Iowa Democrats Flip Republican Seat, Break State Senate GOP Supermajority

What the hell, Iowa?

Iowa Democrats Flip Republican Seat, Break State Senate GOP Supermajority

National Democrats tout organizing push, while Iowa GOP leaders downplay the win as fueled by outside money.

By: Tom Ozimek, The Epoch Times, August 28, 2025:

Catelin Drey, a Democrat, won an Aug. 26 special election for Iowa Senate District 1, flipping a Republican-held seat and breaking the GOP’s supermajority in the chamber.

Drey defeated Republican Christopher Prosch with 4,208 votes (55 percent) to Prosch’s 3,411 votes (44 percent), according to preliminary returns from the Woodbury County Election Department.

Turnout was 23.9 percent; 7,619 of the district’s 31,911 registered voters cast ballots. Absentee votes proved pivotal, as Drey received 1,883 to Prosch’s 1,310.

“I’m just really incredibly honored that the folks in Senate District 1 believed in this campaign as much as the team did, and I am looking forward to representing them well,” Drey told the Des Moines Register.

The seat became vacant in June after Republican state Sen. Rocky De Witt died of pancreatic cancer. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds called the special election to fill the remainder of De Witt’s term, which runs through January 2027. The seat will next be on the ballot in November 2026.

District 1, which covers Woodbury County and includes Sioux City, had been part of the Republican majority in the 50-member state Senate, where the GOP held 34 seats. Drey’s win reduces that number to 33, stripping Republicans of the two-thirds threshold required for a supermajority.

The result gives Democrats—now holding 17 seats—greater leverage.

“Sen.-elect Drey’s victory gives state Dems increased power in the chamber, including the ability to block Gov. Reynolds from making controversial gubernatorial appointments,” the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) said in a post on X.

The governor’s nominees must receive two-thirds support to be confirmed.

National Democrats hailed the victory as proof that their organizing strategy is working.

Continued……