Nate Willems

Nate Willems is lifelong Iowan and attorney who has dedicated his career to fighting for Iowa workers. In representing tens of thousands of Iowa workers, he hasn’t been afraid to take on corporations who have stolen wages, ignored workers’ rights, or injured workers on the job. Now, he’s running for Iowa Attorney General to continue fighting for the rights and safety of every Iowan.

Representing working families, Nate has witnessed firsthand how some corporations steal Iowans’ wages, force overtime work without pay, misclassify their work to cheat them out of benefits, and make it tougher for Iowa families to succeed. With prices soaring, Iowans can’t afford to have their hard-earned money stolen by big corporations. That’s why he has taken on greedy corporations for those Iowans and won.

He has secured historic victories, including recovering $15 million for 11,000 current and former hospital and clinic workers in Iowa, $1.7 million in backpay for custodians, and won the largest collective bargaining wage increase in Iowa history on behalf of local police officers in Carter Lake, among countless other victories across the state.

Nate was born and raised in Iowa, growing up in Anamosa where his father worked as a Main Street attorney and his mother was a public school teacher. Today, he’s proud to call Mount Vernon home where he lives with his wife Maggie, a local public school teacher and state champion-winning volleyball coach, and their three daughters.

Nate has always been driven toward public service and determined to make our state and community stronger. As the state’s largest law firm dedicated to serving the people, the Attorney General’s office has an opportunity to take on and solve serious challenges. As Attorney General, he will work with prosecutors and local law enforcement to secure convictions for violent crimes, improve consumer protections, and hold corporations accountable when they break the law.

Previously serving two terms in the Iowa House of Representatives from 2008 to 2012, Nate fought to ensure every Iowan could access a quality public education, find a good paying job, and passed key legislation to strengthen the rights of Iowa workers. Since 2010, he has been a full-time labor lawyer and partner at Rush & Nicholson, P.L.C., in Cedar Rapids, the state’s largest workers’ compensation firm.

In addition to his legal work, Nate and his family attend First Presbyterian Church in Mount Vernon, where he has previously served on the church session. He is also an executive board member of the Hawkeye Area Labor Council, AFL-CIO, and is a guest lecturer at the University of Iowa Labor Center.