Democrats celebrate special election victory in Iowa State Senate, ending GOP supermajority
Catelin Drey, Democratic candidate for the Iowa State Senate, is seen in an advertisement for her campaign. Catelin Drey Campaign
(WASHINGTON) — National Democrats are celebrating the results of a special election for the Iowa State Senate, after Democrat Catelin Drey won in a district President Donald Trump carried by 11 points in 2024 to break a Republican supermajority of the chamber.
Republicans argue the low turnout race won’t reflect the voters who come out to support the party in the midterms, and that the results are influenced by the Democratic National Committee’s efforts to inject national money and volunteers into the race.
But the results are a potential warning sign for Republicans and suggest Democratic voters may be more engaged heading into next year’s elections, where control of Congress is at stake.
Drey won with 55% of the vote, with Republican Christopher Prosch garnering 44%, according to preliminary results from the Woodbury County Auditor’s Office.
“For the fourth special election in a row, Iowa voted for change,” Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said after Drey’s victory.
“Our state is ready for a new direction and Iowa Democrats will keep putting forward candidates who can deliver better representation for Iowans,” Hart added.
Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said on Wednesday the party mobilized more than 30,000 volunteers to aid Drey and Iowa Democrats.
Martin, in a statement touting Drey’s victory, said Iowans are “putting Republicans on notice and making it crystal clear: any Republican pushing Trump’s unpopular, extreme agenda has no place governing on behalf of Iowa families.”
“That’s why all year long, Iowans have been electing Democrats ready to fight for working Iowans. Make no mistake: when Democrats organize everywhere, we win everywhere, and today is no exception,” Martin said.
This is the second time this year that Democrats have won a special election in Iowa. In January, they flipped another Iowa State Senate seat in a GOP area that President Trump won by 21 points last November.
The result of Tuesday’s special election also has practical implications for the state. Without a supermajority, Republicans can no longer confirm the governor’s appointees without Democratic support.
Iowa Republican Party chair Jeff Kaufman, on social media, downplayed the win for Democrats.
“National Democrats were so desperate for a win that they activated 30,000 volunteers and a flood of national money to win a state senate special election by a few hundred votes,” Kaufman wrote on X. “If @DNC thinks things are suddenly so great again for them in Iowa, they will bring back the caucuses.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries hesitated to endorse presumptive Democratic New York City mayor nominee Zohran Mamdani but praised his “successful” campaign and messaging.
“I have not,” Jeffries said when asked by “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl about if he had endorsed the self-proclaimed democratic socialist candidate.
Jeffries said he spoke to Mamdani on Wednesday and plans to meet in person soon in Central Brooklyn.
“I congratulated him on the campaign that he ran, a campaign that clearly was relentlessly focused on the high cost of living in New York City and the economy. He outworked, he out-communicated, and he out-organized the opposition, and that’s clearly why he was successful,” he added.
Pressed on why he was holding back from endorsing Mamdani, Jeffries said “We don’t really know each other well.”
“Well, our districts don’t overlap. I have never had a substantive conversation with him. And so that’s the next step in terms of this process … to discuss his vision for moving the city forward and addressing the issues that are important to the communities that I represent,” he said.
Jeffries brushed off a question about how Mamdani’s win relates to the future of the Democratic Party.
“I think it will continue to be important for all of us on the Democratic side to address relentlessly the issue of the lack of affordability in this country. Donald Trump promised to lower costs on Day 1. Costs haven’t gone down, they’re going up,” he said.
On Mamdani and antisemitism charges
Jeffries said Mamdani will need to “clarify” his position on Israel and antisemitism.
“Globalizing the Intifada, by way of example, is not an acceptable phrasing,” he said. “He’s going to have to clarify his position on that as he moves forward. With respect to the Jewish communities that I represent, I think our nominee is going to have to convince folks that he is prepared to aggressively address the rise in antisemitism in the city of New York, which has been an unacceptable development.”
On House briefing on US strikes on Iran
Pressed on Friday’s classified briefing in the House on the U.S. strikes on Iran, Jeffries was skeptical of the information provided by the Trump administration.
“Why did they not seek the congressional authorization required by the Constitution for this type of preemptive strike?” he asked. “I still haven’t seen facts presented to us as a Congress to justify that step, and I certainly haven’t seen facts to justify the statement that Donald Trump made that Iran’s nuclear program has been completely and totally obliterated.”
On the Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship ruling
On Friday, the Supreme Court granted a partial stay of nationwide injunctions against President Donald Trump’s executive order to effectively end birthright citizenship. Jeffries called the decision “unfortunate” and “reckless.”
“If there is any instance where nationwide injunctions are appropriate, it would be in a manner like what we’ve just experienced in terms of birthright citizenship, which is clearly a part of the Constitution. If you are born as a child in the United States of America, you are a citizen. So, it was a procedural setback that was quite unfortunate, and it was a reckless decision, in my view,” he said.
He said Democrats will need to “intensify our efforts” in district courts or work on a class action suit on behalf of individuals “adversely impacted.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s tariffs tanked markets and unleashed recession forecasts when the president unveiled sweeping levies little more than 100 days ago. Now, as Trump continues to tout the policy, the economy is humming along and Wall Street is responding to each new tariff with a shrug.
A recent round of tariff threats has added a new layer of uncertainty, but the monthslong track record affords economists an opportunity to evaluate what the tariffs have yielded so far.
Analysts who spoke to ABC News credited the tariffs for delivering higher-than-expected tax revenue and helping to elicit some commitments from companies bent on investing in new production in the U.S.
But, some analysts cautioned, those company commitments carry a long time horizon and wiggle room for firms to renege upon the spending as the tariff policy fluctuates. Meanwhile, tariffs have started to push up some prices, risking a bout of inflation that could hurt consumers and disrupt the economy, they said.
Trump has rolled back many of his steepest tariffs over recent months, including a sky-high levy on China, the top source of U.S. imports. In recent days, however, Trump announced plans to slap tariffs as high as 50% on dozens of countries, including 25% tariffs on top U.S. trade partners such as Japan and South Korea.
In all, consumers currently face an effective tariff rate of 20.6%, the highest since 1910, the Yale Budget Lab found this week.
The Trump administration touts tariffs as part of a wider set of “America First economic policies,” which have “sparked trillions of dollars in new investment in U.S. manufacturing, technology, and infrastructure,” according to the White House’s website.
In theory, levies on imports incentivize firms to build manufacturing in the U.S. as a means of averting the tax burden.
Scores of companies have pledged new investment in the U.S., including tech giants Apple and Nvidia, pharmaceutical companies Merck and Johnson & Johnson as well as automakers Hyundai and Stellantis, the White House says.
“The whole idea is to encourage reshoring of manufacturing and change the balance of trade. That could all have some positive impact,” Morris Cohen, a professor emeritus of manufacturing and supply chains at Duke University, told ABC News.
Companies face the choice of making costly, long-term investment decisions amid Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff policies, which the White House has altered numerous times since Trump took office, some analysts said.
A pair of court rulings in May thrust some of the tariffs into legal limbo, adding another layer of uncertainty as federal appeals court judges determine whether a major swath of the policies pass legal muster.
“The companies making promises are trying to politically deal with Trump,” Matias Vernengo, a professor of economics at Bucknell University, told ABC News, adding that he expects many firms will ultimately fall short of their commitments.
“It would be nice if he announced a tariff policy and stuck to it. But that’s not what’s happening,” Vernengo added.
The Trump administration has rebuked criticism of its tariff approach, saying the flexibility affords White House officials leverage in trade negotiations with countries targeted by the levies.
The tariffs, meanwhile, have yielded a burst of tax revenue as importers to pay the federal government when they bring targeted goods into the U.S. The U.S. recorded about $27 billion in tariff-related tax revenue last month, bringing total payments so far this year to more than $100 billion, Treasury Department data showed.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said tariff revenue could exceed $300 billion by the end of 2025, which would amount to nearly 1% of U.S. gross domestic product. That revenue could help ease government deficits, some analysts noted.
“The tariff revenues are more substantial than I anticipated at the start of the year,” Zandi said, noting that tariff levels had remained higher than he expected.
Still, Zandi voiced skepticism about the staying power of the tax payments.
“It would not be prudent for lawmakers to count on this revenue in the future, as it is unclear whether the tariffs will remain in place given they may be found to be illegal or future Presidents may decide to lower or eliminate them under executive order,” Zandi said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. economy so far has defied analysts’ fears of a large, tariff-induced price spike. Still, tariffs contributed modestly to the rise of inflation last month, analysts previously told ABC News, citing the price hikes in product categories made up primarily of imports.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in June compared to a year ago, matching economists’ expectations but marking an uptick from a month earlier. Still, the inflation rate clocked in below the 3% recorded in January, the month Trump took office.
The price of toys — a product dependent almost entirely on imports — increased six times faster in June than it had just two months prior. Commonly imported products like clothes, furniture and bed linens were also among the goods that jumped in price.
Vernengo, of Bucknell University, said tariffs would likely push up inflation for a temporary period, putting pressure on the Fed to keep interest rates elevated and in turn risk an economic slowdown.
“Prices will go up as Trump imposes tariffs. Then, as tariffs are established and prices adjust themselves, they will stop growing,” Vernengo said. “It’s the Fed’s reaction that will matter more in my view than the tariffs.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said on Friday he’s ordered two nuclear submarines to move in the “appropriate regions” in response to what he called “highly provocative statements” from the deputy chair of Russia’s security council, Dmitry Medvedev.
Trump announced the move in a post to his social media platform. He did not specify in the post exactly where the submarines would be going.
“Based on the highly provocative statements of the Former President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that,” Trump wrote.
“Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances,” he added.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reposted Trump’s statement on X.
Medvedev has recently sounded off on social media on Trump’s deadline for Russia to come to a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine or face severe sanctions.
“Trump’s playing the ultimatum game with Russia: 50 days or 10… He should remember 2 things: 1. Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran. 2. Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country. Don’t go down the Sleepy Joe road!” Medvedev posted on X earlier this week.
Trump has expressed growing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine. Russia launched a record 6,443 drones into Ukraine in July, ABC News reported.
On Monday, Trump announced he was moving up the timeline for Russia to make peace from 50 days to 10 days.
“I want to be generous, but we just don’t see any progress being made,” Trump said. “I’m not so interested in talking anymore.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
