{"id":46635,"date":"2025-08-26T21:26:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T02:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=46635"},"modified":"2025-08-26T22:40:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T03:40:25","slug":"democrats-flip-iowa-state-senate-seat-breaking-gop-supermajority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=46635","title":{"rendered":"Democrats flip Iowa state Senate seat, breaking GOP supermajority"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Democrat Catelin Drey has flipped an open Iowa state Senate seat, adding to the party\u2019s successes in special elections this year, Decision Desk HQ projected<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drey defeated Republican Christopher Prosch in the race to replace the late state Sen. Rocky De Witt (R)<\/u><\/a>, who died in office in June from cancer. Democrats homed in on the Republican-leaning district as a pickup opportunity given their overperformance in many smaller elections through 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drey\u2019s victory breaks a GOP supermajority in the state Senate, giving her party more power despite its minority status in the body. In particular, the extra Democratic vote, which will bring the margin in the chamber to 33 Republicans to 17 Democrats, will ensure that nominees from the governor can\u2019t get approved on a party-line vote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A two-thirds majority is needed for nominees to be confirmed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) seized<\/u><\/a> on the opportunity ahead of the election, sending in 30,000 volunteers for \u201cget out the vote\u201d efforts and hosting text- and phone-banks with the Iowa Democratic Party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DNC Chair Ken Martin\u2002<\/u><\/a>had said the party hasn\u2019t recognized the importance of down-ballot elections for too long and rebuilding the party \u201cstarts from the ground up.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DNC celebrated Drey\u2019s win on Tuesday night, noting that the district voted for President Trump in 2024 by more than 11 points. Martin said in a statement that Iowans are seeing Republicans as a \u201crubber stamp\u201d for Trump\u2019s agenda and want change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are putting Republicans on notice and making it crystal clear: any Republican pushing Trump\u2019s unpopular, extreme agenda has no place governing on behalf of Iowa families,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why all year long, Iowans have been electing Democrats ready to fight for working Iowans. Make no mistake: when Democrats organize everywhere, we win everywhere, and today is no exception.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flip marks the second Iowa state Senate seat this year that Democrats won, after flipping<\/u><\/a> another seat in January in a district that Trump won by more than 20 points. The party has also outperformed in other special state legislative elections throughout the year, winning<\/u><\/a> in another Trump-friendly state Senate district in Pennsylvania in March. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside of Iowa, Drey\u2019s win will be welcome news for Democrats looking for signs of life after the party\u2019s losses in the 2024 elections and as it struggles<\/u><\/a> with a low approval rating. But how much can be extrapolated from a single, small state Senate district in an off-year special election is debatable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Democrats will gladly take the win as they try to rally pushback to Trump\u2019s agenda in his second term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heather Williams, the president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said the party\u2019s special election wins should be seen as a \u201cflashing warning\u201d to Trump and the GOP, saying that voters are rejecting the \u201cfailing MAGA agenda.\u201d The organization works to elect Democrats to state legislatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cState legislative Democrats are delivering progress, responding to their communities\u2019 concerns about the chaos in Washington, and providing the steady leadership voters are asking for \u2014 leadership that has propelled candidates like Sen.-elect Catelin Drey to victory this year,\u201d Williams said. \u201cMore special elections are right on the horizon, and we\u2019re just getting started.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrat Catelin Drey has flipped an open Iowa state Senate seat, adding to the party\u2019s successes in special elections this year, Decision Desk HQ projected. Drey defeated Republican Christopher Prosch in the race to replace the late state Sen. Rocky De Witt (R), who died in office in June from cancer. Democrats homed in on the Republican-leaning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":46636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1236,1264,1738,34493],"class_list":["post-46635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-democrats","tag-gop","tag-iowa","tag-senate-seats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46637,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46635\/revisions\/46637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}