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Matthew "Matt" Nathan Strawn (born 1974) is an American businessman from Ankeny, Iowa.


Early life

Matt Strawn is from Van Horne in Benton County,
Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
, where his family were farmers. From 1992 to 1996, he attended the
University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...
and graduated in 1996 with a BA majoring in political science, journalism and mass communication. From 1999 to 2003, he attended the
Columbus School of Law The Columbus School of Law, also known as Catholic Law or CUA Law, is the law school of the Catholic University of America, a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. More than 400 Juris Doctor students attend Catholic Law ...
at the
Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...
, received his JD in 2003, and became a member of the Maryland Bar Association in 2004.


Career

He served on the staffs of
Saxby Chambliss Clarence Saxby Chambliss (born November 10, 1943) is an American lawyer and retired politician who was a United States Senator from Georgia from 2003 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a U.S. Representative from ...
from 1997 to January 2001 and Mike Rogers from January 2001 to June 2007. During the 2008 presidential election, he supported
John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...
's
campaign Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...
.


Iowa Barnstormers

In early 2008, Strawn through The Strawn Company,
Jeff Lamberti Jeffrey M. Lamberti (born October 21, 1962, in Ankeny, Iowa) is a former Republican Senate leader and two term state senator representing the 35th District of the Iowa Senate, and served two terms as State Representative. In the 2006 mid-term ele ...
, and others became co-owners of the
Iowa Barnstormers The Iowa Barnstormers are a professional indoor American football, indoor football team based in Des Moines, Iowa. They are currently members of the Indoor Football League (IFL). They play their home games at Wells Fargo Arena (Des Moines, Iowa) ...
in the
af2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football ru ...
. The owners purchased the team from Iowa Pro Football L.P., which was led by Jim Foster, for $500,000. From the 2010 to the 2014 seasons, the Barnstormers played in the
Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...
and has been in the
Indoor Football League The Indoor Football League (IFL) is a professional indoor American football league created in 2008 out of the merger between the Intense Football League and United Indoor Football. It has one of the largest number of currently active teams amon ...
for the 2015 season to present.


Iowa Republican Party chairman

In January 2009, Strawn was elected state chairman of the
Republican Party of Iowa The Republican Party of Iowa (RPI) is the affiliate of the Republican Party (United States), United States Republican Party in Iowa. The State Central Committee is chaired by Jeff Kaufmann. The RPI operates the Republican side of the Iowa cauc ...
. Under the direction of Republican Governor
Terry Branstad Terry Edward Branstad (born November 17, 1946) is an American politician and former diplomat. A member of the Republican Party, he served three terms in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1973 to 1979 before serving as governor of Iowa fro ...
, Strawn ran for reelection unopposed in 2011, for another two-year term. Following the
2012 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses The 2012 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses took place on January 3, 2012. Using the media's generally accepted definition of the Iowa Republican Party (United States), Republican caucus as the non-binding secret polling at caucus sites and ...
held on 3 January 2012, Strawn resigned in February 2012.


Next Generation Public Affairs

In June 2013, he co-founded the
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
based Next Generation Public Affairs with Pat Brady and the
Chicagoland The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hint ...
businessman Bob Fitzsimmons and remained with the firm until December 2018.


CEO Iowa Lottery

In January 2019, Strawn became a member of the Iowa Lottery board as the third
Iowa Lottery The Iowa Lottery Authority is run by the state of Iowa. It is a member of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), which administers games on behalf of the member lotteries. The Iowa Lottery portfolio includes Powerball, Mega Millions, Lotto Ame ...
CEO in the 34 years of the Iowa Lottery.


Personal

As of 20 May 2019, he is married to the lobbyist Erin Coyle Strawn who is with the Stanton Park Group LLC and the Coyle Real Estate Company, and they have three children ages 8, 12, and 14. Formerly, they lived in
Ankeny, Iowa Ankeny (, ) is a city in Polk County, Iowa, United States and a suburb of the state capital of Des Moines, as part of the Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metropolitan statistical area. As of the 2020 census, the population of Ankeny was 67,887, m ...
, and as of February 2019, Strawn and his family live in downtown
Des Moines Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...
's East Village. In February 2023 he was diagnosed with colon cancer, but is expected to make a full recovery.https://www.kcci.com/article/iowa-lottery-ceo-matt-strawn-cancer/42916509


Notes


References

1973 births 21st-century American businesspeople Iowa Republicans Living people People from Ankeny, Iowa Place of birth missing (living people) {{US-poli-bio-stub