Election Night Recap
What a night! Iowans turned out in record numbers to vote on (and before) November 3. Regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum, the past two election cycles have been a wild ride. For Iowans, we now have more balance with a Democrat Governor and Republican Legislature. You can see full results here. Here is a quick recap:
- Rob Sand (D) will be our new Governor (winning by 11 points).
- Josh Turek (D) will be our next US Senator (winning by 4 points)
- Iowa went from four Republican US Representatives in Congress to 1 R (Chris McGowen in CD4) and 3 Ds (Christina Bohannan in CD1, Lindsay James in CD2, Sarah Trone Garriott in CD3)
- Nate Willems (D) will be our next Attorney General (narrowly defeating Brenna Bird by 2 points).
- Republicans Roby Smith (Treasurer), Paul Pate (Secretary of State), and Mike Naig (Secretary of Agriculture) all retained their seats.
- Republicans held control of the Iowa Legislature, but lost their supermajorities.
- There will be 42 new faces in the 150-seat Legislature:
- 30 in the Iowa House (including two former legislators returning to the House)
- 12 in the Iowa Senate (although 3 are moving over from the House and includes the yet-to-be-determined Trone Garriott successor)
- There were a lot of really close races that were unexpected, the closest being Rep. Brent Siegrist (HD19-R) with only a 37 vote margin.
- 20 seats were within 1,000 votes.
- 4 seats were within 250 votes.
Iowa Senate: 32 Rs, 18 Ds (currently 33-17)
- This is a net 1 D gain.
- Sen. Scott Webster (R) lost by 151 votes to physician Nikhil Wagle in SD47 (D pickup).
- Sen. Mike Zimmer (D) lost by 981 votes to North Scott school superintendent Joe Stutting in SD35 (R pickup).
- Rep. Heather Matson (D) flipped her Ankeny seat (SD21), which was previously represented by Mike Bousselot.
- Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott’s election to Congress means a special election for her Senate seat (SD14) so this margin could shift back to current 33-17 makeup if a Republican wins.
Iowa House: 56 Rs, 44 Ds (currently 67-33)
- No House Ds lost their seats (all D seats retained).
- House Ds have net 11 gain:
- Rep. Eddie Andrews seat picked up by Johnston Democrat Jill Alesch (HD43)
- Rep. David Blom lost to Marshalltown Chief of Police Mike Tupper (HD52)
- Rep. Mark Cisneros replaced by Muscatine native Nick Salazar (HD96)
- Rep. Tom Determann lost to retired Clinton police detective Randy Meier (HD69)
- Rep. Dan Gehlbach loses to physician assistant Mandy Newton Rosenow (HD46)
- Rep. Bill Gustoff lost to Des Moines nurse and disability advocate Heather Sievers (HD40)
- Rep. Christian Hermanson lost to music teacher Jacob Welper (HD59)
- Rep. Matt Rinker is replaced by Burlington lawyer/small business owner Jennifer Kirkman (HD99)
- Rep. Jennifer Smith lost to Dubuque union carpenter Matt Robinson (HD72)
- Rep. Ryan Weldon lost to Ankeny teacher and former Rep. Molly Buck (HD41)
- Rep. David Young lost to Van Meter Delta Dental’s lawyer Tom Walton (HD28)
In House, this means new committee leadership (although there are always broader changes after each election):
- Appropriations Vice Chair (Weldon)
- Education Budget Chair (Gehlbach)
- Economic Development Budget Chair (Weldon)
- Justice System Budget Chair (Lohse)
- Transportation/Infrastructure Budget Ranking Member (Croken)
- Federal Funds Ranking Member (Brown-Powers)
- Agriculture Chair (Wulf) & Ranking Member (Scholten)
- Commerce Chair (Young) and Vice Chair (Blom)
- Higher Education Ranking Member (Brown-Powers)
- State Government Chair (Bloomingdale) and Vice Chair (Smith)
- Veterans Affairs Chair (Determann)
- Ways & Means Vice Chair (Hermanson)
In the Senate, retirements mean new committee leadership:
- Agriculture Vice Chair (Rozenboom) and Ranking Member (Zimmer)
- Commerce Chair (Bousselot) and Ranking Member (Knox)
- Health/Human Services Ranking Member (Trone Garriott)
- Local Government Chair (Webster)
- Natural Resources & Environment (Shipley)
- State Government Chair (Rozenboom)
- Transportation Vice Chair (Webster)
- Veterans Affairs Ranking Member (Dotzler)
- Appropriation Subcommittees:
- Ag/Natural Resources Chair (Shipley)
- Justice Systems Vice Chair (Westrich) & Ranking Member (Knox)
- Transportation/Infrastructure Vice Chair (Bousselot)
Moving ahead, each caucus plans to meet on Friday to elect leaders and and begin the process of selecting the committee chairs and committee members. We do not expect to know committee chairs until near Thanksgiving and committee make up until early December.