2020 Democratic Hopefuls Flex Political Muscle In Iowa State Senate Special Election

Tuesday’s special election for Iowa’s Senate District 30 has become a proving ground for Democratic 2020 Oval Office hopefuls.

Nine Democratic presidential candidates have appeared locally or publicly endorsed the campaign of Democratic candidate Eric Giddens, a member of the Cedar Falls school board, in his race against former State House Representative Walt Rogers, Republican.

“The whole thing is bizarre,” Giddens said in an interview with the Des Moines Register, referring to the attention generated by the special election in a district that turned out 33,322 votes in 2016 and includes the towns of Waterloo, Cedar Rapids and Hudson.

Presidential contenders campaigning for Giddens include Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Maryland Rep. John Delaney, and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, who has not yet announced his candidacy. New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand sent her staff to Iowa to help get-out-the-vote (GOTV), as did California Sen. Kamala Harris. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders sent out a GOTV email.

National press made the trip as well, with the Wall Street Journal, NBC’s “Meet the Press” and National Public Radio filing special reports.

Al Hays, a retired political science professor at the University of Northern Iowa, observed “Only in Iowa would a state Senate race attract all these national candidates,” according to the Register article.

The seat was vacated by the abrupt resignation in February of Democrat Jeff Danielson, a four-term incumbent, and 20-year veteran of the Cedar Falls Fire Department, over his objections to a new city policy that replaced select firefighters with cross-trained police officers. He subsequently accepted a position with the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) as a lobbyist.

Giddens’ opponent Rogers formerly represented the state’s 60th district in the House of Representatives from 2011-2018. The past two elections have shown the district competitive. In 2016 Danielson beat his opponent by 17 points, but the race in 2012 had only a 2 point margin.