As told to Macey Shofroth | Photo by Duane Tinkey | Illustration by Kate Meyer

Eva Fipps decided she’d move with her dad across the country from upstate New York to Iowa in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Her dad had family in Iowa, so she’d visited the state before. But the move was a culture shock, mostly because Fipps realized how true “Iowa Nice” really is. They lived in Henderson, Iowa, and she attended high school in Treynor. She settled into her new rural Iowa life. 

That life fit her, and would eventually lead her to make history as the youngest mayor in America when she was elected mayor of Henderson, population 144, in 2025. 

“I never thought I would become mayor,” Fipps said. 

The 20-year-old works at a pediatric dentistry office and is enrolled at Western Governors University online, both of which she balances with making decisions around her small town. She hopes to go on to law school eventually. 

Fipps sat down with Fearless to talk about what drove her to run for office and what it’s been like since she was elected. 

The following story has been formatted to be entirely in her words, and has been edited and condensed for clarity.

It’s so hard to think of a time that I’ve been fearless because I’ve always been afraid, down deep, about what I was doing, but I’ve just done it anyways. 

There are the everyday things. Moving across country multiple times. There’s doing something new. I moved out to Des Moines on my own at 18 to do an internship where I was a page for the Iowa House of Representatives and that was scary, but I did it anyway. Then there’s being mayor.

That’s been something that, originally, I was fearless because I wasn’t thinking it would actually become a possibility. Then, when I actually got elected and had to start doing all these things and going to county meetings and city meetings, apprehension started kicking in. How am I supposed to represent all of my town? How am I supposed to represent all these different people? But I just did it anyways, even if I was nervous, even if I was scared.

I grew up in upstate New York until COVID, when my dad moved back to Iowa where his family was. I went with him and did high school at Treynor. It was a culture shock, but it was actually really refreshing. Everyone helps each other out here. I always thought it was stereotypical that you could ask your neighbor for a cup of sugar, but out here, you can genuinely ask your neighbor for a cup of sugar. 

I was 19 when the decision was made to run for mayor. There was the thought behind it, but I never thought becoming mayor would be the actual outcome. My city clerk, Candace Knop, said that I should run, and I thought she was joking. In order to run for mayor, you have to go knock on people’s doors and say, “Hey, I want to be on the ballot. Would you mind signing this petition?” So even from the beginning, there was that little fear that I have to go talk to people that I probably haven’t talked to in years or just don’t see on a regular basis because they’re not part of my age group. 

Since it’s such a small town — in the 2020 census, there were 144 people — I used that opportunity to explain a little bit about what I wanted to do. Most of the people have seen or been around me for a few years, so they know who I am and they know my dad. They know the type of people we are. 

My dad always told me, “We help people.” That’s what we’re here to do. That’s part of being human. It’s the little things. I’m always open to helping anybody at any time. 

I’m a loudmouth, I’m not going to sugar coat that. I can take control of a room. I did cheer, I did sports, the internship at the state Capitol. I have a history in politics and being in the room where it happens, even if it’s brief. I think Candice saw that and saw that I was friendly because I’d stop by and chat with her. I’d talk with pretty much anyone in our town. If they wanted to talk, I was there to talk. I think she saw all of these things and had a little bit of hope. 

When the opportunity to run for mayor came, I thought, ‘This is an opportunity.’ I’ve always told myself that whatever opportunities are presented to myself, I have to at least try. Why not try?

The worst that can happen is you don’t succeed and you just dust yourself off and you get back up again. I tried with the page program. I tried with moving cross country back to New York to work for a law firm and then moving back to Iowa. I’ve done any of these opportunities that have been presented to me. I always try and think about if what I can do is going to help me or going to help others. Those are my two big thought processes. 

I didn’t think I’d win because of imposter syndrome. I’m young. I’m a girl. It’s the Midwest. There wasn’t much hope in my mind. There was one other person I was running against. It was a little intimidating but at the end of the day, our city was going to be OK, so there wasn’t that much worry for me. 

When I found out I had won, I was in disbelief. I thought my dad was lying. Then after I was getting sworn in I had a moment of, “Oh, I’m actually in charge of this town now.” It didn’t click for a while. 

At the time, I had no idea that I was going to become the youngest mayor in America. I wasn’t even thinking about that. Most of the time I don’t think about my age because it’s not applicable to many things in my daily life. My dad had Googled it and there was a story about another young mayor and he said, “Oh my gosh, you’re younger than the last person that they did a story on.” So it just kind of snowballed from there with different research. 

In the first couple of government meetings, there was skepticism. I knew that was going to be a hurdle I was going to face. It’s going to happen often, whether I was 20, 30, 40, 50 — it doesn’t matter. There’s always skepticism. Eventually it snowballed and some comments were said. I just called the people out in a one-on-one meeting, which was scary. I’m of the mindset that that’s not something you do in front of people. I never want to make someone feel uncomfortable, let alone in front of witnesses. That’s just not who I am. I don’t think that’s kind. I don’t think that’s fair. 

I said, “I understand that my age is an issue for you, but we’re working in a professional situation, and I need you to treat me with professional courtesy.” I think my being able to stand up for myself in an adult way kind of flipped how some people were looking at me and seeing me. They finally were able to see that yes, I am an adult. There’s going to be a learning curve either way, but I’m willing to take that learning curve and actually take in information. 

I get my guts from my dad, mom and stepdad. From the get-go. My nickname from my grandma when I was itty bitty was Diva Eva because I was never afraid to speak my mind. If something was unfair or someone was being treated unfairly, if I thought something was stupid, it was coming out of my mouth. There was no stopping it. 

It’s been eight months since I was sworn in. I feel like it’s been really productive. We’ve solved a bunch of issues that we wouldn’t really think about on the day to day. 

We made our water bill payable online. We fixed the city bathrooms. Our playground should be going in any day now with temporary surfacing, and we’re almost there with the final surfacing. We’re working on getting our roads redone. We’re working on getting our ditches redone. We’ve had a lot of progress for eight months. Government’s usually really slow. I’m looking forward to hosting more community events and doing all these different things that bring our community together and make improvements. 

Fear is definitely a mental hurdle. I have procrastinated things that scare me, but at the end of the day, they do get done. It’s mostly from encouragement from my friends, my family. I get support from my church. Just seeing the pride on my family, friends’ and other people’s faces for the different things that I have accomplished — that’s what keeps me going. Knowing that even if it’s not something that’ll personally improve my life I’m going to be helping people. I’m going to be making my parents proud. I’m going to be making my community proud. I’m going to be making this positive impact. That’s what really helps me get over the hurdle and the fear.