Jim Leach, who represented eastern Iowa in Congress for 30 years and later went on to lead the National Endowment for the Humanities, died on Wednesday. He was 82 years old.
Even before he first ran for Congress in 1976, Leach demonstrated he was committed to upholding important principles rather than political or personal advancement. In 1973, a 31-year-old Leach ended his promising career in the United States Foreign Service by resigning to protest President Richard Nixon firing the attorney general and the special prosecutor investigating Watergate in an attempt to evade accountability for his actions. Leach and his family moved back to his hometown Davenport.
Three years later, Leach challenged two-term incumbent Democrat Edward Mezvinsky in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District and defeated him, winning 52 percent of the vote. He was reelected 14 times. After the district’s boundaries were redrawn following the 2000 census, Leach moved from Davenport to Iowa City.
In the 2006 midterm election, he was beaten by Democrat Dave Loebsack, 51 percent to 49.
“I wasn’t running against Jim Leach so much as I was running to change control in Washington D.C.,” Loebsack told the Des Moines Register on Wednesday after Leach’s death was announced.
Washington, and especially the Republican Party, changed during Leach’s 30 years in Congress. Starting in the late 1970s, Leach established himself as a leader of moderate Republicans. The influence of moderates in the party began its decline during the Reagan years, until it reached its current low in a party dominated by Donald Trump and his MAGA loyalists. But even as that change was happening, Leach remained a leader and moderating influence on a variety of issues, including foreign affairs, nuclear weapons policy and banking reform.
“We were fortunate to be able to work for several years on Jim’s Congressional staff,” Kris and Doug Siglin wrote on the Tribute Wall of Lensing Funeral and Cremation Service’s page for Leach. “Jim was exceptionally well read in history and made policy decisions on matters important to Iowa and the nation with a long historical perspective, often regardless of the short-term political cost. His thoughtfulness, integrity and civility epitomized the best in public service. His impact on us and many others was profound and lasting and we’re saddened by his passing.”
In 2002, Leach demonstrated his commitment to principle over party when he voted against the resolution authorizing the invasion of Iraq, despite enormous pressure from the George W. Bush administration and Republican leaders in the House and Senate.
“He was one of only six Republicans in the U.S. House at the time who voted against the Iraq War resolution,” Loebsack recalled on Wednesday. “That took a lot of courage and it was a thoughtful vote on his part.”
After his 2006 defeat, Leach became a visiting professor of public and international affairs at Princeton University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in 1964. Two years later, Leach made news by once again breaking with his party and endorsing Barack Obama for president.
“From my perspective, this is simply not a time for politics as usual,” Leach said at the time. “The case for inspiring, new political leadership and a social ethic has seldom been more self-evident.”
Leach was not just a vocal supporter of Obama, he was even a featured speaker at the 2008 Democratic National Convention for Obama.
In 2009, President Obama appointed Leach chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities. At the end of his four-year term, Leach returned to Iowa City as a visiting professor in the College of Law and the UI Chair in Public Affairs.
From January 2017 to April 2018, Leach served as interim director of the University of Iowa Museum of Art (now the Stanley Museum), as the museum was in its final stages of recovery from the 2008 flood and preparing to reopen in its new facility.
Leach had developed a keen interest in art in college, and his wife Deba is an art historian, who has written books on Grant Wood and Jacob Lawrence. Their support for the museum went well beyond Leach’s official role and their role in fundraising efforts.
“Jim and Deba have also donated more than 300 works of art to the museum, including works on paper by Robert Indiana, Oskar Kokoschka, Audrey Flack, and Jacob Lawrence, among many other notable artists,” Lauren Lessing, director of the UI Stanley Museum of Art, said.
As the Republican Party continued its rightward lurch in the years after he left Congress, culminating in displays of abject loyalty to Donald Trump, Leach found himself increasingly at odds with his party. In 2022, he endorsed Democrat Christina Bohannan over incumbent Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District and Mike Franken for Senate over his former congressional colleague Chuck Grassley.
“Today, the Republican Party that I spent so many years with has really let the country down,” Leach told the Quad City Times in an interview. “And we need to have a political party that operates in a way that both parties can participate. The Republican Party has just torn itself apart, and it’s got to pull itself together. I’ll lean toward the Democratic Party as long as excellent people are running.”
Leach went further in 2022 than he did when endorsed Obama in 2008. He changed his party registration from Republican to Democrat so he could vote in that year’s Democratic primary election.
Leach was particularly concerned about the failure of Republicans to hold Donald Trump accountable for the Jan. 6 insurrection and Trump’s other attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“We have an obligation to pull together and vote for anyone who has a moral capacity to lead in a credible way,” he said.
James Albert Smith Leach was born in Davenport on Oct. 15, 1942. He graduated from Davenport High School in 1960, and was a state champion wrestler in his senior year. He attend Princeton, where he studied politics. After graduating in 1964, he attended Johns Hopkins University, where he earned an MA in Soviet Area Studies before attending the London School of Economics for further study.
During his long career, Leach received numerous awards and honors for his public service, including the Congressional Award for Commitment to the Principles of the United Nations Charter, the Wayne Morris Award for Political Integrity and the Leadership Award from the Global AIDS Alliance. He was also inducted into both the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and the International Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Jim Leach is survived by his wife Deba, his son Gallagher, his daughter Jenny, and two grandchildren, Claire and Riley.
“A Celebration of Life for Leach will be held next spring. In lieu of flowers please consider a gift to the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights,” according to Lensing.
