Pate wins secretary of state; Sands defeats incumbent auditor Mosiman

WATERLOO - For down-ballot races, incumbents held their seats in Iowa on Tuesday, except in the state auditor race.

Democratic challenger Rob Sands defeated Republican Mary Mosiman, who has been Iowa's auditor since 2013, after being appointed by former Gov. Terry Branstad.

In the secretary of state race, Democrat Deidre DeJear conceded defeat late Tuesday to Republican incumbent Paul Pate.

With 92 of 99 counties reporting, incumbent Democrats Mike Fitzgerald, who is Iowa's state treasurer, and Attorney General Tom Miller easily won their races, and Republican Mike Naig won another term as secretary of agriculture.

The races are commonly called down-ballot because of the straight party voting - where a person votes for every candidate in a specific political party by filling in a bubble next to their party preference instead of voting for the candidates individually - but for the first time Iowans did not have that option.

Throughout 2018, races for Iowa's secretary of state, state auditor and secretary of agriculture have received more attention than previous years.

All of the races have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the candidates.

Democratic candidate for auditor Sand raised more than $1.2 million for his campaign and Republican incumbent Mary Mosiman, 56, raised $85,580.

Sand, 35, is a former Iowa prosecutor who ran on the platform of being Iowa's watchdog.

He first was interested in running as a prosecutor, he said. The state auditor's office handles all of Iowa's public corruption investigations.

In the secretary of state race, DeJear, 32, has raised over $500,000 for her campaign, and Pate, 60, has raised over $80,000.

A new voter ID law has brought this race to the attention of many Iowans.

Both candidates have run a campaign encouraging all Iowans to vote, and Pate has traveled around Iowa to spread the word that Iowa's election would be safe from hacking.

DeJear has received national attention and recently campaigned with Sen. Kamala Harris in Cedar Falls.

Democratic candidate for Iowa's secretary of agriculture Gannon, 42, raised $370,000 and his opponent Republican incumbent Naig, 40, raised $400,000.

The race for treasurer of state hasn't brought in the same dollars as the other races. Democrat incumbent Fitzgerald, 66, has raised $44,000, and his opponent Republican Jeremy Davis, 40, has raised $22,900.

Fitzgerald has served as Iowa's treasurer of state since 1983.

In the last 15 days of October, each of the Democratic candidates, except Fitzgerald, raised well over $100,000 and campaigned together at various events throughout Iowa.

The Republicans candidates collectively have raised $100,000.

Iowa Attorney General Miller, 74, defeated libertarian challenger Marco Battaglia, 33.

Other libertarians running are Jules Ofenbakh for secretary of state, Fred Perryman for state auditor, Timothy Hird for treasurer of state and Rick Stewart for secretary of agriculture.