Republican wins Sioux City House seat

SIOUX CITY - A Republican from Sioux City will be joining the Iowa House, giving the Republicans one more majority vote in that chamber.

Jacob Bossman defeated Rita DeJong, the Democratic candidate from Sioux City, in a special election Tuesday for the House District 6 seat.

The unofficial vote tally was 2,152 to 1,712.

With the Bossman win, Republicans now hold 59 of the 100 seats in the Iowa House.

They also control the Iowa Senate, now two weeks into the legislative session that will run for 100 days to late April.

House District 6 favors Republicans, with 7,778 voters registered as Republicans, 5,013 as Democrats and 6,617 as no party.

'I think it was just the hard work of myself and the campaign,” Bossman said Tuesday night. 'I didn't take anything for granted and was out working this morning.”

Bossman, 37, is regional director for U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley. During the campaign, he said he would support 'sound budgeting practices and hold the line on reckless spending,” as a way to avoid tapping emergency state budget funds during a tight financial year.

DeJong, 64, is a retired educator from the Sioux City Community School District. It was her first run for elective office.

Bossman lost a bid for Iowa House District 6 in 2016, losing the primary to Jim Carlin, who became a state senator in a special Dec. 12 election.

Tuesday's election was the first test of the state's new voter ID law. Besides requiring ID and signature verification at the polls, the law also ended straight-party voting and shortens the period for early voting from 40 to 29 days.