Iowa Senate District 35 special election ended with Democrat Mike Zimmer winning the ballot and beating the Republican, Katie Whittington. The position became vacant after Chris Cournoyer resigned to assume the role of Iowa’s lieutenant governor.
Unofficial results from the Iowa Secretary of State’s office showed Mike Zimmer garnering 52% of the vote, with 4,812 ballots, while Whittington received 4,473 votes, which is 48%. The district covers Clinton County and parts of Jackson and Scott counties.
“I am honored that the residents of Senate District 35 have put their faith in me to represent them in the Iowa Senate,” Mike Zimmer said. Our values of hard work and fairness resonated with a bipartisan coalition of voters in Clinton, Jackson, and Scott counties. I look forward to working on behalf of the people of Eastern Iowa to help working families get ahead, support our public schools and teachers, and lower the cost of living.
Mike Zimmer, a longtime education professional and president of the Central DeWitt School Board, will serve out the remainder of Cournoyer’s term through 2026. His campaign focused on strengthening public education, improving infrastructure, and advocating for higher wages.
On January 16, at a public forum, Zimmer reiterated that he intended to increase education funding and raise the minimum wage. He also talked about boosting Highway 30 in Clinton County so that more access to transportation means would be provided for businesses.
While Republicans still lead 34-16 in the Iowa Senate, many Democrats took some solace in the Mike Zimmer election as some sort of prescient harbinger of shifting political tides. For Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner, the win was “a clear rejection of the Republican agenda that has failed Iowans,” citing stagnant wages and cuts to public education.
This had as its winner, Zimmer, thereby signifying a flip within a district, where in the 2020 election the former president Donald Trump actually won by about 60 percent.
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