It turns out, the turnout at the polls on Tuesday did NOT set a record for a June primary election. Almost 280,000 Iowans voted on Tuesday. Secretary of State Paul Pate says more than 300,000 voters took part in primary elections in 2002 and 2010. Some media reports on Wednesday stated THIS YEAR’s election was a record-breaker. Not so. “I was hoping to make it the big one, but going back and looking at the archives, it looks like it’s in the top three,” Pate told Radio Iowa.

Participation in the DEMOCRATIC primary — which featured contested races for governor and the state’s three congressional seats — DID set a record for THAT party. “The count I last saw puts Democrats at a pretty significant number – I think it was 176,529,” Pate said.  Just over 13-percent of Iowa’s roughly two-million registered voters cast a ballot in Tuesday’s primary election. Provisional ballots are still being counted and will affect the overall numbers. They could also impact the Republican nomination for Iowa Ag Secretary. For now, it appears Mike Naig (rhymes with ‘egg’) finished just short of the 35-percent support he needed to earn the nomination. According to Pate, Naig could still get there. “We can’t answer that until we’ve gotten all of the provisionals counted and the counties have the chance to do their preliminary canvassing,” Pate said. “So, election night isn’t over – still some totaling going on.”

If Naig DOES end up below that 35-percent threshold, delegates at the Republican Party’s state convention will choose between Naig and four other candidates to decide who will appear on the November ballot.

(Radio Iowa)

Now that party primaries are settled in Iowa, 84 female candidates will be running on this November’s ballot — and that’s a record. It’s a 29 percent increase in women candidates from just two years ago. The two women who won Iowa congressional races Tuesday also won by large margins. Dianne Bystrom, an Iowa State University professor who leads I-S-U’s Center for Women and Politics, has been watching this year’s primary races.  “What we’re seeing across the country with women running is that they’re not only winning, but they’re winning by these impressive margins in races where there’s two or three other candidates,” Bystrom said.

Abby Finkenauer of Dubuque won the Democratic Party’s nomination in the first congressional district with two-thirds of the total vote in a four-way race. Cindy Axne of Des Moines was running against two male competitors — and won with 58 percent of the vote. “Really impressed with their margins of victory,” Bystrom says. “I was up until after one to see what was going on for the secretary of state’s office on the Democratic side and it was a little closer there than I thought it might be, but — certainly — great wins for women.”

Democratic Primary voters nominated Deidre DeJear to run against incumbent Republican Secretary of State Paul Pate in November. If DeJear is elected, she would be the first African American to serve in statewide office. Bystrom says research is showing 2018 voters are more inclined to vote for a female candidate.”They see a woman as more honest, more collaborative, more of a change agent and I think certainly women have been using that to their advantage in a number of these primaries,” Bystrom says. “…It’s not only happening just in Iowa, it’s happening in other states as well…Women are winning by these large margins or they’re winning when they weren’t expected to win.”

Iowa’s political parties can fill open slots on the ballot before the August deadline for designating General Election candidates — so there may be more than 84 female candidates on Iowa’s fall ballot.

(Radio Iowa)