Dates

• Existence: 1943 -

Biography

Patty Judge was born Patty Jean Poole in Fort Madison, Iowa on November 2, 1943. She as raised in Albia, Iowa, graduated from Albia High School, and received a nursing degree from the Iowa Methodist School of Nursing. After working in public health for a time, Judge became a real estate broker specializing in farm sales and appraisals, which led her to serve as a mediator for the Iowa Farmer Creditor Mediation Service during the Farm Crisis of the 1980s. Judge and her husband owned a cow-calf farm in Monroe County as well. In 1992, Patty Judge was elected state senator for District 46, serving Clark, Lucas, Monroe, Wayne, Appanoose, and Davis counties. A member of the Democratic party, Judge served as assistant majority (later minority) leader and as ranking member of the Agriculture committee. In 1998, Judge was elected Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, the first woman to serve in that role; her husband, John Judge, won her former seat the Iowa Senate and served out the remainder of her second term (1999-2001). In 2006, Judge ran for governor, but dropped out to become Chet Culver's lieutenant governor. In 2016, she won the Democratic primary and opposed Chuck Grassley's bid for reelection to the U.S. Senate, but was defeated.

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