A Democratic candidate has won the state senate seat previously held by Republican Chris Cournoyer, who resigned in December to serve as lieutenant governor.

State Senate District 35 covers all of Clinton County and parts of Jackson and Scott Counties. Cournoyer won the district by a 22 point margin in 2022. President Trump won it last November by 21 points. Unofficial results from yesterday’s special election show Democrat Mike Zimmer finished with nearly 52% of the vote, defeating Republican Katie Whittington of Clinton.

Zimmer, a retired teacher and coach, is president of the Central DeWitt School Board. Zimmer said since it was a special election, the race had the full attention of Iowa Democrats.

“We had people making phone calls, writing postcards, coming over and helping knock doors — everything that you have to have to have a winning campaign,” Zimmer said. “I was just blessed to have all of that.”

When Zimmer is sworn into office at the statehouse, there will be 16 Democrats and 34 Republicans in the state senate.

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