“This is when the real campaign begins.”

Randy Woodbury, the winner of Tuesday’s Republican party primary in District 45, said he is looking forward to the race ahead for the seat vacated by Rep. Jane Greimann, D-Ames.

Woodbury emerged with more than 73 percent of his party’s vote, according to unofficial poll results.

Woodbury, 29, is a senior analyst for Principal Global Investors in Des Moines. His previous experience in politics, doing research for the 2002 campaign of Rep. Jim Kurtenbach, R-Nevada, was his inspiration to run for the Legislature.

“I think I can lend a valuable voice that won’t be intimidated,” he said. “I’m a little younger than most candidates, and I think I’ll bring a fresh perspective with me into the Legislature. I was part of the first generation involved in team-based work, and I’ve learned how to deal with egos, agendas and politics and still get things done.”

He said he has gained many of the skills he would need as a legislator while working as an investor.

“The state has a $4.3 billion budget, and sometimes people can be intimidated by that amount of money,” he said. “But I’ve controlled $1.5 billion in portfolios; I’m used to making decisions at that scale. Also, I have the opportunity to meet a diversity of people through my work, and that kind of interaction is unique.”

When Woodbury first started at Principal, he said he had to make presentations to the CEO of the company. His experience with that required him to gain the confidence and outspokenness he said is needed at the Capitol.

“This man was not only the most influential man in the company, he was also 6-7 — he was a really big guy,” he said. “It was like an intimidation double whammy, but I got through it successfully.”

Woodbury and his wife, April, have a 1-year-old son, Kaden. Woodbury said he feels his campaign focus on making sure Iowans have access to the best education possible is a part of having close ties to the issue.

“It’s humbling that any decisions I might make as a legislator could affect him,” he said. “I also know what it’s like to be a student, and I have many relatives who have graduated from or still go to school at Iowa State.”

He said he knows being a college student and trying to balance school with other responsibilities is difficult, and he wants to be open to students’ concerns.

“I went through on various scholarships, so I was a little unlike the average student when I came out. I only had a little debt at the end,” he said. “But I know sometimes the balance between need-based and merit-based aid gets skewed, and we need to make sure both kinds of aid are important.”

Woodbury’s opponent in the race is Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, who won the Democratic nomination with 62 percent of her party’s vote.

He said he feels Wessel-Kroeschell is a worthy opponent to face in the election, but he is attempting to avoid partisanship in his campaign.

“We live under a two-party system, and people tend to label candidates,” he said. “Too much we run against a person, and too little we run on ourselves. I just want to focus on who will bring the most solutions to the people of Ames.”

Although the other Republican candidate running for the seat, Charity Faber, dropped out of the race nearly a month prior to Tuesday’s primary, she still received more than 26 percent of the vote.

“I was kind of stunned, but honored, that people thought that even though I dropped out of the race, they still thought I was the best woman for the job,” she said.

Faber said she will be supporting Woodbury in the fall election.

“One thing he definitely brings to the table is youthful enthusiasm,” she said. “He’s a really nice guy, and he’s all about Iowa, and I think that’s important.”