A Dubuque native who’s been in the Iowa legislature since 1993 has a new role in the Iowa Senate, but she hasn’t decided whether to seek reelection in 2024.
Democrats in the Iowa Senate met privately in June and chose Pam Jochum to replace Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls. During a recent interview with Radio Iowa, Jochum said she didn’t seek the role.
“It was my colleagues who really called me and said: ‘We have the votes lined up,'” Jochum said, with a laugh. “I said: ‘Whoa!’ Anyway, here I am and I have had plenty of experience as a former county party chair, working on campaigns from courthouse to White House and running my own campaigns numerous times.”
Jochum was first elected to the Iowa House in 1992. She’s been a state senator since 2009 and served four years as Senate President when Democrats were in the majority. She’s one of three women to have served as senate president — but the only Democratic woman to do so.
“In my lifetime I’ve cracked a few ceilings. I’m not so sure they’re glass. Sometimes they feel like marble,” Jochum said. “…In fact, I was the first woman from Dubuque to get elected to the Iowa legislature.”
Jochum is now one of just 16 Democrats in the Iowa Senate. During a recent speech at a party fundraiser, Jochum acknowledged that low point. “I know lately it’s been feeling like we’ve been sailing against the political winds and we kind of have, but I can tell you the political winds are beginning to change,” Jochum said. “Iowans are beginning to realize that the Republicans, led by Kim Reynolds, have gone way too far.”
Jochum has come up with a “nine by 2029” plan. It means that over the next three election cycles, the goal is for Democrats to win nine seats currently held by Republicans. “It will not happen overnight,” Jochum told Radio Iowa. “It took us six years to get where we are right now.”
Jochum said Democrats need to be “very strategic” in how they’re recruiting candidates for the state senate. “Making sure they fit their district, getting whatever money we do need raised so that candidate can communicate what they believe in,” Jochum said, “…and then, of course, to organize at the community level to turn that vote out.”
Jochum says her six-year plan to gain nine seats in the Iowa Senate is realistic, since there have been only two recent elections when that many seats held by Republicans were won by Democrats. Those elections were in 1964, the year of President Johnson’s landslide victory, and in 1974, shortly after President Nixon resigned due to the Watergate scandal.
Jochum’s current term expires in a year and she hasn’t decided whether to seek reelection in 2024. “I haven’t made up my mind on that yet and I told my colleagues yet when they were pushing me pretty hard to become the new Democratic Senate Leader,” Jochum said. “and they didn’t care.”
Jochum isn’t ruling out another run. “I have always found public service to be one of the most important things you can do with your life and I’m very committed to it and always will be,” Jochum told Radio Iowa, “whether I am holding public office or not.”