lit a candle 7h agoMy sister called from Davenport to tell me, she still keeps up with Scott County politics more than I ever did. She always said he was one of the few who'd tell you what he actually thought, even after that impeachment vote cost him the party chairmanship. 73 is no age.
Their story
David Alan Millage was an Iowa lawyer and Republican legislator who spent twelve years in the Iowa House of Representatives and later became a brief, high-profile casualty of post-January 6 party fights in his home county. Born in Portland, Oregon, on 26 February 1953 to Albert "Gus" and Marlynd (Coffman)…
David Alan Millage was an Iowa lawyer and Republican legislator who spent twelve years in the Iowa House of Representatives and later became a brief, high-profile casualty of post-January 6 party fights in his home county. Born in Portland, Oregon, on 26 February 1953 to Albert "Gus" and Marlynd (Coffman) Millage, he grew up in the Quad Cities, graduated from Bettendorf High School in 1971, and earned a B.B.A. with distinction from the University of Iowa in 1974 and a J.D. with distinction from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1978.
A Bettendorf attorney and member of the American, Iowa and Scott County bar associations, Millage entered the Iowa House in January 1991. He first represented the 40th district and, from 1993, the 41st, serving six terms through January 2003. He chaired the House Appropriations Committee, sat on Judiciary, Labor and Industrial Relations and State Government, and was known in Des Moines for fiscal conservatism and for pressing major bills through Judiciary. In 2002 he was the Republican nominee for Iowa attorney general. After leaving the legislature he continued practising law in Bettendorf and volunteering locally.
Millage married Sandra (Sandee) on 14 December 1995 in Aspen, Colorado. They raised her four children, Allison, Kelly, Jay and Kurt, and later welcomed five grandchildren. Away from politics he was an avid downhill skier across the western United States and Europe, a runner who completed the 100th Boston Marathon with Sandee, a devoted Iowa Hawkeyes fan, and a reader of politics and history who joked that golf had defeated him for more than fifty years.
In January 2021, as Scott County Republican chairman, he said Donald Trump should be impeached after the Capitol riot and was forced out of the post within a day, a moment covered nationally by the Associated Press. He died in Bettendorf on 26 September 2026 at 73 after an extended illness, surrounded by family. A memorial service was set for 30 September at Runge Mortuary Chapel in Davenport, with memorial gifts suggested for King Harvest Pet Rescue and the American Parkinson's Disease Association. He was survived by Sandee, his stepchildren and grandchildren, brother Bruce and sister Brenda, and was preceded in death by his parents and brother Russ.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), Iowa General Assembly legislator record, Dignity Memorial / Runge Mortuary obituary, Associated Press via The Columbian (2021). Wikipedia ↗
Photos
1Official portrait of Iowa Representative David Millage, 79th General Assembly
by People Forever
That vote took real nerve, I remember the local uproar over it.