Democratic state legislative candidates in several of Iowa’s most competitive races hold a firm cash advantages over their Republican opponents as the Nov. 3 general election approaches, new filings show.
But GOP leaders are amassing hefty war chests of their own to funnel resources to their candidates most likely to face intense spending before Election Day.
The Iowa House and Senate races expected to be competitive include contests in the Des Moines metro, as well as a pair of Senate seats on either side of the state that Democrats flipped in special elections last year and now are trying to defend.
Democrats are hopeful they will be able to flip the governor’s office with State Auditor Rob Sand, the lone statewide elected Democrat, as their nominee. He faces Republican businessman Zach Lahn.
With Sand at the top of the ticket and national political conditions favoring Democrats, the party is looking to gain ground in key legislative seats and, if Sand wins, limit Republicans’ ability to thwart his agenda.
Republicans hold a 67-33 supermajority in the House. In the Senate, a string of recent Democratic special election wins has cut the GOP majority to 32-17, just short of a supermajority.
Legislative candidates often receive significant financial support from their legislative leadership and state political parties, allowing them to run ads and send campaign mail in the final weeks before an election.
The Iowa Democratic Party raised more than twice as much cash as the Republican Party of Iowa in the most recent fundraising period — $1.6 million to $791,690 — according to filings with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, which cover May 15 through July 14.
Sand’s campaign donated $750,000 to the Iowa Democratic Party, accounting for nearly half its total raised for the period.
The Iowa Democratic Party ended the fundraising period with $1.4 million in cash on hand, slightly more than the Republican Party of Iowa’s $1.3 million.
House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, far outpaced his Democratic counterpart in his report, the first since the June primary.
Grassley brought in $156,400, bumping his war chest to $898,690. House Minority Leader Brian Meyer, D-Des Moines, raised $20,228, nudging his campaign coffers to $160,231.
House Majority Leader Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, also eclipsed Meyer. He raised $30,000 and has $245,741 in the bank.
Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner, D-Iowa City, tallied $60,639 in the most recent fundraising period, bumping her total in the bank to $120,322.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh, R-Spillville, and Senate President Amy Sinclair, R-Allerton, are not up for reelection this year and did not have to file campaign finance reports. Klimesh reported $501,950 in the bank at the end of 2025, his most recent report, while Sinclair reported $202,117.
Depending on candidates’ fundraising, the most recent reports begin either on May 15 or on the Wednesday preceding Iowa’s primary election — May 27 — and go through July 14.
Candidates are required to file reports with the state once they raise or spend more than $1,000 in a calendar year.
Iowa House District 39: Des Moines
Former Democratic state lawmaker Nate Boulton holds a significant cash advantage over his Republican opponent Troy Clark in the race for House District 39, which is open with the retirement of longtime Democratic state Rep. Rick Olsen.
Boulton, who previously served in the Iowa Senate, raised $10,000 from Decorah trial attorney Nicholas Rowley, $2,500 from Local #4 Fire PAC and $1,000 from Democratic gubernatorial nominee Fred Hubbell — a major Democratic donor.
Clark, an insurance adviser, raised $800 from five individual donors. The campaign reported $830 in debt owed to Clark for campaign signs.
Nate Boulton (D)
Troy Clark (R)
Iowa House District 40: Des Moines and Altoona
Republican incumbent Rep. Bill Gustoff outraised Democratic challenger Heather Sievers in Iowa House District 40, but Sievers maintains the overall cash advantage as they gear up for a rematch of their razor-thin 2024 contest.
Gustoff, an attorney, raised $5,000 each from Gary and Barbara Ruebel of Des Moines and REALTORS PAC, as well as $2,500 from the Iowa Law PAC and $2,000 from Wellmark Inc. PAC.
Sievers, a registered nurse and care navigation advocate for patients with complex medical and socioeconomic needs, raked in $9,000 from the Iowa Democratic Party, $5,000 from Hubbell and $4,500 from Teresa Welch of Oregon.
Bill Gustoff (R, incumbent)
Heather Sievers (D)
Iowa House District 41: Northern Ankeny
Former state Rep. Molly Buck, a Democrat, outraised Republican incumbent state Rep. Ryan Weldon in her bid to reclaim the seat he ousted her from in 2024.
The 2024 faceoff between Buck, a teacher, and Weldon, a digital business development manager, in Iowa House District 41 marked one of the state’s closest legislative contests and is seen as a pickup opportunity for Democrats.
Buck’s haul includes $5,000 from Hubbell and $3,946 from the Ankeny Area Democrats.
Weldon’s top donors include $2,500 each from Donald F. Lamberti, the co-founder of Casey’s, and BUILD-PAC of the National Association of Home Builders.
Ryan Weldon (R, incumbent)
Molly Buck (D)
Iowa House District 42: Southern Ankeny
Democrat Amy Tagliareni outpaced Republican Heather Stephenson, a Des Moines Area Community College adjunct instructor, in fundraising in the race for Iowa House District 42.
The seat is open after Democratic state Rep. Heather Matson decided to run for the Iowa Senate. Democrats are hoping to hold onto the seat Matson maintained by slim margins during the last two elections.
Tagliareni’s largest donations included $5,000 from Hubbell and $3,946 from the Ankeny Area Democrats, while Stephenson raised $1,000 from former Casey’s CEO Bob Myers.
Heather Stephenson (R)
Amy Tagliareni (D)
Iowa House District 43: Johnston, Urbandale and Saylorville
Democrat Jill Alesch holds a sizeable cash advantage over Republican Nicole Hasso in the open Iowa House District 43 seat that is expected to be a tight contest.
The seat opened after Republican state Rep. Eddie Andrews ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor, and Democrats are looking to take back the historically blue district in November.
Alesch, an assistant director/attorney of Pension Risk Transfer at Principal Life Insurance Co., was unopposed in the primary. She raised three times as much as her opponent, including $9,000 from the Iowa Democratic Party and $5,000 from Hubbell.
Hasso cleared a three-way GOP primary with the backing of Gov. Kim Reynolds and former Gov. Terry Branstad. Since then, the financial adviser raised $6,923 — including $250 from Branstad and $1,000 from the DFL Revocable Trust established by Lamberti.
Jill Alesch (D)
Nicole Hasso (R)
Iowa House District 52: Marshalltown
Democrat Mike Tupper significantly outraised Republican incumbent Rep. David Blom in the race for House District 52, where Democrats see a chance to reclaim the seat after losing it in 2024.
Tupper, a retired Marshalltown police chief, brought in $9,000 from the Iowa Democratic Party, about half his total.
Blom, a sheet metal worker whose 2024 election win flipped the seat red, is rounding out his first term in the Iowa House. About $1,900 of his contributions came from the online fundraising platform WinRed.
David Blom (R, incumbent)
Mike Tupper (D)
Iowa Senate District 1: Sioux City and Lawton
State Sen. Catelin Drey, D-Sioux City, flipped the Senate District 1 seat from Republican control in a special election last August. She holds a large fundraising lead over Republican Christopher Prosch in a rematch of last year’s contest.
Drey’s largest donor was Hubbell, who gave $10,000. She also reported extensive fundraising through the online platform ActBlue.
Prosch did not report raising or spending any money. He spent $2,079 of his own money on campaign signs, t-shirts and palm cards, which he reported as in-kind contributions.
Catelin Drey (D, incumbent)
Christopher Prosch (R)
Iowa Senate District 21: Ankeny
State Rep. Heather Matson, D-Ankeny, is facing off with John Hollinrake, a deputy state director for U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, for Ankeny-based Senate District 21, which is open after state Sen. Mike Bousselot’s decision to move and run in District 23.
Matson’s largest donation was $7,893 from the Ankeny Area Democrats and $4,000 each from Teresa Welch of Oregon and Carson Gleberman of New York.
Nearly all of Hollinrake’s fundraising came from a $1,000 donation from Steven Boal of Ankeny. He also loaned his campaign $3,215.
John Hollinrake (R)
Heather Matson (D)
Iowa Senate District 23: Granger, Grimes, Bondurant, Mitchellville, Runnells, Urbandale
Bousselot, a Republican, holds a fundraising edge over his Democratic opponent Tony Thompson in the race for Iowa Senate District 23 as state Sen. Jack Whitver plans to retire.
Bousselot currently represents Senate District 21 in Ankeny but has said he is moving to run in District 23. Some of his largest donations came from PACs, including $5,000 from NextEra Energy, $3,000 from Iowa Health PAC. Bousselot also pulled in $5,000 from South Dakota biofuel company CEO Jeff Broin.
Thompson, a small business owner and farmer, received more individual contributions than Bousselot. His largest donations came from union PACS, including $1,000 from Local Union No 347 IBEW PAC and $500 from Iron Workers Local 67 PAC.
Mike Bousselot (R)
Tony Thompson (D)
Iowa Senate District 35: Clinton County, parts of Jackson and Scott counties
State Sen. Mike Zimmer, D-DeWitt, who won a special election last year to flip a GOP-held seat, leads in fundraising and cash on hand over his Republican opponent, Joe Stutting.
Zimmer received $10,000 from Hubbell while Stutting received $10,000 from Lawrence Bay, a former mayor of Port Byron, Illinois.
Mike Zimmer (D, incumbent)
Joe Stutting (R)
Stephen Gruber-Miller is the Capitol bureau chief for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com, by phone at 515-284-8169 or on X at @sgrubermiller.
Marissa Payne covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. Reach her by email at mjpayne@registermedia.com. Follow her on X at @marissajpayne.
Rapid Response Politics Reporter Maya Marchel Hoff can be reached at mmarchelHoff@registermedia.com. You can find her on X (formerly Twitter) at @mmarchelhoff.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Many key Iowa House, Senate races see Democrats hold fundraising edge
Reporting by Stephen Gruber-Miller, Marissa Payne and Maya Marchel Hoff, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Stephen Gruber-Miller, Marissa Payne and Maya Marchel Hoff, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
