Iowans voted to keep two long-term Democratic incumbents as state treasurer and attorney general, but Iowa’s Democratic secretary of state narrowly lost to a Republican challenger from western Iowa.
Council Bluffs City Councilman Matt Schultz defeated Secretary of State Michael Mauro’s bid for a second term as the state’s commissioner of elections. The margin of victory in the race is less than 30,000 votes out of the more than one million votes cast.
Democrat Tom Miller, the seven-term incumbent attorney general, beat his Republican challenger by 10 points.
“What I feel is gratitude, most of all to the voters,” Miller said last night. “I appreciate the fact that they came out and voted for me, yet again, in a more challenging year than before.”
Republican Brenna Findley left her job as Congressman Steve King’s chief of staff and raised over a million dollars for her race against Miller.
“We were standing up for the constitution, standing up for Iowa’s economy and to reform government — some much needed reforms,” Findley told reporters last night, “and I think those are messages that resonate with Iowans because those are things we all care about.”
State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald, a Democrat, won an eighth term, defeating Republican challenger Dave Jamison by nearly six points. Two Republicans who hold statewide office were reelected Tuesday. State Auditor Dave Vaudt won by 13 points.
Ag Secretary Bill Northey talks to supporters after winning his second term.
Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey beat Democratic challenger Francis Thicke by more than 25 points. “I think it’s a combination of a lot of things,” Northey said last night of his victory. “We worked hard the last four years to get out and meet the people of Iowa. I think we did have a different vision of where things were going and what we wanted to see happen and I think the opportunity to grow jobs in Iowa from agriculture certainly resonates in a year like this as well.”
(This story was updated at 4:15 a.m.)