Primaries were held in seven states across the nation on Tuesday, June 7, including here in Iowa. Primaries set the matchups for the fall general election.

Due to redistricting approved by the Iowa Legislature in a Special Session in October 2021, the 2022 elections are occurring under the new Iowa Legislative and Congressional District Plan, which caused some shakeup through retirements and reshuffling. See an update of the primary process post-redistricting in our Week 10 overview, the week of the filing deadline for the June primary.

In Iowa, there was a Democrat and Republican primary for U.S. Senate, a Republican primary for the U.S. 3rd Congressional District (Congresswoman Axne’s seat), two primaries across the statewide races, and 39 contested primary races in the House and the Senate (11 Iowa Senate seats and 28 Iowa House seats). Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate noted that this was the second highest election turnout in a primary since 1994 (195,000 Republicans and 156,000 Democrats).

At the top of the ticket:

• U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley won handily over challenger Jim Carin
• Retired Navy admiral Mike Franken won the Democratic nomination to challenge longtime Iowa Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, winning with 55% of the vote
• State Senator Zach Nunn won the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne for Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District

Interesting results followed down the ballot. As forecasted in previous updates, in an unprecedented response, Governor Reynolds engaged in primaries backing Republican challengers to incumbent Republican representatives to further her education agenda. 

School choice advocacy groups spent large amounts of money in key districts and Governor Reynolds herself endorsed challengers. Governor Reynolds scored wins in key statehouse primaries, which means several Republican incumbents who opposed Governor Reynolds’ education proposal during the 2022 session will not return to the Iowa House after losing to their primary challenger, including:

• House District 5 – Rep. Bush
• House District 37 – Rep. Thorup
• House District 53 – Rep. Maxwell
• House District 88 – Rep. Hite

A few other notes of interest, in three of the nine primaries that involved incumbents running against each other:

• House District 53 – Rep. Fisher defeated Rep. Maxwell (see above)
• House District 66 – Rep. Bradley defeated Rep. Hein
• House District 87 – Rep. Shipley defeated Rep. Mitchell

Full results from the election are below and can also be found on the Iowa Secretary of State’s website.

Federal

U.S. Senator (Senator Grassley)

U.S. Congress 3rd District (Congresswoman Axne)

Statewide Offices

State Legislative Races

Senate

In the Senate, 34 seats were up for election. All of the odd-numbered seats, and new districts 4, 6, 14, 16, 30, 40, 42, 44, and 46.

Republicans had contested primaries in six races and Democrats have contested primaries in five races, see below.

Iowa Senate Republican Primaries

Iowa Senate Democratic Primaries

House

All 100 seats in the Iowa House were up for reelection. Republicans had 20 races with primaries, and nine of those primaries involved incumbents. Three of the nine primaries that involve an incumbent have incumbents running against each other: HD 53, HD 66, and HD 87. House Democrats had eight primaries, none of which involve incumbents.

Iowa House Republican Primaries