Overview
- According to unofficial Iowa secretary of state results, Hardman won 71.4% to Republican Lucas Loftin’s 28.5% in State Senate District 16.
- The result keeps Republicans short of a two-thirds supermajority in the Iowa Senate, a threshold relevant for actions such as veto overrides and some confirmations.
- Hardman’s margin far exceeded the district’s recent baseline, topping Kamala Harris’s 2024 performance there by roughly 26 points.
- Republicans invested in the race with an eye toward securing a supermajority in the chamber but fell well short.
- The contest was the final special election of 2025, and analysts point to the outcome as a capstone to a year of Democratic overperformance before the 2026 midterms.