Republicans win two seats in Southwest Iowa

Southwest Iowa voters filled two vacant legislative seats on Tuesday.Republican State Representative Hubert Houser of Carson won the open state Senate seat over democrat John O’Brien of Atlantic. Houser’s state House seat will be filled by Mills County Supervisor Gerald Jones, a republican from Silver City, who defeated democrat Chuck Larsen of Hamburg. That Senate seat was recently vacated by Darryl McLaren of Farragut, who resigned as a lawmaker to take a position with the federal agriculture department. The new legislators will report for duty when the special session convenes next week.