Janet Petersen (born August 1, 1970) is an American politician and a Democratic member of the

Iowa Senate The Iowa Senate is the upper house of the Iowa General Assembly, United States. There are 50 seats in the Iowa Senate, representing 50 single-member districts across the state of Iowa with populations of approximately 60,927 per constituency, . ...

representing the 18th District since January 2013. She previously served as the

Senate Minority Leader The positions of majority leader and minority leader are held by two United States senators and members of the party leadership of the United States Senate. They serve as the chief spokespersons for their respective political parties holding ...

and has previously represented the 64th district in the

Iowa House of Representatives The Iowa House of Representatives is the lower house of the Iowa General Assembly, the upper house being the Iowa Senate. There are 100 seats in the Iowa House of Representatives, representing 100 single-member districts across the state, formed ...

between 2001 and 2013. She received her BA from the

University of Northern Iowa The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) is a public university in Cedar Falls, Iowa. UNI offers more than 90 majors across the colleges of Business Administration, Education, Humanities, Arts, and Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences and gr ...

and her MA from

Drake University Drake University is a private university in Des Moines, Iowa. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, including professional programs in business, law, and pharmacy. Drake's law school is among the 25 oldest in the United States. His ...

. Petersen serves on several committees in the Iowa Senate - the Government Oversight, Judiciary, State Government and Ways & Means committees. She also serves as the

ranking member In United States politics, a ranking member is the most senior member of a congressional or state legislative committee from the minority party. On many committees the ranking minority member, along with the Chair, serve as '' ex officio'' member ...

of the Commerce Committee. Petersen currently serves as state Senate minority leader after replacing

Rob Hogg Robert Mason Hogg (born January 24, 1967) is the Iowa State Senator from the 33rd District. A Democrat, he has served in the Iowa Senate since 2007 after having served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 2003 to 2007. He ran in the Democ ...

in October 2017. She is the first woman to lead the Senate Democratic caucus.

Career

Before her election to the state legislature, Petersen worked for the '92 Clinton-Gore campaign, the American Heart Association, and Strategic America, a marketing communications firm. Since becoming a politician, much of her private work has focused on making Iowa "the safest place in the nation to have a baby". In 2004, she helped launch a stillbirth registry project that brings in more than $2 million a year to find causes and cures of stillbirths.

Electoral history

*incumbent

References

External links

Senator Janet Petersen
''official Iowa General Assembly site'' * , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Petersen, Janet 1970 births 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians American Disciples of Christ Drake University alumni Democratic Party Iowa state senators Living people Democratic Party members of the Iowa House of Representatives Politicians from Des Moines, Iowa University of Northern Iowa alumni Women state legislators in Iowa