DES MOINES, Iowa — Sen. Chris Cournoyer of Iowa will be Iowa’s next lieutenant governor, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Monday at the Iowa State Capitol.
“She’s someone that Iowans can trust to serve as governor if I were ever unable to,” he said. “I have complete confidence in her character, her judgement and her ability.”
It was 2018 when Cournoyer was voted to the Iowa Senate. There, she led the Education Budget Committee and was vice chair of the State Government Committee.
Before becoming a senator in Iowa, Cournoyer earned a degree in computer science from the University of Texas and worked as a freelance web designer. Cournoyer is also a substitute teacher and used to be head of the Pleasant Valley School Board.
“Whether I’m programming software in the private sector or in a classroom with students or in a committee room crafting legislation, I’m there to do a job,” she said Monday. “The same is true in the role I’m taking today, which involves advancing the governor’s agenda in any way I possibly can.”
Reynolds praised Cournoyer’s long list of accomplishments and her dedication to new ideas.
“It’s exciting to think about all of the ways that we can utilize Chris’ experience in her new role,” said Reynolds. “Here’s a working mother who has known the joys and challenges of raising children while being in the workforce and owning a business, a computer science major who was thinking about optimizing computers for user experience in the late 90s, and a woman who then went on to drive innovation her entire working life.”
Reynolds also talked about Cournoyer’s work as a senator and school board member, calling her a “doer.”
“Her first instinct isn’t just to wonder why something isn’t working right or to complain, it’s actually to get in there and fix the problem herself,” said Reynolds. “She takes responsibility, she gets her hands dirty and she does the work.”
After Reynolds made her announcement, Cournoyer was sworn in right away by Susan Christensen, chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court.
“I never planned on entering public office, let alone imagined that I would ever be second in line to Iowa’s succession,” she shared. “In other words, this is a humbling responsibility for me, and Iowans can be confident that I will always approach it with the seriousness that it deserves.”
The former Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg quit in September to spend more time with his family, and Cournoyer took over his job.
Gregg was Reynolds’s choice for lieutenant governor in 2017 and held the job for more than six years. Reynolds and Gregg won two full terms together, in 2018 and 2022.
Iowa law says that if there isn’t a lieutenant governor, the governor in office must choose someone to fill the position for the rest of the time. People who want to vote for Reynolds again in 2026 will probably also be able to vote for Cournoyer if she decides to do so.
To fill Cournoyer’s Senate place, a special election has not yet been set.
