Aug. 26 (UPI) — Democrat Catelin Drey is on track to break the GOP supermajority in the Iowa state Senate by flipping a seat previously held by a Republican in a Tuesday special election.
Drey was leading with 55% of the vote to Republican Christopher Prosch’s 44%, according to the unofficial tally by the Woodbury County Auditor’s Office.
Her victory is the latest bright spot for Iowa Democrats ahead of the 2026 elections after seeing their clout in the once competitive state decline over the last decade. It also means that Republicans will lose their two-thirds majority in the chamber, forcing GOP Gov. Kim Reynold to get the support of at least one Democrat for her executive appointments.
Democrat Mike Zimmer won a surprise victory for an eastern Iowa Senate seat in a special election in January, reported the Des Moines Register. That followed a competitive showing for an Iowa House seat and a win for a Cedar Rapids-based House seat in the spring, the paper reported.
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin hailed the results in a statement saying they were a sign that voters in the state were ready for a change
“They are putting Republicans on notice and making it crystal clear: any Republican pushing Trump’s unpopular, extreme agenda has no place governing on behalf of Iowa families,” he said.
However, Jeff Kaufmann, chair of the Iowa GOP, dismissed the results in a post on X.
“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,” he wrote.
Drey, 37, works in marketing and lives in Sioux City with her husband and daughter, according to the Register.
“Overwhelmingly the main frustration point that I am hearing is that we have an affordability crisis, whether that’s housing, child care or healthcare,” Drey said. “And folks are really feeling that in their pocketbooks and in their spending decisions.”
The seat, which includes Sioux City, was previously held by Rocky De Witt who was re-elected in 2022 with nearly 10% of the vote and died in June.