AGE: 66

HOMETOWN: Raised on a farm near Garner, now lives in Clear Lake

EDUCATION: Studied at North Iowa Area Community College, University of Iowa and Drake University; has a master’s degree in nursing and is a certified family nurse practitioner

FAMILY: Husband Doug, five children and five grandchildren

HOBBIES: Spending time with family, especially her grandchildren

Email: linda.upmeyer@legis.iowa.gov

If there is such a thing as having a political pedigree, Linda Upmeyer can claim one.

The Clear Lake Republican this year became the first female speaker of the Iowa House, in her seventh term as a state representative. Upmeyer is the daughter of the late Del Stromer, who served in the House for 24 years. In fact, her bio notes that she and Stromer are the first father-daughter pair in the nation to have served as speakers of their state legislature. Upmeyer grew up in a household resolutely involved in Republican politics. Public service was a core element in her family’s values.  

However, as mother raising five children and working as a nurse, the first half of her adult life didn’t have room for a political career. Once her children were grown, however, she was drawn to it and has successfully navigated her 13-year legislative career from freshman legislator to minority whip, majority leader and now speaker of the house.

Upmeyer answered a few questions exclusively for Lift IOWA readers during a recent Business Record interview. 

One of the things I’ve always enjoyed doing most is putting people together who can work to produce a far better product than what I personally would have been able to do. … Putting those people together is something I do consciously. I don’t know whether it’s my life experience as a nurse, or maybe as a mom, but whatever it is, that is one of the things that can serve the state very well is making sure those people come together. Building the bench, working with folks to bring out their best is what I like to do and is what I am striving to do as a leader.

You know, truthfully, probably some of both, I suspect. … Sometimes I think the advantage I had along the way, on one or two occasions for whatever reasons, people underestimated me. Sometimes that’s a real advantage.

I’ve been very successful recruiting women this year. In fact, I think we have more women on our side of the ballot than we’ve had in a number of years. … The one thing that I’ve learned from the research that the Carrie Chapman Catt Center did at Iowa State University is that women have to be asked to run. You know, men kind of get up in the morning and look in the mirror and say, ‘All right, you can be president. You can be governor.’ They can kind of see that. Women, on the other hand, when they’re looking in the mirror and blowing their hair dry, they’re thinking about all the things that have to be done that day and the multitasking that they have to do to keep all the balls in the air. So they aren’t thinking along those lines. We have to reach out and ask. Even when women think about it. they often think, ‘Oh, I’m probably not the best person. There’s somebody out there who’s better than me for the job.’ The fact of the matter is the best person is the one who steps up and does the work and asks people for support.