Iowa's 18th Senate district

The 18th District of the Iowa Senate is located in central Iowa, and is currently composed of part of Polk County.^[1]

Iowa's 18th State Senate district
Senator	Janet Petersen D

Current elected officials

Janet Petersen is the senator currently representing the 18th District.^[2]

The area of the 18th District contains two Iowa House of Representatives districts:^[3]

• The 35th District (represented by Sean Bagniewski)
• The 36th District (represented by Austin Baeth)

The district is also located in Iowa's 3rd congressional district, which is represented by Zach Nunn.^[4]

List of representatives

^[5]

Representative	Party		Dates	Residence	Notes
William E. Leffingwell		Democrat	1852-1853	DeWitt, Iowa
Julius J. Matthews		Whig	1854-1855	Lyons, Iowa
Marquis Lafayette McPherson		Republican	1856-1859	Winterset, Iowa
Jairus Edward Neal		Democrat	1860-1863	Knoxville, Iowa
John Abbott Lake Crookham		Republican	1864-1867	Oskaloosa, Iowa
John R. Needham		Republican	1868	Oskaloosa, Iowa	Senator Needham died in office in 1868.
John Nicholas Dixon		Republican	1870-1871	Mahaska County, Iowa
James Addison Young		Republican	1872-1875	Oskaloosa, Iowa	Senator Young died in office in 1875.
Thomas Ritchie Gilmore		Republican	1876-1877	Mahaska County, Iowa
Lafayette Young		Republican	1878-1881	Albia, Iowa
Cephas B. Hunt		Republican	1882-1885	Greenfield, Iowa
Lafayette Young		Republican	1886-1889	Albia, Iowa
William Fiske Cleveland		Democrat	1890-1893	Harlan, Iowa
Julian Phelps		Republican	1894-1897	Atlantic, Iowa
Joseph Martin Emmert		Democrat	1898-1901	Atlantic, Iowa
James E. Bruce		Republican	1902-1910	Atlantic, Iowa
Thomas Henry Smith		Republican	1911-1914	Harlan, Iowa
John Cramer Voorhees		Democrat	1915-1918	Anita, Iowa	Senator Voorhees died in office in 1918.
Julius A. Nelson		Republican	1919-1926	Cass County, Iowa
Charles D. Booth		Republican	1927-1934	Harlan, Iowa
Charles E. Malone		Democrat	1935-1936	Atlantic, Iowa	Senator Malone resigned in 1936 to become the postmaster of Atlantic.
Frank Pelzer		Republican	1937-1944	Marne, Iowa	Senator Pelzer died in office in 1944.
Edward Speer White		Republican	1945-1946	Harlan, Iowa
Jay C. Colburn		Republican	1947-1954	Harlan, Iowa
John David Shoeman		Republican	1955-1962	Atlantic, Iowa
David O. Shaff		Republican	1963-1966	Clinton, Iowa
Kenneth Benda		Republican	1967-1968?	Hartwick, Iowa
Joann Yesler Orr		Democrat	1968-1970	Grinnell, Iowa	Senator Orr filled a vacancy in 1968. The vacancy is for an unknown reason.
John L. Mowry		Republican	1971-1972	Marshalltown, Iowa
Willard R. Hansen		Republican	1973-1980	Cedar Falls, Iowa
Ted J. Anderson		Democrat	1981-1982	Waterloo, Iowa
Robert M. Carr		Democrat	1983-1989	Dubuque, Iowa	Senator Carr resigned in 1989 to accept a position as Dubuque County Treasurer.[6]
Michael W. Connolly		Democrat	1990-2002	Dubuque, Iowa	Senator Connolly was elected to district 18 during a special election in 1989.[7]
Mary A. Lunby		Republican	2003-2008	Linn County, Iowa
Swati A. Dandekar		Democrat	2009-2011	Marion, Iowa	Senator Dandekar resigned in 2011 to accept a position on the Iowa Utilities Board.
Liz Mathis		Democrat	2011-2012	DeWitt, Iowa
Janet Petersen		Democrat	2013-present	Des Moines, Iowa

Historical district boundaries

Source:^[8]

Map	Description	Years effective	Notes
	Cedar County Clinton County	1852-1855	From 1846 to 1857, district numbering was not utilized by the Iowa State Legislature. This convention was added with the passing of the 1857 Iowa Constitution. Numbering of districts pre-1857 is done as a matter of historic convenience.[9]
	Adair County Cass County Madison County Warren County	1856-1859
	Marion County	1860-1863
	Mahaska County	1864-1877
	Adair County Cass County Madison County	1878-1883
	Adair County Adams County Cass County	1884-1887
	Cass County Shelby County	1888-1962
	Clinton County	1963-1966
	Iowa County Poweshiek County	1967-1970
	Grundy County Marshall County	1971-1972	In 1970, the Iowa Legislature passed an amendment to the Iowa Constitution setting forth the rules for legislative redistricting in order to abide by the rules established by the Reynolds v. Sims Supreme Court case. The first reapportionment map created by the Republican controlled legislature was deemed unconstitutional, but was still used for the 1970 election.[10]
	Black Hawk County (partial) Primarily composed of Cedar Falls	1973-1982
	Dubuque County (partial) Primarily composed of Dubuque	1983-2002	Some minor boundary changes may have occurred after the redistricting of 1992.
	Linn County (partial) Excluding Bertram Township College Township Marion Township (partial) Marion Township south of Marion and west of US-151 was not part of Senate District 18; the remainder was. Putnam Township Bertram Cedar Rapids Ely	2003-2012
	Polk County (partial) Webster Township (partial) Small section between I-35/I-80, the Des Moines River and Des Moines Des Moines (partial) Northwestern portions of the City	2013-2022
	Polk County (partial) Des Moines (partial) Western portions of the city	2023-present

See also

• Iowa General Assembly
• Iowa Senate