Democrat Renee Hardman wins Iowa Senate special election

[EarlG]

1. Weirdly, Republicans seemed to think they had a shot at winning this, which was wishful thinking

Earlier today:

Iowa special election puts GOP Senate supermajority back in play

Democrats are fighting to preserve their final point of leverage in Iowa’s Senate on Tuesday, as Republicans stand one win away from a supermajority and near-total control of the chamber.

A Republican pickup would restore the GOP’s supermajority only months after Democrats briefly broke it in an August special election, giving Democrats 17 seats to Republicans’ 33 seats.

(snip)

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has framed Hardman’s race as a “must-win,” citing the need to safeguard what it calls “hard-won progress” after Iowa joined five other states where Democrats have broken Republican legislative supermajorities in the past two years.

Democrats hold a roughly 3,300-voter registration edge in the district, accounting for 37% of voters compared with Republicans’ 30%, though turnout in a holiday-week special election could be unpredictable.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/4365030/iowa-special-election-puts-gop-senate-supermajority-back-in-play/

Now the actual results. As I write this, the results with 95% reporting are:

Hardman (D): 71.5%
Loftin (R): 28.5%

So Hardman the Democrat is going to win by about 40 points, around the same margin that her predecessor won by a year ago. She'll probably do slightly better, in fact.