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ANKENY — Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart maintained her leadership position Saturday after facing multiple challenges to her seat following a rough election year for Democrats.
Hart was elected to a second term as chair with 38 out of 49 votes at a state party meeting and will serve four more years.
“We’re all going to be moving forward together,” Hart told reporters after the vote. “No matter how this came out today, it’s really important that we recognize that why we’re doing this right, that we all want the Democratic Party to be stronger and to get better results.”
After three other candidates ran for the seat, Hart said she is aware of concerns regarding party leadership.
“I’m very cognizant of the criticisms that have been out there,” Hart said. “I would tell you that some of those criticisms are a result of people just not understanding what’s already been done and what’s already in play. And so that’s a communication problem that is important that we solve.”
Her “focus is squarely on helping our party begin winning elections again,” Hart said.
“The election results were definitely a gut punch. However, thanks to the work of the (party’s governing body), volunteers, county parties, and our team, we now have an institutional foundation to build upon,” Hart wrote in a letter obtained by The Gazette to Iowa Democratic Party State Central Committee members ahead of Saturday’s election.
She noted the state party has had seven chairs since 2014.
“2026 has the potential to be a transformative year both for Iowa and IDP,” Hart wrote. “ … Iowa is home to multiple winnable congressional districts, a governor’s race and a (U.S.) Senate race in 2026.”
State Auditor Rob Sand, the lone Democrat to hold statewide office in Iowa, urged the party to unite behind Hart.
“Changing Iowa politics isn’t a swim in a pool: it is in a river, with a powerful, changing current we do not control,” Sand wrote in a letter to earlier this week. “ … There’s no exact math, but the math there is shows the IDP did worse than the current in 2022 and better than the current in 2024. We all want to do better yet. But that’s positive change.”
Iowa Democrats suffered another bruising election this fall. Former President Donald Trump carried Iowa again in the Nov. 5 election by his largest margin yet. Republicans also extended their grip on the Iowa Legislature and retained control of the state’s federal delegation.
Hart is a former state lawmaker and former congressional candidate who ran for lieutenant governor, unsuccessfully, on the Democratic ticket in the 2018 Iowa gubernatorial election. She was first elected to lead the party in January 2023 as it attempted to rebound from a string of poor performances in the state.
“When Chair Hart took office, the IDP had no full-time communications, finance, or data staff, and was in debt,” Sand wrote in his letter to State Central Committee members. “Under Chair Hart’s leadership, the IDP is fully staffed and debt-free today. She deserves credit for leading that effort, helped by many others.”
Challengers say new strategy needed
Hart faced challenges from Alexandra Nickolas-Dermody, a Davenport community organizer; Tim Winter, former chair of the Boone County Democrats; and Kim Callahan, chair of the Iowa Democratic Party’s 3rd Congressional District Committee.
Winter contends Hart’s initial “Mandate For Change” had many plans that were not implemented or addressed, leading to dissatisfaction.
“If we continue to do what we are doing, we will not win,” Winter wrote to State Central Committee members. He recently resigned from the state party’s governing body.
He said there is a significant disparity between urban and rural areas in support and resources from the Iowa Democratic Party. Winter said the party has moved away from having a meaningful structural field organization, especially in rural areas. He proposed a plan to focus on training, tools, tactics and messaging across all 99 counties.
“You all agreed that we need to get Democrats into the voting booth by supporting all the county parties and constituency caucuses,” Winter told party members in his speech Saturday. “Everyone agreed that we will need to get local candidates running for office in local county courthouses, school boards and city councils. You see, everyone understands that when you have that kind of excitement in a local county for a candidate, people will show up and vote.”
In her speech, Callahan stressed the importance of keeping young Iowans in the state and addressing water quality issues. She noted she had “no illusions” she would get the votes needed to win the election.
Hart’s plan to move Iowa Democrats forward
Hart emailed an 18-page action plan to the State Central Committee members last month outlining the progress made in rebuilding the party, the challenges faced and the goals for the upcoming 2026 election cycle.
Download: Foward_ Victory 2026 (1).pdf
Her plans for the party for the next two years involve growing the party’s finances, building organizational capacity across all counties, enhancing communication and messaging efforts, providing data and tools to county parties, and fostering a unified approach to the 2028 presidential nominating process and the future of the Iowa caucuses.
“These things are in place now. We have the staff, we have the resources, we know what needs to be done,” Hart said. “I’m excited about getting off and running here in twenty-five, I think it’s going to make a huge difference.”
Hart’s plan calls for recruiting more storytellers and surrogates to share stories of how they’ve been affected by GOP policies.
“We cannot simply fight the Republicans in the pages of the Des Moines Register,” she wrote. “That means understanding how voters are receiving their news via social media, streaming services, podcasts, etc.”
Nickolas-Dermody, who has unsuccessfully ran three times for Davenport City Council, said the party is “at a crossroads,” and needs to “reconnect with our roots — working people, young voters, farmers and the communities that define Iowa.”
She said the party needs to strengthen grassroots engagement to “amplify the voice of Iowans across every county,” mobilize young voters and advocate for “bold, popular policy solutions” such as universal health care and universal preschool.
While national Democrats have soured on the state — striping Iowa Democrats of their coveted first-in-the-nation caucuses — Hart said the upcoming election of a new Democratic National Committee chair is an opportunity to “move on from the strained relationship of the past four years.”
Democrats’ grassroots organizing has suffered as national donors, committees and campaigns have shifted away from Iowa to battleground states. That result has led to a “dramatically reduced organizing footprint from IDP,” Hart wrote.
Historically, organizers have been hired either through the party’s coordinated campaign with dollars from national funders and presidential candidates or been tasked with administering the Iowa caucuses.
“Without national investment, it is very difficult to have a paid year-round organizing program,” Hart wrote.
Democrats, however, should not give up on year-round organizing, she said. Securing funding for on-the-ground organizing is the state party’s next hiring priority.
“We will doggedly work to change that this cycle and have an organizing staff focused on having conversations with voters and increasing our volunteer capacity across the state,” Hart wrote.
