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Iowa Special Election and Minnesota Democratic Senate [1]

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Date: 2025-03-10

Demagogue/Dictator Wannabe Trump’s Not Invincible– Democrats Flip “Red” Iowa Seat and Take Control of Minnesota Senate February 5, 2025

Far too many pundits and members of the media are pushing the Trump line that he is “riding high” after his “y uu ge” November, 2024 1.5 % popular vote victory. This analysis also points to the fact that Trump’s GOP is nationally “ascendant.” After all, as “Newsweek” noted, Donald improved on his margins in all but two states in the 2024 election and his GTP (G rand T rump P arty) now controls both the House and Senate. For example, in Iowa, which has voted for GOPers in the last three presidential elections, when it had not voted for a “Team Red” presidential candidate since 2004, Trump improved his margin by 5.1 points according to results reported by NBC News and the Associated Press, AP. Well, that Trump “high” popularity wave may now be crashing. Trump has lately acted like only he is “in charge” and running everything. A week and a day into his second presidency, Demagogue/ Dictator wannabe Donald has basically said, “To hell with the Constitution.” He has attempted to repeal the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship, fired Justice Department prosecutors who went after him in his previous administration, unleashed ICE to arbitrarily go after people it deems non-citizens, and called for a just about complete freeze on most government spending programs, overriding Congress’ power of the purse. A tremendous public outcry forced him to rescind the freeze. He also pardoned the imprisoned rioters who unlawfully stormed the U.S. Capitol who were incited by him to do that to prevent Congress from counting the ballots to lawfully elect Biden President on January 6, 2021. According to ABC News, many Americans now don’t believe he can get the price of goods and services down, including those in grocery stores. The public also now shows much less support for imposing tariffs on incoming goods from other countries, an obsession of his.

And now, let’s look at Hawkeye State Iowa once more. On January 28, 2025 the 35th IA Senate District (SD) held a special election. This contest occurred because Republican Chris Cournoyer resigned in December, 2024 to become IA’s Lieutenant Governor. Cournoyer had previously won this district by a 22-point margin. The IA SD35 in that state’s northeastern area covers parts of Jackson, Clinton, and Scott Counties. Trump won this senate district by 21 points in November, 2024. In 2024, Trump flipped Scott County “Red” after Biden had won it by 3 points in 2020 and Hillary by 2 points in 2016. Jackson and Clinton Counties had been won by Donald in the last three presidential elections. Well, Trump’s “magic Red pixie” dust did not rub off on the GOPspecial election candidate Kate Whittington. When all the votes were counted, Democratic candidate Mike Zimmer defeated Whittington 51.8%- 48.2%, or by 339 votes, 4,812-4,473.

IA GOPers, despite this flip to “Team Blue” by Zimmer will still hold a 34-16 strong edge in the Hawkeye State Senate. Still, despite the closeness of this race and the IA GOP State Senate hold, a “win is a win” and a “flip to the ‘Blue’ camp’” is still a flip. Zimmer will complete the rest of Cournoyer’s term, serving through 2026.

After his victory, Zimmer stated, “I am honored that the residents of Senate District 35 have put their faith in me to represent them in the Iowa Senate. Our campaign’s values of hard work and fairness resonated with a bipartisan coalition of voters in Clinton Jackson and Scott counties. I’m looking forward to working on behalf of the people of Eastern Iowa to help working Iowans get ahead, support our public schools and teachers, and help lower the cost of living.” State Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner told the Des Moines Register that this vote “is a clear rejection of the Republican agenda led by (Gov.) Kim Reynolds and the Senate Republicans that have failed Iowans.” Weiner also added, “Voters sent a message: They’re tired of stagnant wages, defunded schools, and state interference in local control.” Translation: We haven’t heard Donald talking about raising people’s wages and giving more money to education–just giving more dough to his fascist billionaire friend Elon Musk. And apparently, letting local citizens run education and other functions means nothing when GOPers control the government and want to interfere anytime they wish.

And there is good news on the election front that came in from Minnesota on January 28, 2025 as well. Although Democrats had previously tried to break the 33-33 tie in the Gopher State Senate, they had failed to do that several times. Well, on January 28, 2025 Democrat DFL (Democratic Farmer Labor) candidate Doron Clark clobbered GOP candidate Abigail Wolters in MN SD (Senate District) 60 by the “y uu ge” 91.3%-8.8% total. Yes this is in MN where Harris’ VP running mate was Governor Tim Walz and that ticket carried the state. The MN SD 60, was a “bigly” Harris +68 district. However, even in this “h uu ge” Harris district, the final result was a 14-point overperformance for Democrats from 2024. As a result of Clark’s victory, Democrats have finally gained control of the State Senate which breaks the previous statistical tie.

Yes, special elections have often been seen as bellwethers in predicting later trends in national elections. That result should have occurred in Campaign 2024 after many prior Democratic special election victories and when the Democrats were running with a presidential ticket. At that time, “Team Blue” should have been able to get its base out in most states to also help the down-ballot races. However, as we all, unfortunately, know, too many Democrats stayed home to give Donald and his GOP followers far too many electoral victories. Winning special elections is great, but those victories, with just a small number of Democrats coming out to vote, must encourage our side to vote in droves plus when national elections are at stake. I repeat: It’s the “T” word, “stupid”-- “Turnout,” “Turnout,” “Turnout.” Again, congratulations, to IA’s Mike Zimmer, MN’s Doron Clark, and the voters who made their victories possible.

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