Position Sought
Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors
Current Position
Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors
Party Affiliation
Democrat
Location
Waterloo, Iowa
Date of General Election
November 5, 2024
General Election Donation Limit
None
Race/Ethnicity
White/Caucasian
Gender Identity
Cisgender Man
Sexual Orientation
Queer
Pronouns
He/Him/His
Connect with Christopher Schwartz
Chris was the first out gay man to hold countywide office in Iowa!
Biography
Chris Schwartz was born and raised in Dubuque where his parents still live in his childhood home on the cities working-class north end. Schwartz first became involved in social movements when at the age of 11 he joined efforts to protest a series of cross-burnings that had terrorized his neighborhood. Schwartz moved to the Cedar Valley at the age of 18 to attend the University of Northern Iowa as a music education and jazz studies major with the upright and electric bass as his principle instrument. However, following the 2000 election debacle Chris felt that the country had become dangerously complacent and nothing would change unless different types of people went into politics.
His focus quickly changed to politics and community organizing, Chris started a served in the leadership of several progressive advocacy organizations while a student at UNI. In 2006 Schwartz was hired by Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) to be their Iowa organizer, and later their state director. ADA, the nation’s oldest progressive advocacy organization, has allowed Schwartz to continue his work on several social, economic, and environmental causes.
Schwartz was first elected to the Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors in 2016, becoming the first out LGBTQ+ elected official to hold office in Northeast Iowa. Schwartz has led several
victories on workers rights, renewable energy, open government, and equality. Schwartz serves on the board of directors of a number of local, and state-wide non-profits including Cedar Valley Pridefest, The Northeast Iowa Food Bank, The Middle Cedar River Watershed Management Authority, The Upper Cedar River Watershed Management Authority, The Black Hawk Creek Soil and Watershed Coalition, Operation Threshold, The Waterloo Warming Shelter, The Friends of Iowa CASA, The Iowa Citizen Action Network, The Black Hawk County Alternative Energy Committee, The Cedar Valley CRUSH Coalition on Opioids, The Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, and the Northland Area (hazmat) Response Group.
In December of 2021 Schwartz tragically lost his husband, activist Logun Buckley to suicide. The two were know as Iowa’s queer social justice power couple. Schwartz now honors Logun’s legacy by continuing their work and speaking out about mental health and LGBTQ suicide.
Schwartz lives in Waterloo Iowa and enjoys hosting events in his historic home for non-profits and political candidates, entertaining guest for large parties, showing off his garden on public tours. He is also an active musician and plays bass, theremin, linnstrament, and synthesizers in his queer led rock band, The Harmony Electric.