Mary Ann Hanusa (born May 26, 1963) is an American politician who served as a member of 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 ...

from 2011 to 2021.

Early life and education

Hanusa was born, raised, and resides in

Council Bluffs, Iowa Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The city is the most populous in Southwest Iowa, and is the third largest and a primary city of the Omaha–Council Bluffs ...

. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in education from Concordia Teachers College and an Master of Arts in American history from the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was known as the Universit ...

Career

Before election to the Iowa House, she served on the staff of Senator

Charles Grassley Charles Ernest Grassley (born September 17, 1933) is an American politician serving as the president pro tempore emeritus of the United States Senate, and the senior United States senator from Iowa, having held the seat since 1981. In 2022, he ...

before becoming director of the

White House Office of Presidential Correspondence The Office of Presidential Correspondence is one of the largest and oldest offices in the White House, and is a component of the Office of the White House Staff Secretary. In the administration of Joe Biden, the Office of Presidential Corresp ...

under

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

, serving from 2001 to 2006. She was the Republican candidate for

Iowa Secretary of State The Secretary of State of Iowa is the commissioner of elections of the U.S. state of Iowa. A constitutional officer, the officeholder is elected every four years. The Office of the Secretary of State is divided into four divisions: Elections and ...

in 2006, replacing previous nominee Chuck Allison, who dropped out of the race after the primary. In the Iowa House, Hanusa served on the Education, Labor, and Local Government committees. She also served as the chair of the Economic Growth Committee and as a member of the Economic Development Appropriations Subcommittee. Hanusa was a candidate in the Republican primary for the 2022 election in

Iowa's 3rd congressional district Iowa's 3rd congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Iowa that covers its southwestern quadrant, which roughly consists of an area stretching from Des Moines to the borders with Nebraska and Missouri. From 2013 to ...

before withdrawing from the race. In January 2022, Hanusa announced that she would challenge incumbent

Rob Sand Robert Sand (born August 12, 1982) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the 33rd Iowa State Auditor since 2019. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Sand was assistant attorney general of Iowa from 2010 to 2017. In 2018, he ...

for

Iowa State Auditor The Iowa State Auditor is the state auditor of the Government of Iowa, United States. The office's mission is to "serve as the taxpayers' watchdog" by "ensuring that government officials use taxpayer dollars for the intended purposes to benefit t ...

in the 2022 elections. Todd Halbur, a small business owner, defeated Hanusa in the primary election.

References

External links

Representative Mary Ann Hanusa
''official Iowa General Assembly site'' *
Financial information (state office)
at the National Institute for Money in State Politics
Hanusa's biography
at the Iowa House Republicans website , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanusa, Mary Ann 1963 births 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians Concordia University Nebraska alumni Republican Party members of the Iowa House of Representatives Living people Politicians from Council Bluffs, Iowa University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni Women state legislators in Iowa