After decades of public service, Iowa Sen. Janice Weiner is pointing to her past positions as stepping blocks preparing her to lead Iowa Senate Democrats. Growing up in Coralville, Weiner was raised in a politically active household and was inspired by her parents to enter into politics.
“My mom always used to say, ‘These are our employees in Washington or our employees in Des Moines,’ and that’s how I look at myself, to be honest, because we are all public servants,” the Democrat representing Iowa City said.
Weiner said she was motivated to run for minority leader because public service, “as corny as it sounds,” is in her blood.
“That’s really what motivated me to run, because I could see things that needed to be done, or I thought needed to be done or improved in the community,” Weiner said. “I thought that I might be a voice who could work with others to get some of those things done.”
Entering a Republican trifecta and a shrunken Democrat minority, Weiner said her goal for the session is to work with her caucus as well as extending to colleagues across the aisle.
Weiner said her experiences built foundations to each step in her career — from organizing campaigns to serving as a diplomat, local government, the state Senate, and now leading Iowa Senate Democrats.
House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst said she is thrilled to work with leader Weiner and looks forward to working together to raise awareness and hold Republicans accountable.
“I’ve gotten to know Senator Weiner over her time here at the Capitol and have found her to be really smart, very focused, and always put the needs of constituents first, which is what you need in a governing partner,” Konfrst said.
Weiner replaced Sen. Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, who served as minority leader since June 2023. After decades in office, Jochum retired from the legislature and did not seek reelection in 2024.
Before being elected to the Iowa Senate in 2022, Weiner worked as a political officer for the Foreign Service in the U.S. State Department, served on the Iowa City City Council, and worked as Johnson County’s Iowa Democratic Party organizer. She is raising her 7-year-old granddaughter.
Outside of the legislature, Weiner served as the board president of the Congregation Agudas Achim synagogue and is the former executive director of the Council for International Visitors to Iowa Cities. She was involved with synagogue government for seven years.
“I’m the first Jew in the Senate in almost 30 years,” Weiner said. “I think that’s another very useful capacity that I bring a little bit of a different perspective.”
Weiner speaks Turkish, Polish, Danish, Dutch, and considers French, German, and Turkish to be her best languages.
A career of service
Weiner graduated from Iowa City’s West High School. She received her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and later went on to earn her law degree from Stanford University Law School. She credits ICCSD for her academic success.
After graduation, Weiner was hired by the Iowa Democratic Party as a party organizer in 1984, and she was the only organizer in Johnson County. Weiner and her father worked to modernize the county’s system. At the time, the system used to outline door knocking routes, recruit volunteers, and assign poll watchers was operated by hand.
Using a computer program her father wrote, Weiner was able to cut back on time, using the program to assign walking routes and print information for each volunteer. Weiner said this was the first time the system was computerized.
Then, Weiner had a fellowship in the Foreign Service as a political officer. In this position, she spent time in different countries getting to know the country’s full spectrum of political parties as well as outside actors, such as journalists, academics, and union labor representatives to understand how policy was made and how the country was likely to act.
“To my mind, it was really building a skill set as to how to literally talk to anybody across the political spectrum,” Weiner said. “Non-judgmental, it didn’t matter at that point, whether I liked it or not, I needed to understand them. I think that translates really well into what we need to do in politics today.”
While in the Foreign Service, Weiner ran a consulate general in Dusseldorf, Germany, ran the political section in Ankara, Turkey, and ran the press section in Mexico City.
“I gained both the capacity to deal with a lot of people in my host country, to learn quickly, and to come into a situation knowing very consciously that I didn’t know everything,” Weiner said.
Weiner retired from the Foreign Service after 26 years of service and returned to the Iowa City area in 2015. She became involved at the grassroots level as an organizer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.
Weiner was in charge of making calls, finding volunteers, knocking doors, and preparing for the election. She said most organizers are in their twenties, and working with younger people created an ecosystem that would not have developed otherwise.
After the 2016 election was over, Weiner ran for Iowa City’s school board. At that point in her life, Weiner said she didn’t have any idea if she ever wanted to run for office.
She was not elected to the school board, but she views her attempt as her “first toe in the water.”
Starting local
Weiner went on to run for Iowa City City Council in 2019 and was elected in 2020. She entered the council during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and during the Black Lives Matter movement.
Iowa City City Councilor Megan Alter, who served on the council with Weiner, said Weiner worked day and night during the George Floyd protests, creating the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as an advisory board aimed to address systemic racism in Iowa City.
Weiner and Alter worked together on the council to provide more affordable housing in Iowa City. Alter said Weiner approached issues with an informed perspective but was also open to hearing other people’s perspectives.
“I loved that she would incorporate feedback into her way of thinking,” Alter said. “Even if her position did not change, she truly listened to understand.”
Alter said Weiner’s willingness and ability to listen makes her effective in leadership positions, and she anticipates Weiner will be incredibly transparent and communicative as minority leader.
“Janice is also so thoughtful, and that I think what’s going to be really exciting about her in this position is that she’s going to provide more information on a regular basis, and I think that that kind of transparency and clarity is going to be really useful,” Alter said.
Mayor Pro-Tem Mazahir Salih also worked with Weiner on city council, and she said Weiner always tries to understand different cultures and respects them.
Salih said Weiner always sent something to her on Muslim holidays and was the only councilor to do so.
Weiner served on the council for three years before running for the Iowa Senate. Weiner said she is grateful for her time on city council, as she learned the nuts and bolts of how cities and counties work.
Rise to leadership
Weiner originally ran for an open seat in District 37 of the Iowa Senate in 2018, but she lost the primary to Zach Wahls. She began campaigning for a state senate seat in District 45 in November 2021 and was elected in 2022.
She served as an Iowa senator from 2022 to 2024 before being elected to lead the senate minority.
Iowa Rep. Elinor Levin, D-Iowa City, said she has a strong working relationship with Weiner, and Weiner’s experience in local government and in the Foreign Service give her a wide variety of expertise.
“She’s a great collaborator, she is a great listener, and she’s somebody who brings a lot of compassion, which is a real priority for me, to her work,” Levin said. “I was really excited to see her step into that leadership role.”
Levin said for someone who has lived a very strong life of service, Weiner is also someone who enjoys the arts. The pair exchange book recommendations, Levin said, as Weiner has a diverse set of interests.
Levin said Weiner will be proactive rather than passive and will stand for a strong future for all Iowans.
For the 2025 legislative session, Weiner outlined plans to expand pre-K, emphasizing the need for a full academic day for three and four-year-olds to attend pre-K. She highlighted the importance of early education and said three to four hours doesn’t work for parents who work full time.
During her annual Condition of the State address last week, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced a pilot program for child care workers statewide. Within the program, local community members are invited to donate to a fund to raise wages for child care workers without raising fees for the families.
The governor also plans to transition child care centers to residential property tax rates and provide grants that allow preschool students to attend school for full days rather than half.
Weiner also plans to “get opioid settlement money out the door,” referring to the $345 million from the Iowa Attorney General office’s 2022 settlement intended to abate the opioid crisis in the state through treatment and prevention.
“That’s been a personal passion of mine,” Weiner said. “It’s very frustrating that it didn’t make it out at the legislature two years in a row.”
Leader Konfrst said her and Weiner are laser-focused and “lockstep” on lowering costs for Iowa families.
Konfrst said the pair will ensure constituents are aware of what’s happening in their state government by prioritizing communication so the legislative process occurs openly.
“She and I both share a vision of transparency and good government, and I think that together we can work to really start to bring some balance back to the Capitol,” Konfrst said.