Dates

• Existence: 1952-

Biography

David Wayne Loebsack was born December 23, 1952 in Sioux City, Iowa. He was raised by his single mother, Delores Fletcher; the family struggled financially, and Loebsack and his siblings later lived with their grandfather for several years. Loebsack graduated from East High School in Sioux City in 1970. He earned bachelors and masters degrees in political science from Iowa State University and a PhD from the University of California, Davis. He taught political science at Cornell College for 24 years. In 1998, he managed Dave Osterberg's unsuccessful campaign to unseat incumbent Republican senator Charles Grassley. In 2006, Loebsack won the Democratic nomination for Iowa's 2nd congressional district at a special convention called because no candidate had collected the number of signatures required for inclusion on the primary ballot. Loebsack then defeated 15-term Republican incumbent Jim Leach. Loebsack served seven terms in Congress, announcing in 2019 that he would not seek reelection in the 2020 cycle. After his congressional service, Loebsack became professor emeritus of political science at Cornell College.

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