CQPolitics

Squeezed between the state’s other four districts, the 3rd is Iowa’s only district not to border another state and is in some ways a microcosm of the Hawkeye state. It includes relatively well-off urban and suburban areas, as well as rural counties, industrial cities and scattered towns still yearning for economic development.

Almost two-thirds of the district’s residents live in Des Moines or surrounding Polk County. Unlike the rest of Iowa’s urban centers, the capital city is not dependent on agriculture and the economy is stable without it. The city is an anchor for insurance and financial companies. Some firms, such as Wells Fargo Financial, have headquarters in the city, and others have regional offices in the metropolitan area. A bustling health care industry complements the smaller, but significant, manufacturing industry. The city’s black and Hispanic residents help make the 3rd Iowa’s most minority-populated district, although whites still compose 90 percent of the district’s population.

Perhaps the only thing growing faster in Des Moines than its economy is its skyline. Opened in 2005, the Iowa Events Center — a four-venue, multipurpose complex under one interconnected roof — is already bolstering the area’s economy. The city’s three miles of skywalk allows residents to move quickly between new downtown developments, commercial centers and historical areas, such as East Village, where the state Capitol is located.

The rest of the 3rd takes on a more rural flavor, and no county outside of Polk has more than 40,000 residents. Although George W. Bush won a slight plurality of the 3rd’s vote in the 2004 presidential election, the influence of Des Moines and surrounding Polk County gives the 3rd its slight Democratic lean overall. Democrat Chet Culver took 54 percent of the district’s vote in the 2006 gubernatorial election.

Major Industry

Insurance, health care, manufacturing, government

Cities

Des Moines, 198,682; West Des Moines (pt.), 42,525; Urbandale (pt.), 28,745; Ankeny, 27,117; Newton, 15,579

Notable

Each year, more than one million tourists visit the Amana Colonies, seven villages originally settled in 1855 by the Community of True Inspiration.