The power of the incumbency was on display when Iowans voted for in their Congressional District race and the U.S. Senate race. Congressmen Rod Blum (R-Iowa), Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa), David Young (R-Iowa) and Steve King (R-Iowa), as well as, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) won reelection.
Iowa 1st Congressional District
The most hostly contested race was in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District where Congressman Rod Blum (R-Iowa) defeated former Cedar Rapids council woman and Lt. Governor candidate Monica Vernon 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent. Blum won by almost 30,000 votes and won all but two counties in the district.
Vernon’s strength was in Linn County, but she only won that county by only 3,200 votes. She needed to perform better in her home county if she was going to carry the district. She also won Black Hawk county, a Democrat strong hold, by less than 1000 votes. Blum, on the other hand, won Dubuque County where he resides by almost approximately 3,500 votes and performed well across the district.
Iowa 2nd Congressional District
Congressman Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa) defeated Republican challenger Dr. Christopher Peters rather easily – 53.7 percent to 46.3 percent. He dominated his district’s population centers and won by a margin slightly over 27,000.
Loebsack won Scott County (Davenport) with over 5,000 votes. Johnson County is where he dominated Peters winning by a margin of 27,000 votes. So Johnson County carried Loebsack to victory. Peters strongest counties were Marion and Mahaska Counties where he won by 3,700 and 3,200 votes respectfully.
Iowa 3rd Congressional District
Congressman David Young (R-Iowa) won reelection to a 2nd term by defeating his Democrat challenger Jim Mowrer 53.3 percent to 39.8 percent. This was supposed to be a contested race, but as you can see by the results and the map below it wasn’t. Young beat Mowrer by just over 53,000 votes.
Mowrer won one county – one! Polk County, a Democratic stronghold, and he only beat Young by 265 votes there. By contrast, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump in Polk County by over 26,000 votes.
Iowa 4th Congressional District
Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) dominated his Democrat challenger Kim Weaver 61.4 percent to 38.6 percent. He won by a margin of almost 84,000 votes.
Weaver won only one county – Story County – where she won by a margin of 4,500 votes. Based on the voter registration make-up of Iowa’s 4th Congressional District she didn’t really have a chance.
Iowa U.S. Senate Race
U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) won a blowout against former Lt. Governor Patty Judge. He defeated her 60.1 percent to 35.8 percent. Grassley beat Weaver by almost 373,000 votes.
She won one county – the People’s Republic of Johnson County – by almost 14,000. This race was talked up as though it would be competitive, but it clearly wasn’t.