On August 26, 2025, the political eyes of Iowa—and much of the nation—are turning to a small stretch of the state’s northwest corner. In the wake of Republican Rocky De Witt’s unexpected death in June, voters in Iowa’s state senate district 1 are set to decide between two sharply contrasting candidates: Christopher Prosch, a far-right Republican with a history of incendiary statements, and Catelin Drey, a Democrat who’s pitching herself as a pragmatic champion of working families. The outcome of this special general election could upend the balance of power in Iowa’s legislature and send ripples through national political waters ahead of next year’s midterms.
The stakes could hardly be higher. As The Guardian reports, a win for Drey would break the Republican supermajority in the Iowa state senate, denying Governor Kim Reynolds the ability to stack agencies and courts with MAGA loyalists. For Democrats, it’s a chance to prove that their message still resonates in the heartland—and that the recent trend of flipping Trump districts isn’t just a fluke. For Republicans, it’s a test of whether the party’s hard-right turn can still carry the day in a district that backed Donald Trump by 11 points just last year.
Christopher Prosch, the Republican contender, is no stranger to controversy. Founder of Felix Strategies, a South Dakota-based PR firm specializing in “strategic communications for Christian conservative leaders and organizations,” Prosch has built a reputation as a true believer in the MAGA cause. According to The Guardian, he’s compared abortion access to the Holocaust—once asking on a podcast, “Who was worse? The Nazi Germans who killed 10 million Jews and many other people? Or the left’s policies to target an entire generation of babies to death.” He’s also argued that victims of rape or incest should be required to carry pregnancies to term.
Prosch’s views extend beyond abortion. He’s used social media to amplify conspiracy theories about the safety of vaccines, the events of September 11, 2001, and the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, which he claims was stolen by Joe Biden. In 2022, his firm posted, “Global cooling..global warming..climate change…whatever they’re calling it, it’s all a lie!” His campaign platform calls for eliminating Iowa’s state income tax, barring transgender athletes from school sports, and rooting “woke” ideology out of schools. On his own website, Prosch describes himself as “a strong pro-life conservative who believes life is a precious gift from God that must be protected,” and asserts that “leaders should be guided by the principles found in the Bible and the Constitution.”
Prosch’s nomination has not gone unnoticed by Democratic leaders. Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, told The Guardian, “He is deep in the Maga Trumpland. He is the kind of candidate that not that long ago would have never seen the light of day on a ballot. He said … a litany of all the Maga perspectives and points of view and beliefs.” After securing the nomination, Prosch reportedly began scrubbing his social media accounts of the most controversial posts, according to the Iowa Starting Line news site, which published screenshots of several now-deleted statements. Prosch, for his part, did not respond to requests for comment.
On the other side stands Catelin Drey, a 37-year-old marketing executive and founder of Moms for Iowa, a grassroots group focused on curbing gun violence and defending reproductive rights. Drey’s résumé includes service on local boards and statewide political committees, and her campaign has centered on bread-and-butter issues: increasing state education funding, addressing Iowa’s affordability crisis, and pushing back against policies she says make life harder for working families. “The No 1 concern that folks in senate district 1 right now have is Iowa’s affordability crisis and I think folks across the country would feel that,” Drey told The Guardian, speaking from Sioux City. “We’ve seen policies come down from the federal level, as well as the state level, that are making it very difficult for people to make ends meet here.”
Drey argues that the Republican administration has made it harder for local municipalities to invest in their communities, with middle and working-class families paying more than their fair share in taxes and struggling to afford housing. “The biggest frustration for the working class is certainly feeling left behind by the ‘coastal liberal elite’ and, as much as I may identify with the overall policy goals of said coastal elites, I am a regular person who lives and works in this community. I see the way that bad policy affects my family and my neighbours,” she said. Drey believes Democrats can regain ground by focusing on practical solutions and connecting with voters’ everyday struggles: “If the Democrats can get back to a message that is, ‘We are of you and from you and we understand what it is like to want to strive for a beautiful life,’ then I think that is what resonates with people.”
Drey has drawn support from JD Scholten, a state representative and minor league baseball pitcher for the Sioux City Explorers. Art Cullen, a prominent Iowa newspaper editor, told The Guardian that Scholten’s popularity in Sioux City and his door-knocking efforts could give Drey an edge. Cullen also believes that the special election is shaping up as more of a referendum on Governor Kim Reynolds than on Donald Trump. “People are sick of Kim Reynolds,” he said. “People are getting tired of the wackiness: banning books, making a big to-do over trans people. Republicans are concentrating on all that stuff and not on, how good are our schools and why are our property taxes so high? The Republican-dominated legislature punted and went home without addressing rising property taxes.”
The district itself has a history of swinging between the two major parties—Democrats captured it in 2018, Republicans reclaimed it in 2022, and now it’s up for grabs again. Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by a margin of 38% to 31%, but Democratic candidates have recently over-performed in state legislative races, flipping Trump districts in Iowa and Pennsylvania. A win in district 1 would be the third such upset in a row, a sign of possible momentum heading into the 2026 midterm elections for the U.S. House and Senate.
Meanwhile, on the national stage, Democrats are wrestling with their own internal challenges. As The Guardian notes, the party’s approval rating is at a historic low, and there’s ongoing debate about how to shed the image of being elitist and out of touch. A recent report from the centrist think tank Third Way urged Democrats to avoid language such as “microaggression,” “safe space,” and “Latinx,” arguing that such terms alienate regular voters. Drey’s approach—emphasizing practical concerns and local connections over ideological purity—could offer a model for Democrats elsewhere.
For Republicans, the race is a test of whether a candidate with Prosch’s profile—firmly aligned with the MAGA movement and unafraid of controversy—can still win in a district that’s historically competitive. For Democrats, it’s a chance to show that focusing on pocketbook issues and community ties can overcome the party’s national headwinds. Williams of the DLCC summed up the stakes: “Democrats can win elections – we can connect with voters on economic issues and they can trust us on them – and that Republicans are in trouble. This president’s policies and approach are deeply unpopular and Republicans will not be rewarded at the ballot box for it.”
As voters in Iowa’s senate district 1 head to the polls, the outcome will be watched closely—not just for what it means in Des Moines, but for the clues it offers about America’s political future.
