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GOP Puts Joe Biden On Notice, Flips Seat Held By Dems For Decades In Iowa Special Election

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The GOP just put President Joe Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi on notice by flipping a seat the Dems have held for decades in an Iowa State House in a special election.

Jon Dunwell was elected the new representative of Iowa House District 29. Dunwell (R) beat Democratic opponent Steve Mullen by a 60 percent to 40 percent margin. Turnout was low with the House District 29 special election seeing a 22.03 percent voter turnout.

“Community engagement is very important to me. Being out and among the people is very important to me. Giving everyone a seat at the table is very important to me,” Dunwell told the Newton Daily News as he watched the results roll in. “I have a conservative philosophy. My passion is for Jasper County and Iowa. The team that I work with is for the Republicans.”

“Though tonight is not the result we hoped for, I am deeply grateful to have had your support and I’m proud of the race we ran,” Steven Mullan said. “We championed issues that matter to voters like public education, healthcare, and rural broadband access. Our advocacy on these issues will not stop with this campaign.”

Jasper County Republican Party Chairperson Thad Nearmyer said:

“This is a seat we’ve been wanting for so long, and after Zach Nunn won we knew it was possible. Jon won in a district that leans blue still. It shows how much work he’s put into it.”

“Jasper County has a representative that reflects the voters,” he said of the county turning red.

Michelle Smith, chairperson of the Jasper County Democratic Party, said:

“People were not expecting him to resign at the time he did, which then the governor, who is a Republican, was able to use the calendar based on his resignation to make an advantage for the Republican candidate who already ran for the same seat before. There was a clear advantage going to Jon.”

From The Hill:

The district, based around Newton, about half an hour east of Des Moines along Interstate 80, has been trending Republican in recent years. 

Jasper County gave former President Trump 60 percent of the vote in 2020, the highest share any Republican had earned there since Herbert Hoover in 1928. Before Trump, Jasper County had voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in six of the preceding seven presidential elections. Dunwell’s new district gave Trump 57 percent of the vote; in 2012, then-President Obama carried the seat with 56 percent.

Newton, the county seat, was once a major manufacturing hub, the home of a major Maytag plant that closed in 2007. The city is still home to the Maytag Blue Cheese Company, opened a century ago by an heir to the Maytag Appliance fortune.

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