Angel Ramirez (politician)
American politician
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Angelina Ramirez is an American politician and member of the Iowa House of Representatives. A member of the Democratic Party, she has represented the 78th district since May 2025.[1]
Angel Ramirez | |
|---|---|
Official portrait, 2025 | |
| Member of the Iowa House of Representatives from the 78th district | |
| Assumed office May 13, 2025 | |
| Preceded by | Sami Scheetz |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1999 or 2000 (age 26–27) |
| Party | Democratic Party |
| Alma mater | Coe College |
Early life and education
Ramirez is from California and Arizona and is the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants.[2][3] Her father is Chicano and her mother is white.[3] She moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to study at Coe College.[4][5] She has bachelor's degrees in political science and social and criminal justice.[2][4] She was a first-generation college graduate.[2][6] After graduating she made Cedar Rapids her home.[7][8]
Career
Ramirez is co-founder and executive director for Our Future, a non-profit fellowship program for emerging leaders in the Cedar Rapids region.[9][10] Ramirez became a prominent social and racial justice advocate in Cedar Rapids following the murder of George Floyd by police officers in May 2020.[2][3] She is president of the board of Advocates for Social Justice, an equity-advocacy group and a peace facilitator at the Kids First Law Center, working with students at Metro High School and McKinley STEAM Academy.[7][10]
Ramirez was a legislative aide to state senator Rob Hogg and worked on Cory Booker's 2020 presidential campaign.[7]
Iowa House of Representatives
Following the resignation of Representative Sami Scheetz on April 1, 2025, Ramirez was amongst four people seeking the Democratic Party nomination for the special election.[10] She was selected as the party's candidate at the nomination convention for Democrats in Linn County.[10][11] She was endorsed by Scheetz, Hogg, state senator Liz Bennett and several labor organizations including the Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, Hawkeye Area Labor Council and the Iowa State Education Association.[2][4] She was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives at the special election held on April 29, 2025, receiving 79% of votes.[12][13] She became the first Latina to be elected to the Iowa General Assembly.[2][5][14] She will serve-out Scheetz's term which expires at the end of 2026.[7] Ramirez has indicated that she will seek re-election at the November 2026 general election.[7]
| Election | Political result | Candidate | Party | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 Iowa House of Representatives Special Election [15] District 73 Turnout: 3,475 | Democratic | Angel Ramirez | Democratic | 2,747 | |||
| Bernie Hayes | Republican | 721 | |||||