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Des Moines · Mayor
The office · the city’s executive

Educational briefing on the Mayor of Des Moines, Iowa — council-manager capital, four years, next regular election 2027. Des Moines is the capital. Not Cedar Rapids. Not a Governor. Not a Sheriff.

2027 Election
All Mayors

Mayor — Des Moines

River night-run — educational cover (city-run action, American Future Type)

Des Moines Mayor · educational cover · city-run action · American Future Type

What this office is

The Mayor of Des Moines is elected at-large by the people of this city. Des Moines uses a council-manager-ward charter: voters elect a Mayor, two at-large Council members, and four ward Council members; a City Manager runs the day-to-day. That is a clock on this city, not a slight. The term is four years. The next regular Mayor election is 2027. Confirm the clock, and the Mayor of record, on official Des Moines sites. Do not invent a 2026 Mayor race for this city.

This is not the Governor. The Governor file lives at Governor of Iowa. This is not the Polk County Sheriff. Des Moines Police and Des Moines Fire are this city’s departments.

Des Moines is the capital of Iowa, at the Des Moines River and the Raccoon River, on the prairie. Cedar Rapids is not the capital. Davenport is not the capital. The gold dome, the river, and the neighborhoods that never make a lakeshore postcard hire the same Mayor. This is not a Great Lakes city. This city is the whole map.

This page is Side One. For this cycle, use the election twin.

Confirm the Mayor of record on dsm.city.

How the job fits this community

The inbox is a city inbox: a night shift on Grand, a fire run that is this hydrant, a river-flood minute, a lights-out block that is not a Governor file, and a ward minute that is not a county Sheriff’s docket.

Staff who only know the State Fair as the city, or only know the gold dome as the Mayor, are not doing the job. The gold dome is the state. The Mayor’s house is this city. West Des Moines is a different city. The prairie remains Des Moines.

What the job entails

  • Set policy with the Council. Not a Governor. Not the City Manager.
  • Police, fire, EMS as Des Moines’s departments.
  • Lights, streets, water the charter actually gives.
  • One home. This city.

Place snapshot (verify official sources)

  • City: Des Moines, Iowa · Office: Mayor
  • Form: Council-manager-ward
  • Next regular Mayor election: 2027
  • Always verify on dsm.city

What this is not

  • Not the Governor of Iowa. Not the Attorney General of Iowa.
  • Not the Polk County Sheriff.
  • Not the Mayor of Cedar Rapids. Not a 2026 Mayor race.
  • Not a campaign flyer.

Official doors

The arena: 2027 election — Mayor of Des Moines

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