A longtime Democrat-held Iowa state House District has fallen to Republican candidate Jon Dunwell, according to projections. He won roughly 60% of the vote in a special election Tuesday.
The seat, which has been held by Democrats for decades, will now be filled by a Republican for the first time since 1992. The seat became open when the incumbent Democrat representative left for a job with the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy, and Governor Kim Reynolds (R-IA) announced a special election.
The Hill reported that Dunwell’s victory marked the second instance of a Republican flipping a state office since Biden took office. The other instance was a state Senate seat in Connecticut.
Iowa, as a whole, has shifted in the last ten years. After voting for Obama in 2008 and again in 2012, the state went for Trump twice with relatively comfortable margins.
