Iowa Democrats have flipped the Republican supermajority in the state Senate after newcomer Catelin Drey won a special election Tuesday night.

Drey beat out Republican candidate Christopher Prosch for the Sioux City district, which Donald Trump won in 2024. Drey secured 55 percent of the vote compared to Prosch’s 44 percent, giving Democrats 17 seats in the state Senate next to Republicans‘ 33 and breaking the two-thirds supermajority by one seat. She replaces Republican state Sen. Rocky De Witt, who died from pancreatic cancer in June.

“The supermajority is no longer, and I think that is obviously great for the Democrats,” Drey said during her victory celebration Tuesday night, via Iowa Public Radio. “But more importantly, it is great for the constituents across the state of Iowa who deserve to have their voices heard, who no longer will have to have unpopular policies shoved down their throat with no hope of a debate or conversation around a bill.”

Who is Catelin Drey?

Drey, 37, moved to Sioux City to attend Morningside University, where she still lives with her husband and daughter. She is currently working as an account executive at a marketing firm, and is the founder of advocacy group Moms For Iowa, which focuses on “curbing gun violence and championing women’s reproductive rights.”

Drey’s campaign focused on affordability, particularly in housing and child care, something she continued to emphasize in her victory speech.

“We have to focus on what constituents are saying,” Drey continued. “How do we make housing more affordable? How do we make our child care more affordable? How do we make our health care more affordable, and I am ready to hit the ground running on those issues.”

Who is Christopher Prosch?

Prosch has worked on campaigns for over a decade, most notably current Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem‘s 2010 Congressional campaign. His candidacy in the special election drew sharp criticism as voters learned of his past statements regarding abortion and the Holocaust.

Prosch has stated he believes, among other things, that rape victims should have to carry their pregnancies to term, that 2020 presidential election was stolen, and that climate change is a “a lie,” according to social media posts gathered by Iowa Starting Line. He attempted to scrub his profiles after announcing his campaign, but left up comments he made on a podcast comparing abortion to genocide.

“Who was worse? The Nazi Germans who killed 10 million Jews and many other people? Or the left’s policies to target an entire generation of babies to death,” Prosch said.

“Kooky” Catelin Drey?

The Iowa Republican Party ran an advertisement and sent out mailers during the campaign which depicted Drey with pink hair next to an alien, calling her “kooky” and claiming she wanted to let “illegal aliens” vote.

“What planet is Catelin Drey from?” the ad stated. “It can’t be the real world because she wants to let illegal aliens vote in our elections, stealing our rights as Americans to determine our leaders and giving it to those in our country illegally. Think that’s far out? It gets worse. Kooky Catelin Drey wants to end the deportation of criminal illegal aliens and stop funding for the border patrol, open borders, voting rights for illegal aliens. Catelin Drey, too far out for Iowa.”

Such claims were never made by Drey, and were not part of her platform — the advertisement’s “sources” were posts she made criticizing the Trump Administration’s illegal and cruel mass deportations. The Democrats then ran an advertisement in response, making fun of the Republican video.

“Why are politicians so obsessed with me? I think I looked great with pink hair, but the upkeep was exhausting,” Drey said. “But seriously: I’m a working mom, a proud Sioux citizen, and I’m ready to be your voice in the Iowa Senate. My ‘kooky ideas’ are fully funding our public schools, making housing and child care more affordable, and putting more money back in the pockets of working Iowans.”

This article originally appeared on Advocate: Who is Catelin Drey? This Democrat just broke the Republican supermajority in Iowa

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