Rob Sand's bid boosts focus on Democrats running for Statehouse seats
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Iowa Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand. Photo: Charlie Neibergall/Getty Images
"There's a little bit of this sense of, 'Rob Sand is this once-in-a-generation candidate, he's going to win and suddenly he's going to be able to wave a magic wand and transform the politics of Iowa.' ... But you have no real teeth to your ability to actually improve the politics and improve lives in your state without that legislative power, too."— Mandara Meyers, executive director of the left-leaning States Project, to the New York Times. Meyers' group is supporting Iowa Democrats running for Statehouse.
Iowa Democrats see a shot at taking the governor's mansion for the first time in 16 years, but a GOP legislative supermajority in the state could stifle their power, the New York Times reports.
State of play: Democratic candidates are polling well as President Trump's approval numbers sag nationally.
- But even a Sand win wouldn't stop Republicans from overriding his vetoes if the GOP holds on to or expands its supermajority in the Statehouse.
- Groups including the National Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee and the States Project are working in states such as Iowa to try to keep supermajorities from happening, the Times reports.
Flashback: In August, Democrat Catelin Drey won a special election for a Sioux City Senate seat.
- That reduced the Republican margin to one shy of a supermajority.
Zoom in: States Project is helping several local Iowa candidates, including Jill Alesch, a Democrat running for an Iowa House seat covering Johnston and parts of Ankeny.
- The group is also supporting Mike Tupper, a retired Marshalltown police chief who left the GOP after 2016 and is challenging freshman Republican David Blom for a House seat.
The other side: "We've seen this movie before," House Speaker Pat Grassley told the Times.
- "In 2020, out-of-state liberal donors poured millions into Iowa to try to buy the House, but Iowans saw right through it. In the elections since, Iowa has only trended more red."
Go deeper: Red State, Blue Governor: It Could Happen in Iowa. Would It Matter?