Robert A. Krause (born January 15, 1950) is currently president of the Veterans National Recovery Center, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. He is a former State Representative from Iowa, and served in the

Iowa General Assembly The Iowa General Assembly is the legislative branch of the state government of Iowa. Like the federal United States Congress, the General Assembly is a bicameral body, composed of the upper house Iowa Senate and the lower Iowa House of Repre ...

from 1973 until 1979. He also served as Regional Representative for the US Secretary of Transportation during the Carter Administration, as past Chair of the Iowa Democratic Veterans Caucus and as past president of the

Reserve Officers Association The ROA (d/b/a Reserve Organization of America) is a professional association of commissioned officers, non-commissioned officers, former officers, enlisted and spouses of the uniformed services of the United States, primarily with the Reserv ...

, Department of Iowa. He also served on the Waterloo (IA) school board.

Early life and education

He was raised on a

family farm A family farm is generally understood to be a farm owned and/or operated by a family. It is sometimes considered to be an Estate (land), estate passed down by inheritance. Although a recurring conceptual model, conceptual and archetype, archet ...

in rural northwest Iowa, Krause graduated in 1968 from Sentral Community School District of Fenton, Iowa. He was active in

4-H 4-H is a U.S.-based network of youth organizations whose mission is "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development". Its name is a reference to the occurrence of the initial letter H four times ...

, church, athletics and

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of the

student newspaper A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station Graduate student journal, produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related new ...

. Krause attended the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

financing his education with a combination of work, scholarships and loans. He graduated in 1972 with a B.A. degree in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

. He was a member of

ROTC The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC; or ) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. While ROTC graduate officers serve in all branches o ...

and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Reserve in the summer of 1972. Krause also served in the student senate and was president of University Democrats. During summer breaks, he worked as a construction and railroad laborer. He also worked two summers for the Robert D. Fulton for Governor campaign the

Iowa Democratic Party The Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) is the affiliate of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Iowa. The party organizes the Democratic Iowa caucuses, Iowa presidential caucuses. In recent years, the party has l ...

Politics

Krause ran for state representative to the

and served six years in the

Iowa House of Representatives The Iowa House of Representatives is the lower house of the Iowa General Assembly, the upper house being the Iowa Senate. There are 100 seats in the Iowa House of Representatives, representing 100 single-member districts across the state, formed ...

. Krause's was appointed as Assistant House Minority Whip in his first term. In this capacity, he helped pass Iowa's collective bargaining for public employees law. As Chair of the House Transportation Committee for four years, he was assisted in the passage of legislation that allowed for the establishment of the coordinated regional transit systems throughout Iowa, which became a national model of the Federal Transit Administration. He also crafted a restructuring of Iowa's road system that included Iowa's first

ethanol Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...

exemption when passed, which became the basis for Iowa's ethanol industry. Because of these efforts and others, the

Des Moines Register ''The Des Moines Register'' is the daily morning newspaper of Des Moines, Iowa, United States. History Early period The first newspaper in Des Moines was the ''Iowa Star''. In July 1849, Barlow Granger began the paper in an abandoned log cab ...

in 1978 honored him as one of the "Top 10 Most Effective Iowa Legislators." Krause left the House that year to run for

Treasurer A treasurer is a person responsible for the financial operations of a government, business, or other organization. Government The treasury of a country is the department responsible for the country's economy, finance and revenue. The treasure ...

of the State of Iowa. Although he lost, he ran 5 points ahead of the top of the ticket. After a brief stint for

Land O'Lakes Land O'Lakes, Inc. is an American member-owned agricultural cooperative based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb of Arden Hills, Minnesota, United States, focusing on the dairy industry. The cooperative has 1,959 direct producer-members, 751 ...

as transportation manager for the Agricultural Services Group, Bob left to become Regional Representative for the Secretary of Transportation in 1979. In this capacity, he was ranking department official for Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska, and he was administration spokesperson in the field for federal policy.

Post political career

After the Carter administration, Krause taught in the business school at

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...

then joined the staff of the

Council of State Governments The Council of State Governments (CSG) is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization in the United States that serves all three branches of state government. Founded in 1933 by Colorado state senator Henry W. Toll, CSG is a region-based forum t ...

, the national association for state government officials. There he ran a think-tank on transportation policy, writing five books and staffing several national policy task forces on transportation matters. He left that position for an intergovernmental affairs position with

Palm Beach County Palm Beach County is a county in the southeastern part of Florida, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's third-most populous county after Miami-Dade County and Broward County and the 24th-most populous in the United States, wi ...

, Fla., but subsequently returned to Iowa for family reasons. Upon his return Krause then served as transit director for the Iowa Northland Council of Governments before joining the Iowa Department of Transportation in 1986. He served as a district planner then served as planning and coordination manager for the Public Transit Division. He also managed Iowa's Rural and Large Urban Public Transit Intelligent Transportation System. He retired in 2008 from the Iowa DOT with 20 years of state government service, and served briefly as an advisor to the government of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on transportation policy matters. From there he returned to Iowa to take a position with VSE Corporation, a small defense contractor. In that role, Krause concerned himself with the readiness of weapons and equipment for a five state Army Reserve command. He left that position in early 2015.

2010 U.S. Senate election

Krause was a candidate for

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

from

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

in the 2010

election in Iowa. He lost the Democratic party primary to Roxanne Conlin who later lost in the Senate election against Charles Grassley. On Veterans Day, November 11, 2014, Krause again announced his intention to form an exploratory committee for a possible run against incumbent Senator from Iowa Charles Grassley.

2022 U.S. Senate election

In October 2021, Krause announced that he would be seeking the Democratic Party nomination for the 2022 United States Senate race.

Awards

Krause was recognized for his public service by having a locomotive named "Robert A. Krause" by the

Rock Island Railroad The original Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P RW, sometimes called ''Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway'') was an American Class I railroad. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock. At ...

in honor of his work on transportation issues. He was honored by the Secretary of Transportation for his efforts to pass railroad deregulation, which had been one of the Carter Administration's top priorities.

References

External links

Krause For Iowa's Future
''official campaign website''
Bob Krause
news coverage from ''The Iowa Independent''
Hansen: Grassley opponents think time is right
Marc Hansen, ''

'', August 16, 2009 * IowaPolitics.com, July 23, 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Krause, Bob 1950 births Iowa State University faculty Living people Democratic Party members of the Iowa House of Representatives People from Jefferson County, Iowa People from Algona, Iowa United States Army officers United States Army reservists United States Department of Transportation officials University of Iowa alumni Military personnel from Iowa 20th-century members of the Iowa General Assembly