A Democrat in western Iowa won his race for the state House on Tuesday even though he had stopped campaigning two months earlier because of his health — a result that, in its own small way, captures how broadly the Democratic wave swept this year’s midterm elections.
Eric Armstrong, a former railroad executive whose name remained on the ballot, was elected to represent Iowa House District 20, the Associated Press reported.
He won despite announcing in early September that he was suspending his campaign, and he did so in territory that had favored President Trump: voters in the district backed the president just two years ago.
The margin was not close. Armstrong took 55 percent of the district’s more than 8,000 voters, defeating Republican Keith Jones — a Pottawattamie County supervisor and retired police lieutenant — by 865 votes, according to the AP.
The district takes in part of Council Bluffs and Carter Lake and borders Omaha, Nebraska. The seat had been held by Democratic state Representative Josh Turek, who on Tuesday won election to the U.S. Senate.
What makes the outcome striking is that, for the final two months, the Republican was effectively the only candidate still actively running. In a September 7 post, Armstrong said he was facing “personal health issues that require my full attention and immediate care” and was “stepping down from my campaign, effective immediately” to focus on his health. He thanked voters for their understanding of what he called a “deeply difficult choice” and asked for privacy. Voters elected him anyway.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Armstrong said he was proud of the win and promised to be “open and upfront about what comes next.”
“The voters of District 20 sent a clear message about the direction they want for Iowa,” he wrote, “and I will make sure that message is carried to the Capitol in January.”
Armstrong’s victory was not an isolated surprise but part of an across-the-board Democratic surge in Iowa, where the AP reported that voters punished Republicans amid frustration over high costs, concerns about government corruption, and opposition to an overseas war. Democrats up and down the ballot ran far ahead of their recent performance in the state.
The clearest example was at the top of the ticket. Turek, who vacated the District 20 seat, won the U.S. Senate race, leading his home county of Pottawattamie by less than a percentage point over Republican Ashley Hinson — a county that Trump carried with 59 percent of the vote in 2024 and where retiring Republican Senator Joni Ernst had taken nearly 55 percent in 2020. Turek will replace Ernst in the Senate.
Republicans still hold the Iowa Legislature, the AP noted, but they will now govern with a smaller majority in the state House and alongside a Democratic governor, after Rob Sand broke the party’s decade-long grip on state government.
https://ctninfo.com/iowa-democrat-wi…ign-in-september/
Source: The Associated Press
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