Liz Bennett

Democratic Party

Iowa State Senate District 39

Tenure

2023 - Present

Term ends

2027

Years in position

3

Prior offices:

Iowa House of Representatives District 65

Years in office: 2015 - 2023

Successor:Shannon Lundgren (R)

Compensation

Base salary

$25,000/year

Per diem

$201/day for legislators who live outside of Polk County. $150.75/day for legislators who live within Polk County.

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 8, 2022

Education

Associates

Kirkwood Community College, 2007

Bachelor's

Cornell College, 2010

Personal

Profession

Consultant

Contact

Official website

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign X

Campaign Instagram

Personal Facebook

Personal LinkedIn

Liz Bennett (Democratic Party) is a member of theIowa State Senate, representingDistrict 39. She assumed office on January 3, 2023. Her current term ends on January 2, 2027.

Bennett (Democratic Party) ran for election to theIowa State Senate to representDistrict 39. She won in the general election onNovember 8, 2022.

Biography

Liz Bennett earned an A.A. in liberal arts from Kirkwood Community College in 2007 and a B.A. in politics and women’s studies from Cornell College in 2010. Bennett's career experience includes working as a website expert with Wix, an Internet sales and support consultant with Go Daddy, and a regional organizer with One Iowa.^[1][2] She has been affiliated with the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, the Kirkwood Community College Liberal Arts Advisory Committee, Cedar Rapids AniMeals, and German Shepherd Dog Rescue of Iowa.^[1][3]

Committee assignments

2025-2026

Bennett was assigned to the following committees:

• Senate Agriculture Committee
• Senate Transportation Committee
• Natural Resources & Environment Committee
• Technology
• Senate Veterans Affairs Committee

2023-2024

Bennett was assigned to the following committees:

• Senate Veterans Affairs Committee
• Natural Resources & Environment Committee
• Information Technology Committee (decommissioned),Ranking Member
• Senate Transportation Committee

2021-2022

Bennett was assigned to the following committees:

• House Human Resources Committee
• Information Technology Committee (decommissioned)
• Natural Resources Committee

2019-2020

Bennett was assigned to the following committees:

• House Appropriations Committee
• Economic Growth Committee,Ranking Member
• House Judiciary Committee
• House Veterans Affairs Committee

2017 legislative session

At the beginning of the 2017 legislative session, this legislator served on the following committees:

2015 legislative session

At the beginning of the 2015 legislative session, Bennett served on the following committees:

Sponsored legislation

The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according toBillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.

Elections

2022

See also: Iowa State Senate elections, 2022

General election

General election for Iowa State Senate District 39

Liz Bennett defeatedBernie Hayes in the general election for Iowa State Senate District 39 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Liz Bennett (D)	64.8	13,257
		Bernie Hayes (R)	35.1	7,190
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	15

---

	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 20,462
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Iowa State Senate District 39

Liz Bennett defeatedJoseph Zahorik in the Democratic primary for Iowa State Senate District 39 on June 7, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Liz Bennett	72.9	3,214
	Submit photo	Joseph Zahorik	26.9	1,186
		Other/Write-in votes	0.2	7

---

	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 4,407
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Iowa State Senate District 39

Bernie Hayes advanced from the Republican primary for Iowa State Senate District 39 on June 7, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Bernie Hayes	99.1	1,430
		Other/Write-in votes	0.9	13

---

	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,443
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

2020

See also: Iowa House of Representatives elections, 2020

General election

General election for Iowa House of Representatives District 65

IncumbentLiz Bennett won election in the general election for Iowa House of Representatives District 65 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Liz Bennett (D)	96.8	11,841
		Other/Write-in votes	3.2	393

---

	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 12,234
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 65

IncumbentLiz Bennett defeatedHarry Foster in the Democratic primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 65 on June 2, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Liz Bennett	94.0	4,061
		Harry Foster	5.7	248
		Other/Write-in votes	0.2	10

---

	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 4,319
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

2018

See also:Iowa House of Representatives elections, 2018

General election

General election for Iowa House of Representatives District 65

IncumbentLiz Bennett defeatedGeorge Olmsted in the general election for Iowa House of Representatives District 65 on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Liz Bennett (D)	69.4	9,002
		George Olmsted (R)	30.5	3,956
		Other/Write-in votes	0.2	20

---

	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 12,978
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 65

IncumbentLiz Bennett advanced from the Democratic primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 65 on June 5, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Liz Bennett	100.0	2,742

---

	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified.	Total votes: 2,742
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 65

George Olmsted advanced from the Republican primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 65 on June 5, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		George Olmsted	100.0	370

---

	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified.	Total votes: 370
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

2016

See also:Iowa House of Representatives elections, 2016

Elections for theIowa House of Representatives took place in 2016. The primary election took place on June 7, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing deadline was March 18, 2016.

IncumbentLiz Bennett defeatedHarry Foster in the Iowa House of Representatives District 65 general election.^[4][5]

Iowa House of Representatives, District 65 General Election, 2016
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Liz BennettIncumbent	66.58%	9,724
	Republican	Harry Foster	33.42%	4,881
Total Votes				14,605
Source:Iowa Secretary of State

IncumbentLiz Bennett ran unopposed in the Iowa House of Representatives District 65 Democratic primary.^[6][7]

Iowa House of Representatives, District 65 Democratic Primary, 2016
Party		Candidate
	Democratic	Liz BennettIncumbent (unopposed)

Harry Foster ran unopposed in the Iowa House of Representatives District 65 Republican primary.^[6][7]

Iowa House of Representatives, District 65 Republican Primary, 2016
Party		Candidate
	Republican	Harry Foster (unopposed)

2014

See also:Iowa House of Representatives elections, 2014

Elections for theIowa House of Representatives took place in 2014. A primary election took place on June 3, 2014. The general election was held onNovember 4, 2014. Thesignature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was March 14, 2014.Liz Bennett defeatedGary Anhalt in the Democratic primary and was unchallenged in the general election.^[8][9][10]

Iowa House of Representatives, District 65 Democratic Primary, 2014

Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Liz Bennett	63.7%	1,465
Gary Anhalt	36.3%	834
Total Votes		2,299

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also:Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Liz Bennett did not completeBallotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

2020

Liz Bennett did not completeBallotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign finance summary

Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf.Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at theFEC website. Clickhere for more on federal campaign finance law andhere for more on state campaign finance law.

Scorecards

See also:State legislative scorecards andState legislative scorecards in Iowa

Ascorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.

Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.

Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states.  To contribute to the list of Iowa scorecards, email suggestions toeditor@ballotpedia.org.

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

See also

2022 Elections

What's on the ballot?U.S. CongressU.S. Congress special electionsState executivesState legislaturesState courtsBallot measuresMunicipal governmentSchool boardsElection analysis hub

Government

Who represents me?U.S. CongressState executivesState legislatorsState courtsBallot measuresMunicipal governmentSchool boards

Newsletters

The Heart of the PrimariesThe Daily BrewThe Weekly BrewThe Ballot BulletinChecks and BalancesEconomy and SocietyHall PassNumber of the DayRobe & GavelUnion Station

External links

Footnotes

	v • e State ofIowa Des Moines (capital)
Elections	What's on my ballot? |Elections in 2026 |How to vote |How to run for office |Ballot measures
Government	Who represents me? |U.S. President |U.S. Congress |Federal courts |State executives |State legislature |State and local courts |Counties |Cities |School districts |Public policy