The Iowa Senate will see a new leader in the Republican caucus for the first time in over six years.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver recently announced his resignation from the position and was not going to seek re-election, as sources say he cited getting treatment for a brain tumor and a busy family life as the reasons for those decisions. District 24 Senator Jesse Green says it was a blessing to serve under Senator Whitver’s leadership and he appreciated how he conducted the Republican caucus.

“It’s really hard to keep people unified in any family and in any group of people, and his leadership provided unity within our caucus. There has been so many situations where people are just shocked about how we’ve been able to be unified on so many tough issues, and vote as kind of one block, and that’s because of our trust in Jack (Whitver) and his foresight, and his conservative leadership.”   

Going forward, Senator Mike Klimesh was recently elected within the Senate to be the new Majority Leader. Senator Green says they were both elected at the same time, but before that, he points out that Senator Klimesh served as mayor for 20 years and owned a newspaper company as well. He explains that with Klimeshs’ knowledge and expertise in a wide range of areas makes him the ideal person for this leadership role. 

Green shares one experience with Klimesh as he was the Chair of the Senate Local Government Committee.

“If I had a tough bill in front of me, I wasn’t going to move it unless I had his support and his confidence. He had so much more knowledge than I did when it came to local government. And so, that’s why he, I think, won our Senate election is we just trust that he’s going to keep leading us in the proper direction. I look forward to serving with him in his new role.”

According to Governor Kim Reynolds’ office, Whitver served as the Senate Majority Leader since March of 2018.