116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Republicans extend grip on Iowa Legislature
The GOP picked up four total seats in the House and Senate
The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
Several tight Statehouse races in Iowa went to Republicans on Tuesday and increased their hold on the Iowa House and Senate.
Unofficial election results show that Republicans — who already had among their largest majorities in decades going into the election — gained one seat in the Senate and three in the House.
"We may have to add onto the Capitol so there's a room big enough to hold all the Iowa House Republicans that we're going to have this upcoming session," House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, said in a late-night news release.
The wins will give Republicans a 35-15 majority in the Senate and a 67-33 majority in the House when legislators convene next year.
Republicans picked up two seats in the Senate but lost one notable incumbent: Sen. Brad Zaun, an Urbandale Republican who was seeking a sixth term.
In the Senate
Zaun was ousted in Polk County's Senate District 22 by Democrat Matt Blake, a former Urbandale City Council member. Zaun is the city's former mayor.
Their race was among several high-dollar Senate contests in the Des Moines metro area. The political parties split wins for two others in which Democrats were incumbents.
Sen. Nate Boulton, a Des Moines Democrat, narrowly lost his Senate District 20 seat to his challenger, Republican Mike Pike. The unofficial margin of victory was fewer than 50 votes.
In an even closer race, Waukee Democrat incumbent Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott beat Republican challenger Mark Hanson, who has been a Dallas County supervisor for about two decades, to claim another term in Senate District 14.
Trone Garriott's unofficial margin of victory was 19 votes.
Sen. Eric Giddens, a one-term Cedar Falls Democrat in Senate District 38, was defeated by Republican Challenger Dave Sires.
In the House
Republicans won four new seats and lost one because they fielded no candidate for one they hold.
Longtime Rep. Charles Isenhart, a Dubuque Democrat in House District 72, was defeated by Republican challenger Jennifer Smith. Isenhart had sought a seventh term but was defeated by about 6 percentage points, according to unofficial results.
Rep. Molly Buck, a first-term Democrat from Ankeny, was defeated by Republican Ryan Weldon, a former president of the Ankeny School Board, in House District 41.
Rep. Sue Cahill, a two-term Democrat from Marshalltown, was defeated by David Blom, a union sheet metal worker, for House District 52.
Newcomer Democrat Jeremy True, of Mason City, sought to retain a seat in House District 59 that was vacated by Rep. Sharon Sue Steckman, who is retiring after eight terms. But True was defeated by Christian Hermanson, a military veteran who works in property management.
Democrats picked up the House District 81 seat, which represents part of Scott County, when Daniel Gosa, of Davenport, ran unopposed. Rep. Luana Stoltenberg, a Davenport Republican, held the seat for one term.
Significant majority
The results strengthen the current Republican majorities in the House and Senate, where they gained a supermajority — or two-thirds of the Senate chamber — for the first time in a half century in the 2022 election.
Governor nominees for the leaders of state agencies and the Board of Regents require a two-thirds vote of approval in the Senate and don't need support from Democrats.
The last supermajority in the Senate was won by Republicans in 1970, when they took 38 seats. Republicans also won 63 seats in the House that year, and there was a Republican governor.
Since then — and before this election — Republicans had control of both chambers of the Statehouse during 11 general assemblies, which last two years.
Democrats had both chambers nine times in that span, but a Republican governor was in power for all but two of those.
The Democrats’ trifecta of power — when they had both chambers and the governorship — lasted from 2007 to 2010. It ended when Iowa voters elected Gov. Terry Branstad and swung control of the House to Republicans.
Republicans have not relinquished control of the House since, and four elections ago they took the Senate as well and continued to build on their majorities.
Comments: (319) 368-8541; jared.strong@thegazette.com
Daily Newsletters