Ruby Bodeker

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

Ruby Bodeker

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 3, 2020

Education

Bachelor's

Iowa Wesleyan College

Personal

Birthplace

New Richmond, Wis.

Religion

Lutheran

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Ruby Bodeker (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Iowa House of Representatives to represent District 75. She lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.

Bodeker completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Ruby Bodeker was born in New Richmond, Wisconsin. She obtained a bachelor's degree from Iowa Wesleyan College. Bodeker's professional experience includes working in early childhood education, with AmeriCorps and Iowa counties through the Community Partnership for Protecting Children. She previously worked as a substitute teacher in the Burlington Community School District and as a professional instructional assistant in the Secondary Transitional Education Program (STEP) for Southeastern Community College. From 2008 to 2012, Bodeker was a Talented and Gifted endorsement (TAG) instructor in the Vinton-Shellsburg Community School District. From 2017 to 2019, she worked as a freelance correspondent for Community Media Group.

Bodeker is a board member of the Benton-Iowa Early Childhood Iowa Board; a member of the Old Creamery Nature Trail Committee; a volunteer with Buchanan County Conservation and Benton County Conservation; and a member of the Benton County Democratic Party, Iowa County Democratic Party, Iowa Young Birders Parent Advisory Board, Zion Lutheran Church in Dysart, and Sunrise Movement-Cedar Rapids. She founded the Benton County Young Progressives.

Elections

2020

See also: Iowa House of Representatives elections, 2020

General election

General election for Iowa House of Representatives District 75

Incumbent Thomas Gerhold defeated Ruby Bodeker in the general election for Iowa House of Representatives District 75 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Thomas Gerhold (R)	63.6	10,377
		Ruby Bodeker (D)	36.2	5,907
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	21

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 16,305
= 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 House of Representatives District 75

Ruby Bodeker advanced from the Democratic primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 75 on June 2, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Ruby Bodeker	99.6	1,761
		Other/Write-in votes	0.4	7

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,768
= 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 House of Representatives District 75

Incumbent Thomas Gerhold advanced from the Republican primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 75 on June 2, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Thomas Gerhold	99.6	2,397
		Other/Write-in votes	0.4	10

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 2,407
= 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

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Ruby Bodeker completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Bodeker'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 hail from hardworking dairy farmers, public school teachers, and research scientists. A teacher by training and a small-town newspaper correspondent by trade, I came to Iowa in 1999 by way of Iowa State University. I spent close to three years with a pad of paper and a pen covering the communities of Benton County as a correspondent for Community Media Group. Today I am employed by Iowa State University as a contract employee for the Benton-Iowa Community Partnership for Protecting Children. My work finds me traveling extensively throughout both counties.

I am the mother of four little Iowans ranging in age from toddler to teen. My husband Brian is an Iowa boy through-and-through and a member of United Association Local 125. We have been a proud Union family since 2002 and residents of rural northeastern Benton County since 2008. We are active members of Zion Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Dysart.

I volunteer my time with many local and statewide conservation organizations and entities. In 2018, along with my daughter Coralee, I received recognition for my volunteer work in environmental education from the Iowa Association of Naturalists and the Iowa Conservation Education Coalition.

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?

• Protect workers and expand unions
• Fully fund public education and reverse the privatization of Medicaid
• Ensure clean water for all

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Iowa's small towns and rural communities are hurting. We live here, too, so we deserve equal access to a sustainable future as much as those living in bigger towns and cities. Emergency medical services in rural areas should be considered essential services (similar to fire protection) and funded as community infrastructure. Rural hospitals should not suffer and close under mounting debt that has been made worse due to the privatization of Medicaid. Libraries should be strengthened as community-based resources-particularly in towns where no public school exists anymore. Rural Iowa should not lose access to postal services, polling places, and grocery stores.

Union wages afford rural Iowans a way to stay in place, to remain rural, to keep communities from disappearing. Workers have the right to unionize and should be supported in their endeavors. A living wage is important, too, for maintaining our communities-keeping Iowa's roots strong. Small towns and rural spaces are stronger when working people stand together. The small town is worth fighting for because we live here, too.

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

I think our best leaders are those who are not afraid to be uncomfortable and who summon courage to speak for those who cannot even when it's not easy nor popular to do so. Now more than ever we need leaders who recognize people are being left behind. People need protection. I also think it is extremely important for elected officials to recognize they must represent everyone, even those who did not vote for them. They must do the most good for the most people. Elected officials should be of the people by doing their best to be present in the communities they represent and listening to people's stories. It is a privilege and an honor to be elected. Your job is to serve at that moment, not to constantly think about the next election, the next cycle.

What legacy would you like to leave?

If elected to the Iowa House of Representatives, I would like to be remembered as someone who advocated for working people and all the places they live. I would like to be recognized as a prairie voice-someone who understands the ultimate health of any society is dependent upon a diverse set of voices working together toward higher ground. It would be an honor to be part of the group that establishes a state-level climate task force; who makes inroads in reforming our farm system to take into account the people who reside at the heart of it-our farmers and rural residents-by breaking the hold corporate ag has on our state, our people, our land; who raises Iowa's minimum wage to a living wage; who votes to reverse the privatization of Medicaid; who restores Chapter 20 to its pre-2017 status; who fully funds education and works to make Iowa #1 again. It would be the ultimate privilege to be compared to former Iowa House of Representatives member Russell 'Dutch' Wyckoff who previously represented this district for four terms from 1971-1979. Rep. Wyckoff passed away in 2004. His son told me Russell was liked and respected by Democrats and Republicans alike because he cared about people, about the land.

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

My very first job was bus stop monitor for the local Lutheran Church's four-year-old preschool. I was in middle school at the time and the school was located across the street from the church which had a transportation-sharing agreement with the public school district. I would walk across the street once school let out, pick up anywhere from 5-10 students from the preschool classroom, take them outside, and walk down the block to the bus stop. We would chat about their day, the weather, the natural world around us; read books from their backpacks; eat a snack provided by the teacher. I held this job for two, possibly three school years.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

The theme song to the television show Parks & Recreation. There are no lyrics, but I asked my eldest two kids (high schoolers) over the summer to play their band instruments (trumpet and saxophone) and work out a song without googling for the sheet music; Parks & Rec was the song they picked. I had no complaints-it's a great theme and I love the show.

Do you believe it’s beneficial to build relationships with other legislators? Please explain your answer.

Yes, I believe it's vitally important to build relationships with other legislators, reaching across the state and across the aisle to do so. Such relationships will ultimately help do the most good for the most people. I have already begun doing this as a candidate-I have working relationships with Representative Ross Wilburn of Ames and Representative Mary Mascher of Iowa City, as well as State Senator Rob Hogg of Cedar Rapids.

If you are not a current legislator, are there certain committees that you would want to be a part of?

I have a strong interest in the following committees: Agriculture, Education, Environmental Protection, Labor, Local Government, Natural Resources, and Veterans Affairs.

Both sitting legislators and candidates for office hear many personal stories from the residents of their district. Is there a story that you’ve heard that you found particularly touching, memorable, or impactful?

While knocking doors in late 2019, I knocked the door of a Vietnam War veteran in Marengo. He spoke to me about his daughter who lived in a residential care home, as well as his experience of being forgotten by the government as a returning soldier. I visited with him again in 2020. We revisited the same topics. He expressed to me how shameful he thinks it is that we pay so little to those who "care for our greatest treasures"-including our paraeducators, our child care workers, our CNAs. He expressed to me his desire to elect people who "care for the working man" because it is those people who "hold up this world." I couldn't have said it better-this is the heart of our campaign, to be a voice for working people no matter where they live.

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.

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Footnotes

[show]

Current members of the Iowa House of Representatives

Leadership

Majority Leader:Bobby Kaufmann

Representatives

District 1

J.D. Scholten (D)

District 2

Robert Henderson (R)

District 3

Thomas Jeneary (R)

District 4

Skyler Wheeler (R)

District 5

Zach Dieken (R)

District 6

Megan Jones (R)

District 7

Mike Sexton (R)

District 8

Ann Meyer (R)

District 9

Henry Stone (R)

District 10

John Wills (R)

District 11

Craig Williams (R)

District 12

Steven Holt (R)

District 13

Travis Sitzmann (R)

District 14

Jacob Bossman (R)

District 15

Matt Windschitl (R)

District 16

David Sieck (R)

District 17

Devon Wood (R)

District 18

Tom Moore (R)

District 19

Brent Siegrist (R)

District 20

Josh Turek (D)

District 21

Brooke Boden (R)

District 22

Samantha Fett (R)

District 23

Ray Sorensen (R)

District 24

Sam Wengryn (R)

District 25

Hans Wilz (R)

District 26

Austin Harris (R)

District 27

Kenan Judge (D)

District 28

David Young (R)

District 29

Brian Meyer (D)

District 30

Megan Srinivas (D)

District 31

Mary Madison (D)

District 32

Jennifer Konfrst (D)

District 33

Ruth Gaines (D)

District 34

Rob Johnson (D)

District 35

Sean Bagniewski (D)

District 36

Austin Baeth (D)

District 37

Barb McCulla (R)

District 38

Jon Dunwell (R)

District 39

Rick Olson (D)

District 40

Bill Gustoff (R)

District 41

Ryan Weldon (R)

District 42

Heather Matson (D)

District 43

Eddie Andrews (R)

District 44

Larry McBurney (D)

District 45

Brian Lohse (R)

District 46

Dan Gehlbach (R)

District 47

Carter Nordman (R)

District 48

Chad Behn (R)

District 49

Beth Wessel-Kroeschell (D)

District 50

Ross Wilburn (D)

District 51

Brett Barker (R)

District 52

David Blom (R)

District 53

Dean Fisher (R)

District 54

Joshua Meggers (R)

District 55

Shannon Latham (R)

District 56

Mark Thompson (R)

District 57

Pat Grassley (R)

District 58

Charley Thomson (R)

District 59

Christian Hermanson (R)

District 60

Jane Bloomingdale (R)

District 61

Timi Brown-Powers (D)

District 62

Jerome Amos (D)

District 63

Michael Bergan (R)

District 64

Jason Gearhart (R)

District 65

Shannon Lundgren (R)

District 66

Steven Bradley (R)

District 67

Craig Johnson (R)

District 68

Chad Ingels (R)

District 69

Tom Determann (R)

District 70

Norlin Mommsen (R)

District 71

Lindsay James (D)

District 72

Jennifer Smith (R)

District 73

Elizabeth Wilson (D)

District 74

Eric Gjerde (D)

District 75

Bob Kressig (D)

District 76

Derek Wulf (R)

District 77

Jeff Cooling (D)

District 78

Angel Ramirez (D)

District 79

Tracy Ehlert (D)

District 80

Aime Wichtendahl (D)

District 81

Daniel Gosa (D)

District 82

Bobby Kaufmann (R)

District 83

Cindy Golding (R)

District 84

Thomas Gerhold (R)

District 85

Amy Nielsen (D)

District 86

David Jacoby (D)

District 87

Jeff Shipley (R)

District 88

Helena Hayes (R)

District 89

Elinor Levin (D)

District 90

Adam Zabner (D)

District 91

Judd Lawler (R)

District 92

Heather Hora (R)

District 93

Gary Mohr (R)

District 94

Mike Vondran (R)

District 95

Taylor Collins (R)

District 96

Mark Cisneros (R)

District 97

Ken Croken (D)

District 98

Monica Kurth (D)

District 99

Matthew Rinker (R)

District 100

Blaine Watkins (R)

Republican Party (67)

Democratic Party (33)