Iowa House and Senate Majority Parties Remain Unchanged

With a statewide turnout of nearly 55-percent of registered voters, the makeup of the Iowa Legislature has been set, for the most part, for the upcoming 2023 Session of the General Assembly with the Republicans remaining in the majority in both the House and Senate.

We say “for the most part” because of problems counting absentee votes in Des Moines County.  The Burlington Hawkeye reports that a recount of the absentee ballots cast in the county will take place either later this week or early next week.

The results of the contest for House District 99, which includes the city of Burlington, will not be known until the recount takes place.  This race pits the longest tenured state lawmaker, Democrat Representative Dennis Cohoon, against GOP challenger Matt Rinker. Currently Rinker leads Cohoon by 770 votes.

In a rematch of House candidates from 2020, Democrat Heather Matson topped incumbent Republican Garrett Gobble by 24 votes in District 42 which is made up mostly of Ankney.

Incumbent Democrat Phyllis Thede was defeated by GOP newcomer Mike Vondren in House District 94, which includes portions of Davenport and Bettendorf, while Sioux City incumbent Democrat Steve Hansen was knocked off by Republican Robert Henderson.

In the Senate, redistricting pitted an incumbent against an incumbent in two new districts..

Democrat Sarah Trone Garriott defeated Republican Jake Chapman by over 800 votes in a battle for the new Senate District 14 in west suburban Des Moines.

In Eastern Iowa, Republican Dawn Driscoll topped Democrat Kevin Kinney by more than 2000 votes.

Also, Sioux City incumbent Democrat Senator Jackie Smith lost her reelection bid to Republican challenger Rocky De Witt by over 1400 votes.

Reynolds Re-Elected Governor

Incumbent Governor Kim Reynolds easily won reelection over Democrat challenger Deidre DeJear.  Reynolds’ margin of victory was well over 200,000 votes.

2023 Iowa Legislative Session Timetable

The 90th Session of the Iowa General Assembly is set to begin on Monday, January 9 and run for 110 days. 

Below are the key procedural dates that guide the flow of the legislative session:

January 9 - First day of the session

February 10 - Last day for individual lawmaker bill requests to be made.

March 3 - First “funnel” - This is the date by which a bill must be approved by a standing committee of its house of origin to remain eligible for further consideration that year. Appropriations, Ways and Means and Government Oversight committee bills are the exceptions to the “funnel” rules, as they are exempt from procedural deadlines.

March 31 - Second “funnel” - This is the date by which a bill has to be approved by a committee in the opposite chamber - meaning a House File must be approved by a Senate committee and a Senate File by a House committee to remain eligible for further consideration this year.

Appropriations, Ways and Means and Government Oversight committee bills are the exceptions to the “funnel” rules, as they are exempt from procedural deadlines.

April 28 - the 110th calendar day of the session