Iowa is an alcohol monopoly or Alcoholic beverage control state.  

In Iowa, the term "political party" refers to political organizations which have received two percent or more of the votes cast for president or governor in the "last preceding general election".[102] Iowa recognizes two political parties – the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Third parties, officially termed "nonparty political organizations" can appear on the ballot as well – five of these have had candidates on the ballot in Iowa since 2004 for various positions: the Constitution Party, the Iowa Green Party, the Libertarian Party, the United States Pirate Party, and the Socialist Workers Party.

Presidential elections results

Year	Republican	Democratic
2008	44.74% 677,508	54.04% 818,240
2004	49.92% 751,957	49.28% 741,898
2000	48.22% 634,373	48.60% 638,517
1996	39.92% 492,644	50.31% 620,258
1992	37.33% 504,890	43.35% 586,353
1988	44.8% 545,355	55.1% 670,557
1984	53.32% 703,088	45.97% 605,620

For many years, Iowa was strongly Republican. From statehood until 1969, it elected only three Democrats to the U.S. Senate. Since the 1980s, however, it has become more of a swing state in national politics. The state currently leans slightly Democratic, according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, which by analyzing recent elections gives Iowa a score of D+1. However, the state is far from homogeneous in its political leanings. Generally, eastern Iowa is strongly Democratic while western Iowa is strongly Republican. Central Iowa is more split, though Des Moines tends Democratic. Cook finds that Iowa's five political districts range in political orientation. Iowa's 2nd congressional district, in the Eastern/Southeastern part of the state, leans distinctly Democratic, with a D+7 (strong Democratic) score; but Iowa's 5th congressional district, which covers most of Western Iowa, leans strongly Republican, scoring R+9.

From 1968 to 1984, Iowa voted for the Republican candidate in the presidential election, and from 1988 to 2000 the state voted for the Democrat; in the latter election, the Democratic candidate won by little more than 4,000 votes. In the 2004election, Iowa went by about 10,000 votes for George W. Bush but in 2008, Barack Obama won by a much larger margin of about 150,000 votes.

In the 2006 elections, the Iowa Democrats gained two seats in the Iowa delegation to the United States House of Representatives, and Democrats won a majority in both houses of the Iowa General Assembly. 

The state gets considerable attention every four years because it holds the first presidential caucuses, gatherings of voters to select delegates to the state conventions. Along with the New Hampshire primary the following week, Iowa's caucuses have become the starting points for choosing the two major-party candidates for president. The caucuses, held in January of the election year, involve people gathering in homes or public places and choosing their candidates, rather than casting secret ballots as is done in a primary election. The national and international media give Iowa (and New Hampshire) much of the attention accorded the national candidate selection process, which gives Iowa voters enormous leverage. Those who enter the caucus race often expend enormous effort to reach voters in each of Iowa's 99 counties.  

In the 19th century Iowa was among the earliest states to enact prohibitions against race discrimination, especially in education, but was slow to achieve full integration in the 20th century. In the very first decision of the Iowa Supreme Court – In Re the Matter of Ralph, decided July 1839 – the Court rejected slavery in a decision that found that a slave named Ralph became free when he stepped on Iowa soil, 26 years before the end of the Civil War. The state did away with racial barriers to marriage in 1851, more than 100 years before the U.S. Supreme Court would ban miscegenation statutes nationwide.

The Iowa Supreme Court decided Clark v. The Board of Directors in 1868, ruling that racially segregated "separate but equal" schools had no place in Iowa, 85 years before Brown v. Board of Education. By 1875 a number of additional court rulings effectively ended segregation in Iowa schools. Social and housing discrimination continued against Blacks at state universities until the 1950s. The Court heard Coger v. The North Western Union Packet Co. in 1873, ruling against racial discrimination in public accommodations 91 years before the U.S. Supreme Court reached the same decision.

In 1884, the Iowa Civil Rights Act apparently outlawed discrimination by businesses, reading: "All persons within this state shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, restaurants, chophouses, eating houses, lunch counters, and all other places where refreshments are served, public conveyances, barber shops, bathhouses, theaters, and all other places of amusement." However, the courts chose to narrowly apply this act, allowing de-facto discrimination to continue. Racial discrimination at public businesses was not deemed illegal until 1949, when the court ruled in State of Iowa v. Katz that businesses had to serve customers regardless of race; the case began when Edna Griffin was denied service at a Des Moines drugstore. Full racial civil rights were codified under the Iowa Civil Rights Act of 1965.

As with racial equality, Iowa was a vanguard in women's rights in the mid-19th century, but was slow to give women the right to vote. In 1847, the University of Iowa became the first public university in the U.S. to admit men and women on an equal basis. In 1869, Iowa became the first state in the union to admit women to the practice of law, with the Court ruling that women may not be denied the right to practice law in Iowa and admitting Arabella A. Mansfield to the practice of law. Several attempts to grant full voting rights to Iowa women were defeated between 1870 and 1919. In 1894 women were given "partial suffrage", which allowed them to vote on issues, but not for candidates. It was not until the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in 1920 that women had full suffrage in Iowa. Although Iowa supported the Federal Equal Rights Amendment, in 1980 and 1992 Iowa voters rejected an Equal Rights Amendment to the state constitution.

Post-Civil Rights era court decisions in Iowa clarified and expanded citizens' rights. The landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) confirmed the right of students to express political views. On April 3, 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court decided Varnum v. Brien, holding in a unanimous decision, that the state's law forbidding same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. This makes Iowa the third state in the U.S. and first in the Midwest to permit same-sex marriage.

Iowa has eight official partner states:

• Hebei Province, People's Republic of China (1983)

• Stavropol Krai, Russia (1989)

• Taiwan, Republic of China (1989)

• Terengganu, Malaysia (1987)

• Veneto Region, Italy (1997)

• Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan (1960)

• Yucatán, Mexico (1964)

• Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine (1996)

Iowa is often credited with the start of the high school movement in the U.S. Around 1910, secondary schools as we know them today were established across the state, which was unprecedented at the time. As the high school movement gathered pace and went beyond Iowa, there was clear evidence of how more time spent in school lead to greater income.

The four-year graduation rate for high schoolers was 87.2 % in 2009. The state has the third highest graduation rate in the nation. Iowa continually ranks in the top 3 for ACT and SATscores.[126] In 2009, Iowa ranked top in the nation for average SAT scores per student and second in the nation for average ACT scores per student. Iowa has 365 school districts, and has the twelfth best student to teacher ratio of 13.8 students per teacher. Teacher's pay, however, is ranked forty-second with the average salary being $39,284.

The Iowa State Board of Education works with the Iowa Department of Education to provide oversight, supervision, and support for the state's education system that includes all public elementary and secondary schools, nonpublic schools that receive state accreditation, area education agencies, community colleges, and teacher preparation programs. The State Board consists of ten members: nine voting members who are appointed by the governor for six-year terms and subject to Senate confirmation; and one nonvoting student member who serves a one-year term, also appointed by the governor.  

The Iowa Board of Regents is composed of nine citizen volunteers appointed by the governor to provide policymaking, coordination, and oversight of the state's public universities, two special K-12 schools, and affiliated centers.

Iowa's three public universities include:

• Iowa State University, Ames

• University of Iowa, Iowa City

• University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls

The special K-12 schools include the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs and the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton. Both Iowa State University and the University of Iowa are major research institutions and members of the prestigious Association of American Universities. In addition to the three state universities, Iowa has multiple private colleges and universities.

Private colleges and universities include:

• Buena Vista University, Storm Lake

• Clarke University, Dubuque

• Des Moines University, Des Moines

• Divine Word College, Epworth

• Drake University, Des Moines

• Emmaus Bible College, Dubuque

• Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary, Ankeny

• Graceland University, Lamoni

• Iowa Wesleyan College, Mount Pleasant

• Kaplan University, Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Mason City, and Urbandale

• Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield

• Mount Mercy University, Cedar Rapids

• Palmer College of Chiropractic, Davenport

• Saint Ambrose University, Davenport

• University of Dubuque, Dubuque

• Upper Iowa University, Fayette

• Waldorf College, Forest City

• William Penn University, Oskaloosa

Private liberal arts colleges include:

• Ashford University, Clinton

• Briar Cliff University, Sioux City

• Central College, Pella

• Coe College, Cedar Rapids

• Cornell College, Mount Vernon

• Dordt College, Sioux Center

• Grand View University, Des Moines

• Grinnell College, Grinnell

• Loras College, Dubuque

• Luther College, Decorah

• Morningside College, Sioux City

• Northwestern College, Orange City

• Simpson College, Indianola

• Wartburg College, Waverly 

Iowa has professional sports teams in baseball, basketball, hockey, football and soccer. The state has four major college teams playing in Division I for all sports. In football, Iowa State University and the University of Iowa compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), whereas the University of Northern Iowaand Drake University compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).  

Iowa has four Class A minor league teams in the Midwest League. They are the Burlington Bees, Cedar Rapids Kernels, Clinton LumberKings, and the Quad Cities River Bandits. The Sioux City Explorers are part of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball. The Waterloo Bucks play in theNorthwoods League. Des Moines is home to the Iowa Cubs, a Class AAA team in the Pacific Coast League. 

The Sioux City Bandits are an Indoor football team in the United Indoor Football League. The Iowa Barnstormers play in the Arena Football League. They play their home games at Wells Fargo Arena. 

The Quad City Mallards games are played in Moline, Illinois are part of the Central Hockey League.

The United States Hockey League has five teams in Iowa: the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, Sioux City Musketeers, Waterloo Black Hawks, Des Moines Buccaneers, and the Dubuque Fighting SaintsThe Omaha Lancers previously played in Council Bluffs from 2002 to 2009, but have since moved back to Omaha, Nebraska. The North Iowa Outlaws play in the North American Hockey League inMason City. The Quad City Jr Flames are a Tier III Jr. A hockey team located in Davenport, Iowa and are part of the Central States Hockey League. 

Iowa has two professional basketball teams. The Iowa Energy, an NBA Development League team that plays in Des Moines, is affiliated with the Chicago Bulls and Phoenix Suns of the NBA. The Quad Cities Riverhawks of the Premier Basketball League are based in Davenport but play at Wharton Field House in Moline, Illinois.

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