Former Iowa House Agriculture Committee Chair and current USDA State Rural Development Director Annette Sweeney has won a special election to replace State Senator Bill Dix. Dix resigned after a video surfaced showing him kissing a lobbyist. Sweeney, a Republican, got 56 percent of the vote over Democrat Tracy Freese who got 44 percent. Sweeney says her ag experience should help her in representing Iowans in the Senate.
She says advocating for rural Iowa was the key in winning the special election.
Sweeney will be sworn in Monday and will have the opportunity to work on the budget process as the Iowa Legislature has yet to pass a budget for this session.
Sweeney says it’s been a whirlwind experience that will continue as she’ll face a primary election in June and then possibly the general election in November. She says it may be the first time an Iowan has faced three elections in an 8-month period.
