Iowa’s first transgender legislator Aime Wichtendahl shares her historic path to the statehouse

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. 

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“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.