serviceyears branch lieutenant predecessor allegiance mawards unit order alt term_start image article_title name
1969 -- 1971 united states army kim reynolds robert anderson chet culver united states army commendation medal 503rd military police battalion 39th and 42nd governor of iowa picture iowa of terry branstad as the 42nd governor of january 14 , 2011 terry branstad by gage skidmore.jpg terry branstad
 terry branstad
terry branstad

terry edward branstad -lrb- born november 17 , 1946 -rrb- is an american politician who is the 42nd governor of iowa , in office since january 2011 .
branstad was also the state 's 39th governor from 1983 to 1999 , and he was president of des moines university from 2003 to 2009 .
he is a member of the republican party .
branstad is the longest-serving governor in iowa history and based on his victory in the 2014 elections , he may become the longest serving governor in us history as well , should he complete a year and several days of his sixth term in office .
in his 2010 political comeback , branstad won a three-way primary election for the republican nomination to run for governor in the general election .
he faced incumbent governor chet culver , a democrat and four third party candidates on november 2 , 2010 .
he won the general election in november , defeating culver by 52.9 % to 43.1 % .
branstad entered the 2010 race as the front runner for both the primary and general elections .
independent polling in 2009 indicated that his approval ratings hovered in the 70 % range .
he was widely seen as the front runner for the republican nomination , and had wide leads in aggregate polling against the sitting governor , chet culver .
he won the republican primary with 50.4 % of the popular vote , 9.5 percentage points ahead of his nearest competitor .
in the election on november 4 , 2014 , branstad was elected to an unprecedented sixth four-year term as iowa governor , which may make him the longest-serving governor in u.s. history in 2016 -lrb- breaking the record held by george clinton of new york , who served 21 years from 1777 to 1795 , and from 1801 to 1804 -rrb- .
