“I’m here to listen”: Sam Cox becomes Grinnell’s first female mayor

For the first time in history, Grinnell has a female mayor. Sam Cox, 55, has won the 2025 Grinnell mayoral election against opponent Russ Crawford by a vote of 1,192 to 864. 

Cox is a well-recognised figure in downtown Grinnell — the owner of Saints Rest, she is a regular face behind the counter. In November 2022, she ran as a Democrat for the Iowa State Senate but lost the election to Republican Annette Sweeney. This year was her first time running for mayor of Grinnell, following the retirement of former mayor Dan Agnew, who was in office for eight years.

The Scarlet & Black reached out to Cox for a phone interview on Nov. 5. The transcript below has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

How do you feel right now?

It’s incredible, right? Like my husband and I are in disbelief. We’re just so excited. My husband looked at me and he said, ‘You’re the first female mayor of Grinnell, Iowa,’ and he said, ‘You’re gonna go down in history.’ And I’m like, right, isn’t that so exciting? Like, isn’t it so exciting to have that opportunity? And I just want to say, thank you to each and every 1,192 people that checked my name. It just seems like a dream, really, but we’re very, very excited.

What are you excited to do when you get sworn into office?

I am just excited to represent such a big part of Grinnell. I feel like I have always touted, you know, even when I ran for Senate. And now that I’m going to do this, I have such a huge blue collar background, and I’m still living in that middle class, blue collar world, and I feel like there’s just so many of us that sometimes feel like we’re not represented. And so I really want to represent each and every person you know in our town. And I think that just goes from every level. Every socioeconomic level, my friends, my neighbors, my colleagues, in that way.

What do you think your priorities are going to be?

So this is going to be a big learning curve for me, right? Because this isn’t something that I’ve done before. Obviously, at this point, I’m going to start scheduling some meetings and having some conversations with, you know, the city staff and the other council members, and just making sure I understand what they want of me, what my job looks like to them, because I want to be supportive to them in every way. 

But you know, for me, obviously what everybody’s concerns are in Grinnell is the same topic of competition. In every interview that I have, the conversation goes back to, how do we bring more businesses to Grinnell? How do we increase the tax base? How do we bring more affordable housing to Grinnell? How do we cut costs in Grinnell? And so, those are huge questions, that, you know, I can’t say that I have the answers to in this moment, but I can tell you that my priority is learning and understanding my role, and supporting not only the people of Grinnell, but supporting the city staff and our city council, to make sure that we are all doing everything we can to be successful in trying to answer those questions.

What should we as residents of Grinnell expect from your leadership?

I want them to know that I’m here. I have already had people that have stopped in my shop to have conversations with their concerns about Grinnell before the race. I’ve had a lot of people stop in the shop today and say, ‘Hey, I want to sit down with you.’ I’ve already had a lot of phone calls. I want them to know that I’m a sensible mayor, that I will give you the time that you deserve to have a conversation. As we’ve heard, that doesn’t mean that I can solve every problem that’s going to come across my table, but it means that I will listen and you will be heard and respected. That’s kind of my management style and how I feel about that, just a lot of communication and open doors and leading by example. Those are the important things.

Do you have a concrete first goal that you want to achieve when you formally enter office?

You know, I don’t have an answer for that for you! I will say that if you know me at all, you’ll know that I’m a huge animal advocacy advocate. I do a lot of fosters. In fact, I’m looking at a 15-year-old Pomeranian, who’s deaf and blind right now wandering around my bathroom. And I really want for us to figure out a way to do a trap and release program for Grinnell, Iowa. I know there are a lot of people out there that want for us to work on the feral cat population. And again, that’s something that is near and dear to my heart that has nothing to do with the bigger plan, right? 

I want everybody to know that I realize that this is a dream of mine and not necessarily a dream of everybody else’s. But if people are going to feed feral cats, then we should be taking care of them. We should be making sure that they’re fixed, that they have shots, so that they’re not procreating, and that we’re continuing this problem. I mean, you see this all the time — how many cats you guys have on campus, a kid is found, and what do they do with it? So that’s kind of like a passion of mine, animal advocacy. That’s something that I have an opportunity to bring to the forefront.

Will you still be working at Saints Rest while handling your role as mayor?

Am I still going to be working in Saints Rest? Oh yeah. 100% yeah. I will be working there. I’m pretty fortunate that I have a very flexible schedule, I have a very strong staff. So being where Grinnell needs me to be, when Grinnell needs me to be there, I will make sure that I make that happen, but I will also be maintaining my business. In the kind of economic world that we’re living in right now, I think a lot of downtown businesses are certainly starting to feel the pinch … For me, it’s very hands on, trying to make sure that I’m doing everything I can to wring out as much efficiency as we can. So that requires me to be there 100%.

You brought up some topics over the course of your campaign — housing insecurity, support for small businesses, and many of these are also topics of concern in the general Grinnell community. Do you have any further comments now as the new mayor?

I know that we just finished a housing study. I believe it’s just been returned. I have not had the opportunity to look at that yet. I can tell you, from my standpoint, again, having that little middle-class background, you know, I feel like what Grinnell needs is affordable housing. I don’t necessarily think that means a $400,000 home, and I don’t necessarily think that means low-income housing, although that’s needed also, but I feel like there are a lot of people in the middle class who would like an affordable home.

As far as food insecurity, again, I’m not sure what Grinnell does on a city level for that, but that is something obviously I’ll be able to learn about when I get there and ask the questions. We ourselves just donated $1,000 to MICA (Mid Iowa Community Action) because we had a surplus in our campaign. And right now, the state of Iowa is offering to match donations, and so we’re really hoping that our MICA in Grinnell is going to be able to receive matches for the donations that they have right now. That’s where community comes in, right? And again, that’s where we as community members are being brought into play to support people that are in need. Things that our government should be doing that they are not doing at this point or they’re in the process of trying to figure out — that’s where we are brought in to make sure that people stay afloat. I think that’s something necessary. 

It seems like you’re someone who prioritizes grassroots-level work.

If people aren’t going to do it, who’s going to? And I think that we as a community, we as a city, we have some moral obligations that we should be looking at. And I think that the city does do that, I think that they try very hard. But I think again that we do, in addition to what we’re already doing, to make sure that we’re getting everything to the people that are in need. But again, I want to make sure that we’re serving everyone. We’re not just talking about people that are socioeconomically challenged, but we’re talking about the vast majority of the middle class, the elderly, we’re talking about people that are disabled, we’re talking about mental health issues. There are just a lot of people in Grinnell that need to be served, and I just hope that we as a city can come together and provide for everyone.

What would you say to the people who didn’t vote for you?

I thought of that today because there’s one particular person that comes to mind, and they come in my shop quite often, and I know that they were a big supporter of Russ. And I think for me, I just want you to know that I understand that your candidate didn’t win, but I want you to know that I’m still here, and I hope that you’ll give me an opportunity. If you have any thoughts or needs that you want to get out, I hope you have enough faith in me to come in and have a conversation. Again, I want to be everybody’s mayor. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t vote for me. I’m here now, and I want to make sure you’re represented.

Ultimately, what do you want people to know about your new role as mayor?

Again, I just really want to be sure that everybody understands that I am here to listen, and that there’s going to be a learning curve for me, and I’m not going to be able to solve all of our problems immediately. And I hope that everybody has patience and that they understand that I’m going to lead with heart, and I’m going to make sure that I stand up where I need to stand up and say what needs to be said. But I’m just here. I’m here to listen for sure.