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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Iowa Democrat Catelin Drey flips state senate seat to break GOP
supermajority, CNN projects
By Ethan Cohen, Jeff Zeleny, CNN
Updated:
6:08 PM EDT, Wed August 27, 2025
Source: CNN
Iowa Democrats secured a consequential victory in a special election on
Tuesday, CNN projects, breaking the Republican supermajority in the
state Senate by flipping a seat in a district President Donald Trump
carried last year.
Democrat Catelin Drey defeated her Republican opponent, Christopher
Prosch, in a special election in the Sioux City area to fill the seat
of a GOP lawmaker who died of cancer in June.
Speaking to CNN on Wednesday, Drey credited her victory to campaigning
on concerns about affordability, echoing a message credited by Zohran
Mamdani in his surprise victory in New York City’s mayoral primary
and other Democrats looking to make inroads against Trump and
Republicans.
Lack of affordability “affects us whether we are Black, White or
brown,” Drey said on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”
“Being able to afford a good life in Iowa has gotten harder,” she
said. “So reaching voters with that message was priority No. 1.”
Trump won the 1st Senate district by 11 percentage points in November,
so Drey’s margin of victory, currently about 10 points, represents a
significant over-performance for Democrats in a state once seen as a
top battleground, but which has trended Republican for the last decade.
“For the fourth special election in a row, Iowa voted for change,”
Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said in a statement. “Our state
is ready for a new direction and Iowa Democrats will keep putting
forward candidates who can deliver better representation for Iowans.”
While Trump won Iowa by 13 points in 2024 after winning it by eight in
2020, Democrats have overperformed in all four of the state’s special
legislative elections this year.
In January they flipped a state senate seat in a district Trump had won
by more than 20 points.
With Drey’s victory, Democrats will now hold 17 districts in the Iowa
Senate compared to 33 seats held by Republicans, which is enough to
break a two-thirds supermajority the GOP has wielded since 2022.
The special election outcome means Democrats could now block Republican
Gov. Kim Reynolds’ nominations to state agencies, boards and
commissions in the final year of her term.
As is typical in special legislative elections, Tuesday’s vote was a
low-turnout affair. Only about 7,600 voters participated compared to
nearly 22,000 who voted in the district in November’s presidential
election.
That low turnout can make special elections unpredictable, but
Democratic performance in these special elections could bode well for
them in 2026 when the midterm electorate is likely to include a smaller
group of more motivated voters than that of a presidential year.
Iowa Republican leaders downplayed the Democratic victory, with state
GOP chairman Jeff Kaufmann saying: “National Democrats were so
desperate for a win that they activated 30,000 volunteers and a flood
of national money to win a state Senate special election by a few
hundred votes.”
But Republican groups also spent considerable money on the seat in a
special election that Democrats are trying to use to gain momentum for
the 2026 campaign.
In the past decade, Democrats have lost all but one statewide office
and all federal seats, but party leaders point to the special election
results this year as a sign change is looming in Iowa.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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