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Democrats captured an Iowa state Senate seat Tuesday, ending the Republican supermajority in the chamber and notching another special-election win that boosts the party's optimism for the midterms next year.
Catelin Drey (D) flipped a vacant state Senate seat in Iowa's Sioux City area formerly held by a Republican, defeating Christopher Prosch (R), after she won more than 55 percent of the ballot in a low-turnout race, according to a tally from the office of Iowa's secretary of state. President Donald Trump comfortably won the district last year.
Drey drew support from the Democratic National Committee, which said it mobilized more than 30,000 volunteers for the race and argued the outcome was a warning sign for the GOP.
"Iowans are seeing Republicans for who they are: self-serving liars who will throw their constituents under the bus to rubber stamp Donald Trump's disastrous agenda - and they're ready for change," DNC Chairman Ken Martin said in a statement.
Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann appeared to downplay the result, suggesting on social media that Democrats had to rely on the DNC volunteers and a "flood of national money."
Special elections often have low turnout and can be unpredictable, but Democrats have been encouraged by victories in such contests since Trump began his second term in January. Democrats have been growing especially heartened about Iowa, where Sen. Joni Ernst (R) is up for reelection next year and there are multiple competitive House races.
Tuesday's election was held to replace state Sen. Rocky De Witt (R), who represented the state's 1st District until his death in June. Drey's upset victory erases the GOP's supermajority in the state Senate, which will now have 33 Republicans and 17 Democrats. A supermajority would have allowed the governor's nominees to be approved on a party-line vote, as a two-thirds majority is needed for confirmation.
Drey's triumph in a voting district that lies inside Woodbury County, which President Donald Trump easily won in 2024, also offers a glimpse into the mood of conservative-leaning districts ahead of next year's midterms.
Drey's victory may have stemmed from the strong support provided by the Democratic National Committee, which injected funds and the volunteers into her district, as well as engaging in a get-out-the-vote campaign. It could also reflect a low voter turnout of 24 percent, potentially indicating that many conservative voters sat this one out.
But Drey's win also came as Trump's national net approval rating has gradually declined since January, according to YouGov, and as Trump's net approval rating in Iowa stands at negative 5 percent, according to one estimate based on YouGov data.
That Prosch, the founder of a media strategies consulting firm, had embraced controversial viewpoints probably also helped.
In 2022, he compared abortion rights supporters to the perpetrators of the Holocaust. "Who was worse? The Nazi Germans who killed 10 million Jews and many other people? Or the left's policies to target an entire generation of babies and butcher them to death," he said. He has also suggested that women who become pregnant through rape or incest should carry their pregnancies to term.
Drey, the founder of liberal grassroots advocacy group Moms for Iowa, was celebrated by the DNC, which is struggling with the Democratic Party's sagging popularity and internal strife.
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