Kris Gulick

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Kris Gulick

Republican Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2024

Education

Bachelor's

Coe College, 1986

Graduate

University of Iowa, 1982

Personal

Birthplace

Vinton, Iowa

Religion

Methodist

Profession

Accounting

Contact

Campaign website

Personal LinkedIn

Kris Gulick (Republican Party) ran for election to the Iowa State Senate to represent District 40. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Gulick completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Kris Gulick was born in Vinton, Iowa. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Northern Iowa in 1980, a graduate degree from the University of Iowa in 1982, and a bachelor's degree from Coe College in 1986. Gulick's career experience includes working in accounting.

Elections

2024

See also: Iowa State Senate elections, 2024

General election

General election for Iowa State Senate District 40

Art Staed defeated Kris Gulick in the general election for Iowa State Senate District 40 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Art Staed (D)	55.1	18,157
		Kris Gulick (R)	44.8	14,763
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	30

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 32,950
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia 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.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Iowa State Senate District 40

Art Staed advanced from the Democratic primary for Iowa State Senate District 40 on June 4, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Art Staed	99.1	766
		Other/Write-in votes	0.9	7

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 773
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia 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 40

Kris Gulick advanced from the Republican primary for Iowa State Senate District 40 on June 4, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Kris Gulick	98.3	648
		Other/Write-in votes	1.7	11

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 659
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia 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.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Gulick in this election.

2022

See also: Iowa State Senate elections, 2022

General election

General election for Iowa State Senate District 40

Incumbent Todd Taylor defeated Kris Gulick in the general election for Iowa State Senate District 40 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Todd Taylor (D)	54.6	14,078
		Kris Gulick (R)	45.3	11,674
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	25

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 25,777
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia 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 40

Incumbent Todd Taylor advanced from the Democratic primary for Iowa State Senate District 40 on June 7, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Todd Taylor	99.7	3,957
		Other/Write-in votes	0.3	10

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 3,967
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia 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 40

Kris Gulick advanced from the Republican primary for Iowa State Senate District 40 on June 7, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Kris Gulick	99.3	2,359
		Other/Write-in votes	0.7	17

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 2,376
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia 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.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Kris Gulick completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Gulick's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I grew up on a farm outside of Garrison, Iowa It was a typical small family farm with a few hundred acres that my Dad, Stuart, bought before I was born. My mom, Margaret, worked as a legal secretary until the farm could support the family when she became the farm’s bookkeeper and traditional farm wife. My parents often worked side-by-side to complete farm chores and support my sister and me. My parents instilled in us the need to volunteer in the community through their examples. They weren’t politically active and voted as independents, voting for the person rather than the party. After moving to Cedar Rapids in 1980, I met and married Deborah in 1983. There was little opportunity to advance in my original degree from the University of Northern Iowa in the parks and recreation field unless I moved out of Iowa, but Deborah, a CPA, had a good job in Cedar Rapids. I decided to go into consulting. Soon after our first child was born, I quit my full-time job and enrolled at Coe College. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Coe College in 1986. I have been a Certified Public Accountant since 1988. In 2005, Cedar Rapids citizens voted to adopt a home rule council-manager form of government. I ran for the District 1 seat and was elected. From 2006 to 2017, I was a member of a City Council that supported an “Open for Business” policy. I worked to grow the local economy through sound oversight, careful investment, and prioritizing community success.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• I am seeking election because our Metro area is the second largest in the state, and our residents need an independent voice representing them within the party that controls the Iowa Legislature.
• I pledge to bring to Des Moines the same independent reasoning and decision-making that I was known for during my 12 years on the Cedar Rapids City Council. It is important to be objective and look at both sides of an issue, particularly with issues that have long lasting consequences.
• During my 12 years on the Cedar Rapids city council, I was able to develop a state and national network of economic development professionals and city leaders through my leadership as President of the Iowa League of Cities and as executive board member of the National League of Cities. I have maintained these relationships and will leverage this network of people to help us grow our economy and continue to execute best practices in public policy.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

• Economic Development: Retain our existing businesses, create new entrepreneurial enterprises, and develop workforce attraction and retention strategies.

• Educational Excellence: To be competitive in economic development we need a strong and successful educational system that delivers positive outcomes for our next generation of workers.
• Quality of Life: Work for improvements that encourage people to live, work and play in our community and state.

• Fiscal Responsibility: Be fiscally responsible with taxpayers’ money and plan for present and future needs.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Be objective in decision making.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Represent your constituents

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I worked detasseling corn during the summers.

What do you perceive to be your state's greatest challenges over the next decade?

Population growth and a strong educational system

Are you interested in running for a different political office (for example, the U.S. Congress or governor) in the future?

No

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

2022

Kris Gulick did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign finance summary

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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 the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

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Kris Gulick campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	Iowa State Senate District 40	Lost general	$127,024	$103,646
2022	Iowa State Senate District 40	Lost general	$200,878	$84,635
Grand total			$327,903	$188,281
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

See also

2024 Elections

What's on the ballot? U.S. President U.S. Congress U.S. Congress special elections State executives State legislatures State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards Election analysis hub

Government

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Newsletters

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External links

Search Google News for this topic

Candidate

Iowa State Senate District 40

Website

Personal

LinkedIn

Footnotes

[show]

Current members of the Iowa State Senate

Leadership

Senate President:Amy Sinclair

Minority Leader:Janice Weiner

Senators

District 1

Catelin Drey (D)

District 2

Jeff Taylor (R)

District 3

Lynn Evans (R)

District 4

Tim Kraayenbrink (R)

District 5

Dave Rowley (R)

District 6

Jason Schultz (R)

District 7

Kevin Alons (R)

District 8

Mark Costello (R)

District 9

Tom Shipley (R)

District 10

Dan Dawson (R)

District 11

Julian Garrett (R)

District 12

Amy Sinclair (R)

District 13

Cherielynn Westrich (R)

District 14

Sarah Trone Garriott (D)

District 15

Tony Bisignano (D)

District 16

Claire Celsi (D)

District 17

Izaah Knox (D)

District 18

Janet Petersen (D)

District 19

Ken Rozenboom (R)

District 20

Mike Pike (R)

District 21

Mike Bousselot (R)

District 22

Matt Blake (D)

District 23

Jack Whitver (R)

District 24

Jesse Green (R)

District 25

Herman Quirmbach (D)

District 26

Kara Warme (R)

District 27

Annette Sweeney (R)

District 28

Dennis Guth (R)

District 29

Sandy Salmon (R)

District 30

Doug Campbell (R)

District 31

William Dotzler (D)

District 32

Michael Klimesh (R)

District 33

Carrie Koelker (R)

District 34

Dan Zumbach (R)

District 35

Mike Zimmer (D)

District 36

Thomas Townsend (D)

District 37

Molly Donahue (D)

District 38

Dave Sires (R)

District 39

Liz Bennett (D)

District 40

Art Staed (D)

District 41

Kerry Gruenhagen (R)

District 42

Charlie McClintock (R)

District 43

Zach Wahls (D)

District 44

Adrian Dickey (R)

District 45

Janice Weiner (D)

District 46

Dawn Driscoll (R)

District 47

Scott Webster (R)

District 48

Mark Lofgren (R)

District 49

Cindy Winckler (D)

District 50

Jeffrey Reichman (R)

Republican Party (33)

Democratic Party (17)