Iowa Representative Phil Thompson. Photo courtesy of Iowa Legislature website

The Iowa House Republicans recently elected new leadership.

District 47 Representative Phil Thompson says Representative Pat Grassley of New Hartford was elected as the new Speaker of the House, while Representative Matt Windschitl of Missouri Valley was elected as the House Majority Leader and John Willis of Spirit Lake was elected Speaker Pro Tem. Grassley will take over at the start of the 2020 legislative session. The decision was made following the announcement of Speaker Linda Upmeyer’s retirement. The new positions were decided on Monday at the Iowa Statehouse.

Thompson points out it took an hour for discussion as they heard from the candidates for the available leadership roles. Thompson believes Grassely will step up for rural Iowa values, reflected in his district of Greene and Boone counties.

“Pat’s been appropriations (committee) chair for a long time, and a lot of the really important things to me like going to bat for our rural hospitals and ponying up some cash for them, he was a big part of that. Really any big piece of policy that I’ve been pushing and going to continue to push for this next year, I think under his leadership our caucus is really going to take a lot of it up. I’m really confident about that.”

Thompson appreciates Upmeyer’s leadership and her fearlessness to go after certain items during legislative sessions. Additionally, he was amazed by the time and effort that Upmeyer put in and the personal sacrifices she made during her time in the Legislature.