Lang
12/17/22
Former Iowa City mayor Ross Wilburn has resigned from his position as chair of the Iowa Democratic Party.
Wilburn made the announcement Saturday, writing “it is time to pass the torch”. Since Wilburn took over party leadership, Iowa Republicans swept the 2022 Congressional races and took over a supermajority in the state Legislature, and the Democrats lost their first-in-the-nation caucus status.
Wilburn was named chair after earning 64.6% of the vote from the Iowa Democratic Party leadership committee in January of 2021. The first black mayor in Iowa City’s history, Wilburn also became the first black person to lead a major political party in Iowa.
Wilburn sat on the Iowa City city council from 2000-2011 and served as mayor from 2006-2007. He moved to Ames in 2014 after taking a job as the diversity officer and an associate program director for the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach economic development team.
Wilburn replaced Troy Price as Democratic chair. Price resigned after the 2020 Iowa Caucus debacle in tabulating results.
Wilburn finished sixth in the race for the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nomination. He ran successfully in a special 2019 election for House District 46, which covers northwest Ames.
Elections for a new chair will be held on January 28th.