Amy Nielsen is a Democratic member of the Iowa House of Representatives. She has represented the 85th district, which encompasses the cities of North Liberty, Tiffin, Oxford, Swisher, Shueyville, and Lone Tree as well as rural areas surrounding

Iowa City Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...

to the west and south, since January 2017. Prior to her election to the House, she was Mayor of North Liberty from November 2014 to December 2016.

Early life, education, and career

Nielsen was born in

Keokuk, Iowa Keokuk is a city in and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States, along with Fort Madison. It is Iowa's southernmost city. The population was 9,900 at the time of the 2020 census. The city is named after the Sauk chief Keokuk, who is ...

, in 1978. Due to her father's job in the auto industry, the family moved to Tennessee for a brief time before relocating back to the Iowan community of Hills outside of Iowa City, where both of her parents ended up working for local banks. She attended Iowa City West High School, graduating in 1995. After two years at

Kirkwood Community College Kirkwood Community College is a public community college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Kirkwood has a secondary campus in Iowa City, and several additional regional and county centers located in Belle Plaine, Coralville, Hiawatha, Monticello, Tipton ...

, she and her husband left Iowa and began to move around the country for his job at Kimberly Clark. Now a stay-at-home mother of three children, she and her family made it back to Iowa, settling down in the rapidly growing community of North Liberty. There, she began serving on the PTO of her children's school and worked on a revenue purpose campaign with the Iowa City School District. She headed multiple campaigns from local school board up to

county commissioner A county commission (or a board of county commissioners) is a group of elected officials (county commissioners) collectively charged with administering the county government in some states of the United States; such commissions usually comprise ...

and organized a "walking school bus" project for kids. Nielsen also sat on the board of directors for the North Liberty Community Pantry and served as member of the Iowa City Community School District's Equity Advisory Committee. This experience motivated her to apply for a city council seat that had opened up upon the passing of North Liberty's mayor. Although she wasn't selected, she decided to run for mayor the following year. Despite her relative inexperience and her opponent's stellar record of 15 years public service, Nielsen won with 55% of the vote. In 2015, when Sally Stutsman announced that she would not seek reelection, House leadership reached out to Nielsen, who initially declined. However, after reconsideration, she ultimately agreed and decided to launch a campaign around school funding. She ran against former Tiffin Mayor, Royce Phillips.

Electoral history

Political endorsement A political endorsement is a public declaration of one's personal or group's support of a candidate for elected office An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with ...

She recorded a video in support of Cory 2020,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nielsen, Amy 1978 births Living people Women state legislators in Iowa People from Keokuk, Iowa Iowa Democrats Mayors of places in Iowa Women mayors of places in Iowa 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians People from Johnson County, Iowa Iowa City West High School alumni