Democratic gubernatorial candidate Fred Hubbell announced on June 16 that state Sen. Rita Hart as his pick for lieutenant governor.

Hart, 62, was first elected in 2012 to represent Clinton County and parts of Scott County in the Iowa Senate. She hails from Wheatland, Iowa, a town of approximately 730 people.

Her rural roots will counter Hubbell’s Des Moines-area business background, and that may reel in eastern Iowa voters into a race dominated by Des Moines-area candidates. She has owned and operated a farm near Wheatland for 30 years and has spent her career as a teacher and educator in eastern Iowa.

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Hart was up for re-election in Iowa Senate District 49, but she’ll have to drop out of the race, which is being contested by Republican candidate Chris Cournoyer. Democrats will hold a special nominating convention later this month to decide a new Democratic candidate for the district.

“I am honored to join Fred and fight tooth and nail alongside him to get Iowa growing the right way,” Hart said in a press release. “In Big Rock, Wheatland, and communities like it across rural Iowa, we’ve born the brunt of Gov. Reynolds and this Republican Legislature’s extreme right-wing agenda, which has reduced access to health care, underfunded our schools, and put out-of-state corporations over local investment. We need to put people first in our state again.”