Two Iowa Democratic candidates campaigned in Sioux City on Saturday ahead of an upcoming special election.
Catelin Drey, the Democratic nominee for Iowa’s 1st Senate District, canvassed across Woodbury County for the August 26th special election. The vote will fill the seat left vacant by the late Senator Rocky De Witt.
If elected, Drey would become the 17th Democrat in the Iowa Senate, a result that would break the Republican supermajority. She argued this would give Democrats a stronger negotiating position on key issues.
“That really means that we’re going to stand up for things like local control,” Drey stated. “Sioux City has really seen a significant reduction in their budget because of laws that were passed in the last couple of sessions, and that hurt Sioux Citians. Being able to negotiate and say, ‘We can do better for the people in our district,’ that’s going to be really significant.”
Joining Drey was Ryan Peterman, a Democratic candidate for Iowa Secretary of State. Peterman, a Navy veteran from Bettendorf, assisted with Drey’s canvassing efforts before holding his own town hall meeting in Sioux City.
Peterman, who announced his campaign in May, said his platform centers on election security, voting accessibility, and restoring public trust in the electoral process.
“In the past few years, we have seen a lot of rhetoric around elections and voting, and unfortunately a lot of it’s been used as a scare tactic to justify laws like the ones we’ve seen here in Iowa that make it harder for folks to vote,” Peterman said. “Security is paramount, absolutely, but so is accessibility and perhaps above all is the need for us to restore trust in our elections.”
If he wins the nomination, Peterman would challenge incumbent Paul Pate, who has served as Iowa’s Secretary of State since 2015. A Democrat has not been elected to the office in nearly two decades, since Michael Mauro won in 2006.
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