Michael E. Gronstal (born January 29, 1950) is a former

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 ...

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who represented the 8th district in the

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. He served from 1985 to 2017 and was the

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and chairman of the Rules and Administration committee. He was also chairman of the DLCC, the national organization to elect Democratic state legislators.

Political career

Gronstal supported efforts to increase

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in Iowa and in 2006, Iowa passed the nation's strongest

ethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl ...

legislation. Gronstal also supported legislation to increase funding for

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s and school districts. After the

Iowa Supreme Court The Iowa Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Iowa. The Court is composed of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. The Court holds its regular sessions in Des Moines in the Iowa Judicial Branch Building located at 1111 E ...

ruled in favor of

gay marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

in the ''

Varnum v. Brien ''Varnum v. Brien'', 763 N.W.2d 862 (Iowa 2009), was an Iowa Supreme Court case in which the Court unanimously held that the state's limitation of marriage to opposite-sex couples violated the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution. The ...

'' decision in April 2009, Gronstal blocked a

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attempt to overturn the Court's decision with a

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. He released a

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video in which he quoted his daughter's statement that opponents of

same-sex marriage in Iowa Same-sex marriage in Iowa has been legally recognized since a decision of the Iowa Supreme Court on April 3, 2009. Marriage licenses became available to same-sex couples on April 27. In 2005, six same-sex couples who were denied marriage licenses ...

had already lost because her generation does not care about the issue. Gronstal lost his bid for re-election in 2016. Gronstal was re-elected in 2004 with 12,480 votes (54%), defeating Republican opponent Loren Knauss. He won re-election again in 2008 with 58% of the votes. Gronstal received his

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from

Antioch College Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution; politician and education reformer Horace Mann was its f ...

. Prior to serving in the Senate, he served one term 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 ...

. He also served as the chair of the Pottawattamie County Democratic Party from 1986 to 1988. Gronstal and his wife, Connie, have two daughters: Kate, who is a transportation engineer at Stantec in Chicago; and Sara, who is currently Director of Forensics at

Eastern Illinois University Eastern Illinois University is a public university in Charleston, Illinois. Established in 1895 as the Eastern Illinois State Normal School, a teacher's college offering a two-year degree, Eastern Illinois University gradually expanded into a co ...

References

External links

Senator Michael E. Gronstal
''official Iowa Legislature site''
Senator Michael E. Gronstal
''official Iowa General Assembly site''
State Senator Mike Gronstal
''official constituency site'' * , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Gronstal, Michael 1950 births Antioch College alumni Democratic Party Iowa state senators Living people Democratic Party members of the Iowa House of Representatives Politicians from Council Bluffs, Iowa 21st-century American politicians