Member profile: Rep. McKinley Bailey
McKinley is serving his first term in the House of Representatives and serves on the Commerce Committee, Economic Growth Committee, Natural Resources Committee, Veterans Affairs Committee, and is Vice Chair of the Agriculture & Natural Resources Budget Subcommittee.
McKinley resides in Webster City. He serves on the executive committee of American Legion Post 191, Webster City; and is a member of VFW; Disabled Veterans of America and Hamilton County League of Women Voters. He has been active in Webster City Community Theatre productions and is a member of Faith United Methodist Church, also in Webster City. He plans to pursue a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Iowa State University.
McKinley was born on November 12, 1980 the third of four sons belonging to Doug and Nancy Bailey. He was raised in Webster City where his father worked as a travel agent and insurance salesman and currently serves as a county supervisor. His mother has been a teacher at Webster City Middle School since 1995 and was previously a teaching assistant.
McKinley attended High School for one year in Arequipa, Peru where he was a Rotary Foreign Exchange Student. He graduated from Webster City High School in 1999. In 2004, he received an A.A. from Methodist College in Fayetteville, NC, which he attended at night between deployments. He received a B.A. in International Studies with a concentration in International Business from the University of Iowa in May of 2006. During the summer of 2005, he served as a marketing intern with Bentonisa S.A. in Joao Pessoa, Brazil. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.
McKinley is a veteran with five years of service in the United States Army. While McKinley was a paratrooper with the elite 82nd Airborne Division, he led his Tactical Signals Intelligence Intercept Team into combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. McKinley served in Joint Operations with the Colombian Military, Iraqi Civil Defense Forces and Police and Afghan, Italian, and Romanian Armies. He was decorated twice for meritorious service in a combat zone.
In March of 2005, McKinley founded and served as President of the University of Iowa Veterans Association until his graduation in May of 2006. The association is a non-partisan organization dedicated to helping returning veterans adjust to university life and to supporting all those who still serve. He also worked as a veteran’s advisor in the University of Iowa Veterans Center, an entity that the university created, in part, due to lobbying by the newly formed Veterans Association.
