawatha City Council and became Iowa’s first transgender elected official.

Making state history for the second time, Wichtendahl said she felt numb. Worried about the Iowa House losing Democrats and the results of the presidential election, she didn’t feel celebratory until others reached out to her in congratulations, saying her victory was a silver lining. 

Wichtendahl will join a Democratic minority in the Iowa House, entering into a Republican trifecta with a red House, Senate, and governor. Having gained ground in the election, the party holds a supermajority in the legislature. 

Wichtendahl will join the very institution that has tried to enforce legislation targeting those like her. 

Iowa Republicans introduced 40 anti-LGBTQ+ bills last legislative session, including legislation that would have prevented transgender Iowans from changing gender markers on legal documents and legal protections for conversion therapy. 

“I don’t expect the Republican majority to look at me fondly, but I also know that I don’t believe that the majority of them ran because they wanted to do this,” Wichtendahl said.  

Wichtendahl and advocates for the LGBTQ+ community such as One Iowa, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of LGBTQ+ Iowans that has worked closely with Wichtendahl, are prepared to combat future legislation. 

“There’s probably going to be another 40 [bills] this year,” Wichtendahl said. “A lot of those bills were defeated because people showed up, and we need to be prepared to go ahead and do that. I’ll at least be able to be a voice on the House floor against those things should they actually make it to the House floor.” 

Many of Iowa’s advocates for LGBTQ+ rights said Wichtendahl’s election is a major win. They are excited and proud to see her in the Statehouse and are prepared to rally around her in support.

Wichtendahl’s election follows a national trend of increasing representation for the LGBTQ+ community in elected office, including the election of Delaware Democrat Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender person elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.  

Wichtendahl’s win also came with a record number of LGBTQ+ candidates running for Iowa legislature this past election cycle.  

Ten openly LGBTQ+ Iowans campaigned for the state legislature, and three won, each claiming a seat in the Statehouse — incumbent Rep. Elinor Levin, D-Cedar Rapids, first-term incoming House Rep. Austin Harris, who won District 26, and Wichtendahl.

Nationally, numbers for LGBTQ+ representation in politics are on the rise. 

A June report by the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, which works to increase queer and transgender representation in public service, found the number of LGBTQ+ people who have won elected office has increased by nearly 200 percent since 2017. 

The report found a total of 1,303 openly LGBTQ+ elected officials in the U.S., which equates to only 0.25 percent of all elected officials in the nation. Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia have elected officials who identify as transgender, and 235 state legislators identify as LGBTQ+. 

Entering a Republican stronghold, Wichtendahl is eager to enact change in Iowa.

Road to the Statehouse

Wichtendahl’s political journey began at a young age. 

She remembers the election of 1988 as the first presidential election she was politically aware of. At eight years old, she tried to figure out the electoral college and recalls being mad at her parents for voting for Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis when she thought George Bush was a much better option. 

Later on, she became involved with Barack Obama’s campaign, served as a caucus secretary, and was appointed as a delegate to the state convention. Wichtendahl went on to run for Hiawatha City Council in 2015 and served in that position for eight years. 

In her time on the city council, Wichtendahl helped lower the property tax levy rate, develop new retail locations such as Peck’s Landing and New Village Plaza, and build a public safety building and fire station. 

In Hiawatha, she also secured funding for a mental health liaison for local police departments. Wichtendahl said she plans to pursue a similar model on the state level. 

Dick Olson served on the Hiawatha City Council for over 20 years, eight of which were with Wichtendahl. Supporting her bid for the Statehouse, Olson endorsed Wichtendahl and provided financial donations to her campaign. 

He said he is proud of Wichtendahl, and believes she will use her voice to champion meaningful legislation to protect the rights of all Iowans, not just the LGBTQ+ community. 

Olson said Wichtendahl consistently championed public safety, strongly advocated for advancing small businesses, and always made excellent fiscal decisions. Olson also highlighted Wichtendahl’s ability to take on a large role in communicating with state legislators.

He said she was able to join the city council on an initiative to lower the property tax levy and was successful in doing so for roughly six straight years. Olson said although she is entering a Republican stronghold, he still thinks she will be able to reach across the aisle. 

“She’s going to have some challenges, but I think she’s the kind of person who will do an excellent job building coalitions for just causes from both sides of the aisle,” Olson said. “That’s just her nature, that’s just her personality.” 

Running for the Statehouse was a long-time goal of Wichtendahl’s, and she waited until the timing was right for her — after her son graduated high school and the district seat opened. The district’s incumbent Democrat Art Staed opted to pursue an Iowa Senate seat in a neighboring district, leaving District 80 open. 

Wichtendahl connected with her campaign manager, Tim Nelson, just before announcing her candidacy in December 2023. 

Nelson said the two clicked very well together, and he was drawn to her sensibility. He said she’s a very driven person and very blunt in a positive way. 

“She’s going to speak her mind, and she’s going to speak up for issues of justice and civil rights and what she cares about no matter what,” he said. “She’s going to hit on those issues publicly and loudly and is not going to shy away from the controversial fight if it’s the right fight to have.” 

Wichtendahl described her bid for Iowa’s House as the adventure of a lifetime but a very long process. Throughout her campaign, she took very few personal days, working through the weekends with her campaign team. 

Going into the campaign,  Nelson said, although they knew the seat was previously held by a Democrat, they had no illusions of winning the district. Instead, they went in with the idea they were going to work for every vote.

“Everything was done very intentionally with the idea that nothing is a given,” Nelson said. “Obviously, we saw from this year, nothing is a given, at least in the Democratic side of politics. And so we went in with the idea that this was always going to be an uphill battle, and we had to fight for every single vote.”

The Democrat beat Republican opponent John Thompson by over 800 votes. 

Nelson said despite Iowa’s rightward drift, Wichtendahl’s election shows Iowa can move forward as a state to be more accepting of the tapestry of people who reside in Iowa, including transgender folks. 

RELATED: Voters’ dissatisfaction with the economy ushered Trump’s win, Republican swing nationwide

“My hope is that they see hope in this, and they see someone willing to fight for them every single day, that they know that their voice is represented in that room, that there are not going to be decisions made about trans people without a trans person there to, at the bare minimum, call out bullsh*t, call out hatred, call out bigotry, call out lies,” Nelson said. “Hopefully trans people can see themselves in her, and that, as hard as it can be, there is a fight you can fight up that hill, and there will be a future in this state and in this country where we accept trans people.”

Iowa’s LGBTQ+ advocates excited for Wichtendahl 

Incoming Johnson County Board of Supervisor Mandi Remington staunchly advocates for the rights of LGBTQ+ Iowans. As the mother of a transgender child, the topic is more than political for Remington. 

Founder and director of the Corridor Community Action Network, Remington has crossed paths with Wichtendahl several times through advocacy work. Remington said for Draytin, her 17-year-old who identifies as transgender, finding out about Wichtendahl’s win helped counteract negative emotions about the conservative swing on election night. 

Remington said Wichtendahl’s election gives Draytin and other transgender Iowans representation and someone to look up to. 

Wichtendahl’s win creates not only another ally in the Statehouse who can advocate for causes but someone who directly represents transgender Iowans, Remington said. 

Draytin, like other transgender youth in the state, is unable to participate in team sports or access to  gender-affirming care, Remington said, but having Wichtendahl’s presence in the Statehouse as someone who understands these struggles is crucial for bringing hope and validating the experiences of transgender Iowans. 

Despite Wichtendahl’s win, Remington acknowledged there is still much work to be done by advocates such as herself to support the Democrat. 

Keenan Crow, director of policy and advocacy at One Iowa, a statewide LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, said Wichtendahl being in committee rooms and on the debate floor will give a voice to a group of people that the legislature has been targeting for years in a different way than Iowa has ever had. 

Crow said it’s fairly obvious the upcoming legislative session will be one of the worst sessions for transgender Iowans on record, but Wichtendahl’s presence will represent a community that has not had a voice in the legislature. 

The LGBTQ+ Victory Institute’s report updated after the election found Iowa has 15 LGBTQ+ elected officials, and Wichtendahl is the only elected official who identifies as transgender. 

According to the most recent data from the Williams Institute, 3.6 percent of Iowa’s population identify as LGBTQ+. With a projected population of 3.21 million people, this percentage equates to more than 115,000 Iowans. 

“The hope is that even if the session goes extremely poorly, it’s going to be a little bit more bearable when we actually have a member of the community in that body, talking about those pieces of legislation and how they impact them personally,” Crow said. 

Reaching across the aisle 

Crow, Remington, and Wichtendahl herself acknowledge it will be difficult for her — and any other Democrat — to pass legislation in the Republican stronghold. 

However, Crow said he knows for a fact Wichtendahl will be able to reach points of agreement, and he does not have any worries about her performance. 

Highlighting Wichtendahl’s record on city council, Crow said she has experience working with others to improve outcomes for community members, such as her influence on Hiawatha’s infrastructure and small business owners. 

“For Aime, it’s never been about the letter behind your name,” Crow said. “I don’t think she’ll have any problem reaching across the aisle and making those connections on policies. I think the question is really going to be, how much are they going to focus on the fact that she’s trans, and not on her ideas, which are all very good and, for the most part, very bipartisan.”

Wichtendahl’s priorities for her first legislative session include promoting public education, protecting LGBTQ+ rights, and combating rising costs in health care, housing, and food. The session begins on Jan. 13, 2025. 

Wichtendahl plans to pursue legislation to provide funding for mental health liaisons who work with law enforcement, an initiative she enacted and found successful in Hiawatha. She said there’s an appetite for legislation such as this and a potential to get it through the legislature and passed into law. 

Whichtendahl also pinned protecting reproductive freedoms as a top issue. With Iowa’s six-week abortion ban enacted in July, Iowa Democrats have also said they will prioritize the issue in the legislative session. 

Her campaign resonated with voters, Wichtendahl said, and she believes they are things that Iowans want, so she will work to achieve them. 

“I always believe that a better future is possible,” she said.