Catelyn Dray’s victory is the latest in a string of positive special election results for the Iowa Democrats this year, giving the party hope that they can seize the backseat in the middle of 2026.
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- The Iowa Democrats have overturned Republican-owned Iowa Senate seats and destroyed the majority of the GOP.
- Democrat Catelyn Dray defeated Republican Christopher Proche in a special election for Iowa Senate District 1 in Woodbury County, western Iowa, including Sioux City.
- Dray said her priorities for taking office include funding public education at a rate that “maintains inflation” and “trying to make life a little more affordable for Iowans.”
Democrat Catelyn Dray left the Iowa Senate special election, turning the Republican-owned seats upside down, defeating the GOP supermajority at the Chamber of Commerce for the first time in three years.
Dray won with 55% of Republican Christopher Proche’s 44% vote, according to unofficial results from the Woodbury County Audit Bureau.
Gov. Kim Reynolds called for elections to fill the vacancy in Iowa Senate District 1 after Republican Sen. Rocky De Witt died of pancreatic cancer in June.
“I am extremely honored that the people in Senate District 1 believed in the campaign just as much as their team. I look forward to representing them well,” Dray said in an interview with the Des Moines register.
The Western Iowa Senate seat is based in Woodbury County and includes Sioux City.
Dray will serve the remainder of DeWitt, which will end in January 2027. The seats will be voted again in November 2026.
Doy’s victory now holds Democrats with 50 senators and 17 Republican seats in 33. This is enough to beat the two-thirds of the supermajority that GOP has enjoyed since the 2022 election.
This means Republicans need support from at least one Democrat senator to confirm Reynolds’ candidate for state agencies, committees and committees in the final year of her term.
Doy’s victory is the latest in a string of positive special election results for Democrats this year, and would hope the party could snatch back seats in the middle of 2026.
These results include the surprising victory for Democrat Mike Zimmer in January’s special election for the Iowa Senate seat in January, as well as the narrow losses for Democrats in the Southeast Iowa House District in March, and the dominant victory in the Cedar Rapids-based House in April.
Senate District 1 last voted in 2022, when De Witt defeated more than 10 percent of Democrat Jackie Smith.
“We are extremely proud of the organized efforts that Woodbury County Democrats have come in,” Dray said. “We had a truly exceptional team of volunteers who dedicated every weekend to knock on doors in all kinds of weather.
Who is Catelyn Drey?
Dray, 37, lives in Sioux City with her husband and daughter, and works as an account executive for a marketing company.
She named the best costs and education funding as her best problem as “meeting or exceeding inflation.”
“Overwhelmingly, the main frustration point I’m hearing is that we have an affordable crisis for us whether it’s housing, childcare or healthcare,” Dre said in a pre-election interview. “And people really feel the decisions they make to their pocketbooks and spend.”
After her victory, Dray said he wanted to represent her district well.
“And now, that means funding public education at a rate that meets or exceeds inflation, and trying to make life a little more affordable for Iowans,” she said.
Dray said he looks forward to talking to more voters in her district before she takes office.
“In the months before January, I want to be as accessible as possible to make sure I really want Senate District 1 hopes to Des Moines and do a good job representing them,” she said.
National Party support was poured for candidates
All-Democratic groups, such as the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, invested resources in race and quickly trumped the results.
The Democratic National Committee has worked with the Iowa Democrats to host phone and text banks and kicked out voters to support Dray.
“Iowans see Republicans about who they are: selfish liars throwing their members under the bus of Donald Trump’s disastrous agenda — and they’re ready for change,” DNC Chairman Ken Martin said in a statement.
In a statement, Iowa Democratic Chairman Rita Hart said “Iowa voted for change.”
“Catelyn Dray is not strong, but listens to people, grows our economy and reduces the costs of our families,” Hart said. “Christopher Proche and Iowa Republicans spent more than $180,000 on the race, but Democrats all over Iowa came together to spend money, knock on the door and write postcards.
Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said the election results should “send a flashing warning to the GOP.”
“Voters have rejected the failed Magazine agenda and left Republican candidates in the dust,” Williams said in a statement. “State legislative Democrats are making progress, responding to community concerns about the Washington turmoil and looking for voters of stable leadership — leadership that has pushed candidates like Senator Catelyn Dray this year is more special elections than this year, and we’re just starting out.”
Both candidates received significant funding support from parties in their respective states.
Doy had raised $165,385 as of August 21, spending $75,066, according to a funding report submitted to the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Committee.
She received $94,969 in kind support, of which $87,706 came from the Iowa Democrats. This includes spending on advertising purchases, postage charges and digital funding. The Woodbury County Democratic Central Committee spent $1,022 on 500 fans printed in campaign information.
His funding report says Proche had raised $20,020 as of August 21st and spent $18,425.
Iowa Republicans provided more than $160,000 in kind support for pizza farm meals for television, digital, radio ads, direct mail, campaign signs, social media ads, texts, campaign literature and volunteers.
Iowa Republican Chairman Jeff Kaufman criticized the National Democrats for investing so much in a race where Dray had received around 800 votes.
“National Democrats were so desperate to win that they sparked 30,000 volunteers and caused a national flood to win a special election in the state Senate with hundreds of votes,” he said in a statement. “If Democrats think things are great again in Iowa, they’ll get the Caucus back.”
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa State Capitol and politics in the register. He can be contacted by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by telephone at 515-284-8169. Follow him with X @grubermiller.
