Governor Chet Culver has spent his entire adult life teaching, coaching and helping make Iowa a better place to live, work, and raise a family.
A graduate of Virginia Tech, Chet Culver began his career as an environmental and consumer advocate in the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. After receiving his Master of Arts in Teaching at Drake University in 1994, he taught government and history at Roosevelt High School and Hoover High School in Des Moines, where he also coached football and basketball.
In 1998, Chet was elected as Iowa’s 29th Secretary of State and the youngest Secretary of State in the nation, and he was re-elected in 2002. As Secretary of State, Chet created the Iowa Student Political Awareness Club (ISPAC), a nonpartisan statewide student organization dedicated to increasing civic and community participation among Iowa’s young people. He also streamlined Iowa’s voting process, making it easier for people to vote, and expanded access to polling places for persons with disabilities.
In 2006 Chet Culver was elected Governor of the state of Iowa. As Governor, Culver managed the state through the worst flood in Iowa history and a worldwide recession, without raising taxes. While balancing four budgets, he increased the minimum wage, increased teacher salaries to the national average and expanded health care for uninsured Iowa children. In addition, Chet invested millions in new jobs, new roads, new bridges, renewable energy and flood prevention, and at the same time protected Iowa’s cash reserves and improved Iowa’s bond rating to Triple-A. The Governor also helped attract new industries like IBM and Google to the state and led the way to Iowa becoming a national leader in wind and alternative energy.
As Governor of Iowa, Governor Culver’s signature accomplishments resulted from the creation of the Iowa Office of Energy Independence and the Iowa Power Fund. Since its creation, the Iowa Power Fund has invested more than $65,000,000 in 40 Iowa renewable energy research and development and early-stage commercialization projects. Iowa’s focus on all forms of renewable energy, including wind energy, biomass, algae-based fuel and feed stock, dry distilled grains, and energy efficiency innovations made Iowa the renewable energy capital of the United States.
Under Governor Culver’s leadership, Iowa now produces nearly 20 percent of all of its energy needs from renewable sources. The state’s investment in its energy future has leveraged more than $575,000,000 in additional investments in these projects. Iowa Power Fund dollars are now helping secure America’s energy future, transforming Iowa’s alternative fuels economy into an integrated corn-to-ethanol and cellulose-to-ethanol biorefinery network. In addition, these contributions will help develop more cost-competitive forms of solar energy to spur economic development and create jobs across the United States.
As a result, Iowa has a strong business climate and one of the fastest growing economies of any state.
Governor Culver has served the National Governors Association as Chairman of both the Governors Wind Energy Coalition and Governors Biofuels Coalition. He was also elected as the Federal Liaison to the U.S. Congress by the Democratic Governors Association, and served as a member of the Democratic Governors Executive Committee. Most recently, Governor Culver was appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the US Senate to serve on the Farmer Mac Board of Directors.
Governor Chet Culver is currently Founder of the Chet Culver Group, a renewable energy and infrastructure consultancy that works with individuals and public and private sector entities to provide strategic consulting, cut through red tape and promote cutting-edge ideas that will move the country forward.
Chet and his wife, Mari, live with their two young children, Clare Honour and John William, in West Des Moines, IA. Chet enjoys coaching his son’s 5th grade football team and is very active with his daughter’s youth swim club.
