Terry Edward Branstad (born November 17, 1946) is an American politician who is the 42nd and current governor of Iowa since January 2011. Branstad was the 39th governor of Iowa from 1983 to 1999 and President of Des Moines University from 2003 to 2009. He is a member of the Republican Party. He is the youngest and longest-serving governor in Iowa’s history. In 2010, he prevailed in a three-way primary and won the Republican nomination to run agai...
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Terry Edward Branstad (born November 17, 1946) is an American politician who is the 42nd and current governor of Iowa since January 2011. Branstad was the 39th governor of Iowa from 1983 to 1999 and President of Des Moines University from 2003 to 2009. He is a member of the Republican Party. He is the youngest and longest-serving governor in Iowa’s history. In 2010, he prevailed in a three-way primary and won the Republican nomination to run again for governor. He faced incumbent Governor Chet Culver, a Democrat and four third party candidates on November 2, 2010. He won the general election in November, defeating Democratic incumbent Chet Culver by a 52.9% to 43.1% margin.
Branstad entered the 2010 race as the front runner for both the primary and general elections. Independent polling in 2009 indicated that his approval ratings hovered in the 70% range. He was widely seen as the front runner for the Republican nomination and had wide leads in aggregate polling against Culver. He won...
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