Spurring voter turnout is focus as 2026 election nears

Campaigns spent the weekend focused on getting Iowans who haven’t yet cast a ballot to vote. Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson reports.

Republican candidate for governor Zach Lahn (like “LANE”) suggested Trump’s appearance in Dubuque was a signal.

Hinson, in a speech to the crowd before Trump arrived, said her race will decide whether Republicans or Democrats control the agenda in the U-S Senate next year.


On Sunday night, Josh Turek — the Democrat running for the U-S Senate — spoke at a rally in his hometown of Council Bluffs.

The closest U-S Senate race was in New Hampshire in 1974. After a second recount showed one candidate ahead by just two votes and hearings in the U-S Senate that failed to resolve the race, a do-over election was held in 1975. Voter turnout set a record and the margin of victory in that New Hampshire special election was 27-thousand votes.