Democrat Catelin Drey will win an Iowa state Senate special election, CNN projects, flipping the seat and breaking the Republican supermajority in the chamber.
President Donald Trump won the Sioux City-area 1st senate district by 11 percentage points in November, so Drey’s margin of victory, currently about 10 points, represents a significant overperformance for Democrats.
An Iowa Democratic official says this will allow Democrats to block Republican Governor Kim Reynolds’ nominations that require two-thirds votes to pass, which include cabinet appointments, the board of medicine and the Board of Regents.
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 senate seat in a district Trump had won by more than 20 points.
