Patty Judge

Early career

As a registered nurse Judge has worked in public health. She developed the first in-service education program and first utilization review program for the Monroe County Hospital.

With her interest in economic development she was prompted to earn a real estate broker's license and set up a small business specializing in the selling and appraising of farms. She also bought her parents' real estate business. Judge won 13,269 votes against Arnold's 12,009 votes. against Claude Neill, a Republican from Clio, Iowa, and was re-elected, winning 14,155 votes against Neill's 8,996 votes. She ran against Dan Brown of the Republican Party, Edward L. Peak of the Reform Party, Samuel James of the Natural Law Party and Ronald Tigner as a write in candidate. She ran against John Askew of the Republican Party, Brian Russell Depew of the Iowa Green Party, Fritz Groszkruger of the Libertarian Party and Ronald Tigner as a return write in candidate. Judge brought to the office a strong background in production agriculture, personnel management, finance, and the management of state government.

Iowa Lieutenant Governor

On February 15, 2006, Judge stepped down as a candidate for Governor of Iowa, announced her endorsement of Iowa Secretary of State Chet Culver for the office, and became his running mate as lieutenant governor. On November 7, 2006, she was elected Lieutenant Governor of Iowa with a vote of 569,021. Culver and Judge won 484798 to Branstad's and Reynolds' 592,494 votes.

Co-chair of America's Renewable Future

In 2015, Judge was appointed the co-chair of a new bipartisan PAC called America's Renewable Future, whose sole purpose is to make candidates visiting Iowa aware of the need for the Renewable Fuel Standard. Judge has since met with many potential candidates to show them the importance of the RFS. Judge will continue to serve in this role throughout the 2016 election cycle.

2016 U.S. Senate election

On March 4, 2016, she announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate. She stated that her reason to run for the seat was "primarily in response to the rejection of hearings for the Supreme Court nominee". Specifically, Grassley's refusal to give Merrick Garland a hearing. The New York Times deemed her a "formidable challenger" to Grassley.

She lost the general election to Republican incumbent Chuck Grassley by a 24.4% margin, a 375,000 vote loss.

Personal life

Judge is a lifelong resident of southern Iowa and was raised in Albia, Iowa. She and her husband John have owned a cow-calf farm in Monroe County for thirty-five years. They have three sons, Joseph, Douglas and W. Dien, and five grandchildren. Joe won the primary, uncontested, receiving 504 out of 603 votes.

On August 24, 2013, Judge was named to the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame.

Electoral history