Democrat Catelin Drey secured victory in Iowa’s Senate District 1 special election on 26 August 2025, defeating Republican Christopher Prosch by 11 percentage points and ending the Republican supermajority in the state Senate. The win in the northwest Iowa district, which supported Donald Trump by 10 points in the 2024 presidential election, gives Democrats 17 seats while Republicans retain a 33-seat majority.
Catelin Drey, a 37-year-old first-time Democratic candidate, won the special election for Iowa Senate District 1 on Tuesday, 26 August 2025, in northwest Iowa including most of Sioux City, beating Republican Christopher Prosch with 55.21 per cent of the vote to his 44.72 per cent, a margin of 11 points or roughly 800 votes, following the death of incumbent Republican Senator Rocky De Witt from pancreatic cancer on 25 June 2025.
Special Election Delivers Unexpected Democratic Victory
The special election in Iowa Senate District 1 drew 24 per cent turnout from nearly 32,000 registered voters across 22 precincts, with around 3,300 absentee ballots returned, representing 95 per cent of those requested, according to Iowa Public Radio reporting. Unofficial results showed Catelin Drey receiving 4,212 votes to Christopher Prosch’s 3,412, flipping the seat from Republican control and marking a Democratic hold with a swing of plus 10.48 points for Democrats, as detailed in Wikipedia’s summary of 2025 Iowa elections based on official canvass data from the Iowa Secretary of State. The district had previously leaned Republican, with Donald Trump carrying it by 10 points in 2024, making Drey’s margin a notable overperformance, according to political science professor David Peterson of Iowa State University cited by Iowa Public Radio.
As reported by Iowa Public Radio, Catelin Drey celebrated her win by hugging her young daughter amid applause from supporters, family, and volunteers, highlighting the personal stakes in the race.
Context of Vacancy and Party Nominations
The seat became vacant after Republican Senator Rocky De Witt died on 25 June 2025, prompting county nominating conventions by local Democratic and Republican parties to select candidates, according to the National Education Association. Drey emerged as the Democratic nominee over contenders including Shawn Olorundami, who then campaigned vigorously for her by knocking on doors and posting videos on social media, as noted by the NEA. Her campaign focused on Republican shortcomings in education, health, and economic issues after nearly a decade of legislative control, rather than directly attacking Prosch, whose past social media activity included conspiracy theories about 9/11 and the 2020 election as well as offensive comparisons of abortion to the Holocaust, though those accounts were scrubbed upon his candidacy, per NEA reporting.
Turnout and Voter Engagement in Key District
Iowa Public Radio cited local observer Skaff noting that absentee turnout of 3,300 in this single-race special election compared to over 5,000 when De Witt previously ran, underscoring strong participation despite the off-cycle timing. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee highlighted Drey’s win as building momentum for Democrats in special elections, overperforming in Trump-supporting districts, while Peterson attributed it partly to the pattern of the non-White House party gaining in such races, with Democrats outperforming their 2024 results by 10-15 per cent nationally.
Reactions and Strategic Implications
The victory restored balance by breaking the Republican veto-proof supermajority established after the 2022 general election, meaning Senate Democrats now hold enough seats to block gubernatorial nominations, according to Morgan Miller, political director at the Iowa State Education Association, as reported by the NEA. Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann downplayed the loss in a statement covered by KCCI, claiming national Democrats deployed 30,000 volunteers and significant funding to win by just a few hundred votes, though Democrats countered that only 300 volunteers made calls for Drey. Kaufmann’s statement described it as a desperate effort by national Democrats, while Drey’s success was called a shot in the arm for Democrats locally and nationally by observers in KCCI reporting from the statehouse.
Drey was sworn in to represent Senate District 1, where her win signals heightened alertness for both parties ahead of 2026 elections, with Republicans maintaining a majority of 33 seats to Democrats’ 17 in the Iowa Senate.
