With only one more full day left of 2025, I think it’s only fitting that we recap what a year it’s been for Iowa Democrats. (And wish Renee Hardman good luck during today’s special election for SD-16)!

Earlier this year, I laid out a vision for IDP called Forward: Victory 2026. The main priority of my vision was to turn the Iowa Democratic Party’s progress and stability over the past three years into electoral results by electing Democrats up and down the ballot across Iowa.

In 2025, we did that.

The Party has county chairs in all 99 counties for the first time in years, and has hosted more than 20 regional events in rural counties this year to recognize the work our county parties have put in to help build a strong Democratic coalition.

In 2025 IDP has increased its social media following by more than 100% and launched a new website. We are in a much better place now than we were at the beginning of the year.

Iowa Democrats overperformed by an average of 21 points in all five (hopefully six) of our special elections. In some races, we flipped seats. In August, we had an upset so big we broke the GOP supermajority in the State Senate.

Back in January, I don’t think anyone expected to see electoral results so soon of this magnitude. But it was the sign we needed heading into 2026.

The midterms next year will be huge for Iowa. We have several competitive races on the ballot, and a handful of chances to elect leadership that aligns with our values. Election forecasters are calling Iowa a battleground state for a reason, and we’re laying the groundwork to make sure we’re ready to secure some major wins.

We’ve got a big FEC End-of-Year fundraising deadline tomorrow, and after refreshing our ActBlue page, we’re still falling short of our digital fundraising goal. After the year we’ve had we need to finish strong and start the new year as flush as possible. Will you chip in $25 to help us meet our goal and gear up for the road ahead in 2026?

Thank you for your support, and let’s go Renee!

— Rita