Jeff Kurtz

Jeff Kurtz (born 1954) is an American politician and retired locomotive engineer who represented the 83rd district of the Iowa House of Representatives from 2019 to 2021, which at the time consisted of parts of southern Lee County, including all of Fort Madison and Keokuk. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Early life Kurtz was born in 1954 in Fort Madison, Iowa. He graduated from Aquinas High School in 1972. He attended Southeastern Community College and Iowa State University. He joined the Santa Fe Railroad as a fireman in 1974. He won the Democratic primaries on June 5, 2018, with over 56 percent of the vote, and defeated Republican Jeff Reichman in the general election on November 6 by over 800 votes. He was subsequently appointed to the Labor, Public Safety, Transportation, and Ways and Means committees.

Kurtz endorsed Bernie Sanders for president in 2019.

Kurtz ran for reelection in 2020 but lost to Republican Martin Graber by over 700 votes. turnout_votes = 1,633 result = winner = Jeff Kurtz winner_party = Iowa Democratic Party winner_votes = 923 winner_percent = 56.5 candidate2 = Bob Morawitz candidate2_party = Iowa Democratic Party candidate2_votes = 561 candidate2_percent = 34.4 candidate3 = Michael Hardy candidate3_party = Iowa Democratic Party candidate3_votes = 146 candidate3_percent = 8.9 candidate4 = Other/Write-in votes candidate4_party = candidate4_votes = 3 candidate4_percent = 0.2