Will Iowa Republicans Sweep All State Offices in 2026?
It’s been more than a half-century since the GOP swept all state executive offices
A month after the unexpected announcement last April that Iowa Republican Governor Kim Reynolds would not seek a third full term in 2026, Democratic Auditor Rob Sand launched his campaign for the office.
Sand famously emerged as the lone elected Democratic statewide executive official in Iowa following the 2022 midterms – and doing so by a scant 2,893 vote margin against challenger Todd Halbur to win a second term.
That cycle simultaneously saw the unseating of 10-term Democratic Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald by 2.6 points and 10-term Attorney General Tom Miller by 1.7 points.
All three of these Democratic incumbents ran more than 15 points ahead of the top of their party’s ticket, as gubernatorial nominee Deidre DeJear lost to Reynolds by 18.5 points.
Instead of seeking reelection to a third term next year, Sand will vie for the top elected post in a state whose electorate has shifted from swingy to Republican leaning over the last decade-plus.
Depending on the extent of the national anti-incumbency winds behind the backs of Democrats in 2026, Sand’s decision perhaps also increases the chances Iowa Democrats will exit the 2026 cycle without winning a single state executive office for the first time in more than a half-century.
The last time Republicans swept every state executive office in Iowa was in 1974.
Despite Democrats enjoying a post-Watergate national wave, the Iowa GOP held the offices of governor, lieutenant governor (then elected on a separate ballot line), secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, secretary of agriculture, and attorney general. [Note: John Culver did hold an open U.S. Senate seat for the Democrats that November].
Ever since, the two parties have enjoyed almost identical success at the ballot box for these offices – 37 electoral victories for the Republicans and 33 on the Democratic side.
The two offices for which Democrats have fared the worst during this span are auditor (winning just two of 13 elections) and governor (three of 12). Sand, in fact, is the only Democrat to win the office of auditor since State Representative Lorne Worthington in 1964. Prior to Sand’s unseating of Auditor Mary Mosiman in 2018, Republicans had won 29 of the last 30 elections for the office since 1938.
While Iowa voters have split their ticket for state offices during each of the last 12 midterm election cycles since 1978, this was not the case during the many previous decades.
In fact, during the 50 cycles from 1890 through 1974, there were only five that saw the state split its ticket for non-legislative statewide offices:
- 1938: Independent Des Moines attorney John Wessels was the only candidate on the November ballot for the special election for secretary of state – defeating the write-in vote tally of the Democratic incumbent (Robert O’Brian) and Republican general election winner (Earl Miller). Republicans swept the other 14 seats on the ballot. [Note: O’Brian contested the election and never left office so Wessels did not serve a day of the seven-week ‘stop-gap’ term].
- 1956: Democrat and former Ottumwa Mayor Herschel Loveless unseated Governor Leo Hoegh by 2.5 points while the GOP won all 11 other seats (lieutenant governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, secretary of agriculture, attorney general, four seats on the Supreme Court, and a seat on the Commerce Commission)
- 1958: Governor Loveless was reelected alongside Democratic nominees for Lieutenant Governor (Edward McManus), Supreme Court Justice (Harry Garrett and T. Eugene Thornton), and Commerce Commissioner (Harold Hughes and Bernard Martin). Republicans held the offices of secretary of state (Melvin Synhorst), auditor (Chet Akers), treasurer (M.L. Abrahamson), secretary of agriculture (Clyde Spry), attorney general (Norman Erbe), and two seats on the Supreme Court (long-serving Justices Theodore Garfield and Ralph Oliver)
- 1962: Democratic Commerce Commissioner Harold Hughes was the lone Democrat to win a state office unseating Governor Norman Erbe, as the GOP won elections for lieutenant governor (W.L. Mooty), secretary of state (Melvin Synhorst), auditor (Chet Akers), treasurer (M.L. Abrahamson), attorney general (Evan Hultman), plus special and general elections for secretary of agriculture (L.B. Liddy for both).
- 1966: Democrats won three seats behind Governor Hughes winning a third term with Lieutenant Governor Robert Fulton and Treasurer Paul Franzenburg also holding their seats. Republicans picked up the offices of secretary of state (Melvyn Synhorst winning his ninth of 14 nonconsecutive terms), auditor (Lloyd Smith), secretary of agriculture (L.B. Liddy claiming his third of five nonconsecutive terms), and attorney general (former State Senator Richard Turner).
Between 1890 and 1974, Republicans swept all state offices on the ballot across 40 cycles: 1890, 1892 through 1930, 1940 through 1954, 1960, and 1968 through 1974.
[Note: The offices of governor, lieutenant governor, and superintendent of public instruction were held in odd-numbered years through 1903. The remaining offices were held in even-numbered years; the terms of superintendent of public instruction, Supreme Court clerk, and Supreme Court reporter were for four-year terms].
During this 38-year GOP sweep from 1892 through 1930, Iowa Republicans won an impressive 223 consecutive elections to state office: 43 for the Supreme Court, 33 for railroad commissioner, 20 each for secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, and attorney general, 19 each for governor and lieutenant governor, 14 for superintendent of public instruction, six for Supreme Court clerk, five for Supreme Court reporter, and four for secretary of agriculture.
Democrats have swept all state offices on the ballot in five cycles since 1890: in 1891, 1932, 1934, 1936, and 1964.
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– ‘…auditor (2 of thirteen)…governor (3 of twelve elections)…’ Both posts have had 4-year terms starting with the 1974 election, if I am correct?
– The most recent non-presidential cycle that the Democrats have swept all “non-legislative statewide offices” was in 1934 (a record that will assuredly remain intact, since the elections for such posts are now held only in midterm years). My surmise is that the party is highly unlikely to win a clean sweep thereof, in part because many D-leaning voters have switched partisan allegiance or moved to places such as MN, IL, and even Omaha, the linchpin of the CD-02 of NE. Indeed, they would be more than content to win just some of them, most notably governor and attorney general.
There was an additional special election for Iowa Auditor in November 1980 following the death of Lloyd Smith in December 1978, shortly after winning his sixth term.
AL seems poised an all open seat fiasco in 2026 with senator Tommy Tuberville running for governor and all others term limited and/or running for other offices.
– The Democrats also won the US senate elections in 1932 and 1936 – marking the only cycles where they made a clean partisan sweep of statewide offices (the presidential balloting within as well).
– The topline statewide contest this cycle may well be the US Senate election, with two-term incumbent Joni Kay Culver Ernst facing a spirited challenge from the Democrats (her most recent “apology” may have damaged her standing with the voters even more so than her initial unsympathetic stance towards Medicaid recipients). She may even face a troublesome intraparty challenge despite her votes designed to placate the MAGA activists.
– The seat itself has been a troublesome one even for Republican occupants, with incumbents (of both parties) being ejected in 1984, 1978, 1972, 1954, 1948, 1942, 1936, 1930 – plus a rare removal from the Senate itself in 1926, effectively reversing the 1924 result. Will the ‘jinx’ resurface in ’26?
Wow, five senators in a row losing re-election in that Iowa class 2 seat in 1930, 1936, 1942, 1948, 1954. Are there other examples of this?
I found four in a row in New Jersey’s class 1 seat: James E. Martine (D), who lost re-election in 1916 to Joseph S. Frelinghuysen, Sr. (R), who lost re-election in 1922 to Edward I. Edwards (D), who lost re-election in 1928 to Hamilton F. Kean (R), who lost re-election in 1934 to A. Harry Moore (D). Moore broke this streak by resigning halfway into his term to become governor of New Jersey (for the third time), but the Senate seat flipped back to the GOP in the ensuing special election.
Another streak ran parallel to this in West Virginia’s class 1 seat, with William E. Chilton (D), 1916; Howard Sutherland (R), 1922; Matthew M. Neely (D), 1928; and Henry D. Hatfield (R), 1934. What’s more, Hatfield’s successor Rush D. Holt, Sr. (D) lost his primary in 1940.
In Idaho’s class 3 seat, there were three Democratic senators in a row who were defeated in the primary after one term: New Deal supporter James P. Pope, who lost renomination in 1938 to the more conservative D. Worth Clark, who lost renomination in 1944 to the leftist (and eventual Progressive vice-presidential candidate) Glen H. Taylor, who lost renomination in 1950 back to Clark in a rematch. The two Republican senators bookending these three Democrats each lost their re-elections after one term — John W. Thomas in 1932 to Pope, and Herman Welker in 1956 to Frank Church — so this also makes five consecutive one-term senators who lost their bids for a second term, as in West Virginia above.
IL 3: Tammy Duckworth in 2022 was the 1st incumbent reelected since 1986
NC 3: Richard Burr in 2010 was the 1st incumbent reelected since 1968
‘Six-year (or less) Turnovers’; some other notable historic examples:
NC – 1974, 1980, 1986 (3 occupants), 1992, 1998, 2004; Sam Ervin won his final re-election in 1968; Richard Burr won his first
re-election in 2010.
IL – 1992, 1998, 2004, 2010, 2016; “Al the Pal” Dixon won his final re-election in 1986; Tammy Duckworth won her first re-
election in 2022.
CA – 1958, 1964, 1970, 1976, 1982; Bill Knowland won his final re-election in 1952; Pete Wilson won his first re-election in 1988
(note: he would resign his hard-won seat after being elected governor in 1990; had his elected successor Dianne Feinstein, who
had defeated the appointee in 1992, lost in 1994, a R Senator Mike Huffington might well have lost in 2000 amidst the local D
landslide, thus continuing the ‘jinx’ even longer).
Wyoming’s Class 2 seat had a streak of 3 consecutive occupants defeated for reelection: Robert
Carey (R), 1936; Harry Schwartz (D), 1942; Edward V. Robertson (R), 1948. This was part of a longer streak, 1930-66, during which no senator was reelected to this seat.
Francis E. Warren (R) – re-elected 1924; died 1929.
Carey – elected 1930; lost to Schwartz, 1936.
Schwartz – lost to Robertson 1942.
Robertson – lost to Lester C. Hunt (D), 1948.
Hunt – died 1954.
Joseph C. O’Mahoney (D) – elected 1954, retired 1960.
Keith Thomson (R) – elected 1960; died December 9, 1960, before taking his seat.
Milward Simpson (R) – elected 1962 special election (defeating self-appointed senator J.J. Hickey); retired 1966.
Clifford Hansen (R) – elected 1966, re-elected 1972, breaking the streak.