Republican Supermajority Broken As Leftist Activist Wins In Trump-Leaning Iowa Senate District

Republicans are poised to lose their supermajority in the Iowa Senate after a leftist activist defeated a Republican businessman on Tuesday in a special election to fill a vacant seat. 

Democrat Catelyn Drey defeated Republican Christopher Prosch by about 800 votes to win Iowa’s 1st Senate district, according to preliminary election results. Drey, the founder of the leftwing group Moms for Iowa, earned 55% of the vote. 

“I’m just really incredibly honored that the folks in Senate District 1 believed in this campaign as much as the team did and I am looking forward to representing them well,” Drey told The Des Moines Register. 

Drey’s victory shifts the balance of the state Senate, leaving Republicans one seat short of a supermajority. Republicans still hold 33 of the state’s 50 Senate seats. Two-thirds of the Senate is needed to confirm state appointees, so Democrats could block anyone nominated by GOP Governor Kim Reynolds if they all vote in solidarity. 

The special election was called after Republican Senator Rocky De Witt died from pancreatic cancer earlier this summer. De Witt won the seat back in 2022 with 55% of the vote.  The district is located in Woodbury County, an area that backed President Donald Trump in the 2024 election with 61% of the vote. 

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Drey’s Moms for Iowa group backs action to support abortion and gun control. She was endorsed by Planned Parenthood, which called her a “Reproductive Freedom Champion.” 

Democrats celebrated the victory, claiming that it was an indictment of Trump. 

“Iowans are seeing Republicans for who they are: self-serving liars who will throw their constituents under the bus to rubber-stamp Donald Trump’s disastrous agenda — and they’re ready for change,” Democrat National Committee Chair Ken Martin said. “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.”

Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann said the result was a flood of out-of-state money and volunteers activated by the Democrats. 

“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 posted on X. “If [the DNC] thinks things are suddenly so great again for them in Iowa, they will bring back the caucuses.”