Ruth Harkin had many adventures and her own professional successes before she was known as the wife of former Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. She shares these stories in her new memoir, When My Husband Ran for President and other Short Stories.
A trailblazer
Though it was Tom Harkin who would serve at the national level, Ruth Harkin was the first elected to public office.
In 1972, the Democratic Chair of Story County approached her about running as county attorney.
“I had a job with Polk County Legal Aid, and I was going to work there. And so I said, ‘I have another job, and I haven't even taken the Iowa bar.’ And she said, ‘Oh my goodness, do not worry about that. You are not going to win this race. You're just putting your name in place. You will absolutely never win because Story County has never elected a Democrat or a woman to this job.’ And I won.”
Just like that, Harkin was the only female county attorney in all of Iowa’s 99 counties, and she took it upon herself to elevate other women in the profession.
“I thought, I just can't remain the only woman that's a prosecutor here. I have to help other women think of becoming prosecutors,” she said. “And I had the ability to hire interns — as we all did as county attorneys — and I remember one time a male law student said to me, ‘I really want to apply to be your intern, but I hear you only hire women.’ And I said, ‘You know what? I only hire women, that is absolutely true, because if I don't hire women, who will?’”
She also allowed mothers to work part-time to allow for their professional career to grow along with their family.
“There were no part-time lawyers in any of the General Counsel's office of the U.S. government at that time. And so I got a call one day from the General Counsel in the vice president's office, and he said, ‘Hey, I hear you're hiring women to work part time?’ And I said, yes. And I told him why — that women wanted to remain working their jobs, but they couldn't deal with having children, traffic and everything else full time, and this was a way they could stay in the workforce. And he said, ‘Well, no one else is doing this.’ And I said, ‘Well, it's not illegal, is it?’ And he said, ‘Well, no.’ And I said, ‘Good, I'll keep doing it.’”
A life of adventure
In a Talk of Iowa interview with Charity Nebbe, Harkin said she started collecting these stories to share with her daughters and grandchildren.
“I wanted them to think that life is really an adventure and that you should keep seeking out new things and trying new things,” she said. “And that you shouldn't be afraid of going down a path that hasn't been traveled before, and if you find your life boring, then maybe you need to start thinking about doing something else, because it can be very exciting.”
To illustrate her point, Harkin shared that when she was trying to decide what to do after college, aiming for something that would get her out of Minnesota, she volunteered, on a whim, to go to Korea. She ran a service club for a brigade of 2,500 men near a demilitarized zone.
In the spring of 1967, she took a trip to Japan from Korea. Walking down the street in Tokyo eating cotton candy, she heard a familiar midwestern accent ask, “Say, can I have a bite of that cotton candy?”
That Midwesterner was Tom Harkin. In a story titled, “Welcome to Dreamland,” she said the two went to dinner and bantered about Iowa, Minnesota and politics.
Another adventure early in her marriage to Sen. Harkin was a spontaneous trip over winter break, while they were attending law school together.
“We were working full-time jobs during the day, and we were going to law school at night, and it was right after Christmas, and our goal was to study over the holidays — when we both had about ten days off — and to get ready for our finals. And we're sitting at the kitchen table in our one-bedroom apartment, and we're saying, let's take the first flight south.”
They flew to Miami, Fla., and then — realizing they didn’t have enough money to find a place to stay in Miami — ventured further to the Bahamas, with just the paycheck Ruth happened to have on her.
Reflections on politics
The story referenced in the title of her memoir – When My Husband Ran for President and Other Short Stories – is about Sen. Harkin’s presidential bid in 1992. Though he dropped out in March of the election year, Ruth Harkin took lessons from her brief time on the campaign trial.
“It was really an appreciation about how wonderful people are, and that you meet supporters all over and they're willing to do just anything for you,” she said. “And I remember in New Hampshire, there was a big supporter of Tom's, and he always said when Tom came to New Hampshire, ‘Give me your dirty, dirty laundry. I'll wash your clothes for you while you're out campaigning.’”
Harkin said the race was exhilarating, but it was also challenging to navigate the highs and lows, so candidates and their families had to be stable to manage it.
“One of my daughters said to Tom, ‘I'm so glad you're getting out of this race, I've had it.’ She was in grade school, you know?”
Harkin will be bringing her humor and political reflections to several readings promoting the memoir. Harkin is reading at the Iowa City Public Library at 6 p.m on Wednesday, Sept. 11. She will be at the West Des Moines Public Library on Thursday Sept. 26 at 6:30 p.m.
To hear this conversation, listen to Talk of Iowa, hosted by Charity Nebbe. Caitlin Troutman produced this episode.
