Iowa House Democrats elected Rep. Brian Meyer of Des Moines to be the new House minority leader after Rep. Jennifer Konfrst announced Thursday that she was stepping down from her leadership post to run for Congress.
Meyer, 51, is an attorney who was first elected to the House in 2013 and is currently serving as minority whip.
In seeking the top leadership position, he said his pitch was that Democrats need to go to voters and focus on talking about “kitchen table” economic issues rather than social issues.
“People are living paycheck to paycheck,” Meyer said. “There’s no relief in sight, and we need to address these things moving forward as to how, as a caucus, we are going to say to Iowans, we are the better option when you go to vote in November of ‘26.”
Meyer will take over from Konfrst after the legislative session is over. The session has already gone past its target end date of May 2.
He will step into the role as Democrats have lost seats in the Iowa House for the past three election cycles. In 2024, Republicans gained a supermajority in the House with 67 members to Democrats’ 33 members.
Meyer said he plans to have a “decentralized” leadership style, and he wants to tap into the strengths of the other House Democrats.
He said he plans to be more aggressive about proposing amendments to the Republican majority’s bills.
“That is going to be new," Meyer said. "We are going to offer an alternative to what they are proposing on most of these big bills. And it’s going to be tax cuts for Iowans, but it’s going to be tax cuts for people that actually work.”
Meyer was born and raised in Dubuque. He went to the University of Northern Iowa and Drake University Law School, and he served in the Iowa National Guard. He was an assistant attorney general and served on the Des Moines City Council. He also worked as a Democratic staffer in the Iowa House before being elected to his current seat. Meyer is now an attorney at Hope Law Firm in Des Moines.
Konfrst, who is of Windsor Heights, was first elected to the Iowa House in 2018, and she became the House minority leader in June 2021. She said she intends to serve the rest of her term as a state representative while she campaigns to be the Democratic nominee for Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District.
“It’s been an honor to serve Iowans and my caucus as Iowa House Democratic Leader,” Konfrst said in a statement. “I’m excited for the new opportunities ahead to keep serving Iowans and look forward to working with Rep. Meyer through the transition when session adjourns.”
Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner congratulated House Democrats on the leadership election.
“I look forward to working closely with Leader Brian Meyer as our caucuses continue to work together to move Iowa forward and focus on lowering costs for all Iowans,” she said in an emailed statement. “I also want to express my gratitude to Rep. Konfrst for her years of service as House Democratic Leader.”
