Happy Holidays!

We have county chairs in all 99 counties for the first time in years. They’re ready to hit the ground running in 2026. We’ve been working to ensure we have a list of Iowans who are ready to share personal stories about issues, including inflation and the affordability and accessibility of health care in Iowa. Those storytellers will be vital in helping our candidates spread the message about why it’s important to vote next year. 

Iowa Democratic Party staff have also launched a new website this year, grown our following on various social media platforms and hosted more than 20 regional events that showcase the work our county parties are doing throughout the state.

All of this effort has already started to pay off this year. As you may have heard, we have overperformed in every special election this year. In January, Mike Zimmer secured the first state legislative flip of the year, winning in a district Donald Trump carried by 21 points. Nannette Griffin then posted one of Iowa Democrats’ largest overperformances (24 points!) when she ran for HD100. 

Catelin Drey earned national media attention for flipping Senate District 1 – another district Trump won in 2024. Angel Ramirez also overperformed Kamala Harris by 14 points when she won HD28, and Rachel Burns overperformed in HD7 by 11 points. On average, Iowa Democrats outperformed their opponents in special elections by 21 points this year. 

These wins are a sign that we have terrific opportunities in 2026 to actually elect Democrats all across this state. If we want to continue our winning streak, we need every single Democrat to vote, to get involved, and do the work it takes to elect every Democrat who is running in 2026. 

Best wishes, 

Rita Hart

Chair of the Iowa Democratic Party

Growing the Party

Social Media: By the Numbers

This year, our goal was to drive up the number of followers on each of our social media sites and to make sure our content is getting in front of many Iowans as possible. We managed to grow our accounts on Facebook, X, Instagram, BlueSky, TikTok and more. We will continue to work to earn even more followers in 2026 so we can continue spreading our message. 

The Iowa Democratic Party’s Facebook page has more than 42,000 followers, which is up by 379 percent from last year. Our content has been displayed or played 13.9 million times this year and has been interacted with more than 721,000 times.

The Iowa Democratic Party’s Instagram account has more than 7,500 followers, up more than 45 percent year over year. Our content has been viewed more than half a million times and interacted with more than 19,000 times. Total visits were up more than 64 percent from last year.

The Iowa Democratic Party’s X account has nearly 28,000 followers and had more than 1.6 million impressions this year. Our engagement rate was up 4.7 percent year over year, with nearly 77,000 interactions.

IDP Meets People Where They Are

2025 Regional Events

This year, the Iowa Democratic Party focused on strengthening volunteer engagement and supporting county party development across the state. Both are essential to winning future elections. Chair Hart and staff collaborated with county leaders to organize and attend more than 20 regional events in places like Adel, Anamosa, Corning, DeWitt, Glenwood, Kalona, La Porte City, Lamoni, Le Mars, Malcolm, Manilla, Mount Pleasant, Rockwell City and West Union. The IDP met with county parties to hear directly about local priorities and the issues that matter most in their communities and to celebrate the work the county parties accomplished this year.

At these events, we also recognized the exceptional work of our volunteers. More than 40 regional awards were presented, including Rising Star, Outstanding Volunteer, and Lifetime Achievement honors. The IDP also gave away multiple statewide awards for exemplary Iowa Democrats, including Outstanding Leadership, County Party Chair, and Elected Official. The recipients of these awards reflect the dedication and commitment that drive our work and demonstrate how local efforts contribute to building Democratic strength statewide. 

Tom Vilsack’s Meetings with Farmers

Former Governor & USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack hosted several events around Iowa this year, meeting with local farmers and rural Iowans in Indianola, Boone and Davenport. Gov. Vilsack explained the challenges rural farmers face today, what Democrats can do to help ensure small farms are profitable, and how to stop the loss of family farms so that farms can more easily be passed down from generation to generation. He also had the opportunity to meet with lawmakers in the State House and Senate to discuss the agricultural challenges that exist in the state and amongst their constituents.

The Iowa State Fair

Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego joined the Iowa Democratic Party at the 2025 Iowa State Fair. Senator Gallego met with a number of elected Democratic officials from across the state and hosted a town hall event, helping make the 2025 Iowa State Fair another memorable event. IDP volunteers staffed a booth for all 11 days of the fair and handed out several thousand pieces of messaging, including paper fans, placards and informational sheets. The Iowa State Fair is one of the best ways to reach voters directly every year.

Harnessing the Media Across the State

Our county parties did an excellent job capturing the attention of news outlets across the state. I’m proud of them for taking the time during our monthly county leadership calls to listen to the advice of our comms team and other counties who have been successful. The power of storytellers connecting with members of their community is so important to earning back support in 2026.

Tim Walz Hosts a Town Hall for Iowans

Minnesota Governor and former Vice Presidential Candidate Tim Walz came to Des Moines in March. Walz made a promise to go to every congressional district where Republicans were refusing to hold town halls. Iowa Congressman Zach Nunn has never held a public town hall, so Walz came to Iowa to discuss issues such as health care, education and inflation. 

Training our Messengers

The Iowa Democratic Party staff hosted numerous webinars and train-the-trainer programs throughout the year. This included everything from using and harnessing the power of internal tools to using our personal stories to connect with voters and volunteers alike. These trainings gave confidence to our grassroots to visit more than 70,000 doors across the state between October 1 and the November elections. That’s more than double what volunteers did in 2023.

The Liberty and Justice Celebration

The Iowa Democratic Party had a wildly successful Liberty and Justice Celebration this year hosting a sold-out event with over 500 guests. Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly were the keynote speakers, and dozens of 2026 Democratic candidates showed up energized to stand up and work toward a better future. How else could it have turned out? Former Representative Giffords’s speech was inspiring, as well as Senator Kelly’s televised message as he worked on the shutdown negotiations in the Senate. The celebration served as a morale boost in uncertain times. It raised thousands of dollars for both the IDP and the Food Bank of Iowa. We can’t wait for next year’s event, which we are hoping will be even better!

Rebuilding our Volunteer Infrastructure

For the first time in years, the Democratic Party has leadership in all 99 counties. These leaders have stepped up to help build out the party infrastructure, leading to an average overperformance of 21 points in our 5 special elections as of December 16. We also have more candidates than we’ve seen in decades stepping up to run for positions up and down the ballot. Our recent special election candidate, who had previously announced a 2026 general election campaign in HD-7, Rachel Burns was connected to her newly rebuilt county party via a celebratory Facebook post at the beginning of the year.

Supporting our Communities

Democrats hosted and participated in a multitude of direct action events across the state. These events allowed county parties to lead through their values and provide a space for new involvement. 

This includes school supply drives, community dinners, and food bank drives. The Iowa Democratic Party Party Affairs Department hosted a Des Moines area drive that raised more than $5000 and 985 pounds of food. That’s in addition to the thousands raised by county parties across the state. 

We saw the power of these community focused events during our caucus campaigns in our efforts to encourage further participation and deeper relationships.

Communicating Our Message

In The News

IDP Chair Rita Hart has spent this year setting the stage for 2026. All eyes will be on Iowa with open Senate and Governor races and three congressional districts on the DCCC’s districts in play list. We have the strongest ticket in a generation and we finally ended the Republicans’ supermajority in the Iowa Senate. Momentum is on our side, and we've been working hard to share that message. 

Here are a few stories showing our momentum: 

Our Quad Cities: GOP losing supermajority in Iowa State Senate gives Dems “a little bit of power”

Des Moines Register: Iowa Democrats' Chair Rita Hart touts strongest ticket 'in a generation' for 2026

Hopium Chronicles: Winning In Red States And Red Places - A Conversation With Rita Hart, Iowa Dem Party Chair

WCPT 820 Interview: Rita Hart, chair of the Iowa Democratic Party

The Chuck Todd Cast: Rita Hart - Is Iowa The KEY To Democrats Winning Back Rural America?

A New Website

Our data team was hard at work this year crafting the Iowa Democratic Party’s new website. It gives our organization a streamlined online presence and makes the site simpler to navigate for visitors. Accessing our events calendar, social media accounts, and volunteer efforts are now all easier for Iowans across the state. Our website is a communications tool — one that has been made more useful for the midterms.

Meet Our Storytellers

This year, we’ve been focused on building up our storytellers program so Iowans can go out and tell their own stories about how issues like cuts to Medicaid, skyrocketing health care premiums, inflation and more mean to them. 

Here are a few examples of our storytellers in the news:

Nancy Baker-Curtis, of Grimes: Nancy’s son, Charlie, relies on Medicaid. He lives with complex medical needs and developmental delays. Nancy joined the IDP for an event in July, and her story has been featured several times throughout the year as the Trump Administration threatens to cut Medicaid. 

Logan Conner, of Ames: Logan joined the IDP for a press conference after he was laid off from a USDA facility in Ames earlier this year as part of Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE task force eliminated government employees. Logan’s story went viral, with nearly every major news outlet in Iowa sharing his story.

Terry Anderson, of Ankeny: Terry’s adult son has cerebral palsy and blindness and relies on Medicaid. Terry told his son’s story during an IDP press conference in September, and has been speaking up for folks who need Medicaid to survive.

Tara Guion, of Adel: Tara received a $1.7 million bill when her son Luca was born prematurely. Her family was overwhelmed by the debt until a social worker told her she could qualify for Medicaid to help with the expenses. Tara told her story for the IDP on the 60th anniversary of Medicaid in July and even tried to share her story with Iowa Senator Joni Ernst – who refused to listen. 

We’re proud of the progress we’ve made by growing the party, improving our social media presence, hosting regional events, showcasing the Party at the Iowa State Fair, bringing in speakers to Iowa, hosting our largest fundraising event of the year, improving our volunteer numbers, capitalizing on earned media and launching our new website, and expanding our storytellers project. This is terrific progress and we are going to keep building as we head to November 2026. 

THANK YOU SO MUCH

Thank you for everything you do for the Iowa Democratic Party. Would you make a donation today so we can keep this momentum going into 2026?