Dickey wins Senate District 41 seat

FAIRFIELD – Republican Adrian Dickey of rural Packwood has won the special election for Iowa Senate District 41.

According to unofficial results from the Iowa Secretary of State, Dickey won the race against Democrat Mary Stewart Tuesday with 56 percent of the vote to Stewart's 44 percent. Dickey received 5,324 votes to Stewart's 4,210.

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate posted the results of each county on Twitter and Facebook as he received them.

Unofficial results showed Dickey beating Stewart handily in Davis County with 63 percent of the vote (913 to 344) and in Van Buren County with 76 percent (1,289 to 409).

Dickey held a narrower lead in Wapello County with 51 percent (1,752 to 1,678). Stewart held the edge in Jefferson County where she won 56 percent of the vote (1,779 to 1,370).

Senate District 41 includes all of Davis and Van Buren counties and most of Wapello and Jefferson counties, including the cities of Fairfield and Ottumwa. The only portion of Jefferson County not in the district are four townships on the east side of the county.

One of the noteworthy facts from Jefferson County's results is that a large majority of Stewart's votes came from voters who cast an absentee ballot, whereas Dickey gained most of his votes from voters who cast a ballot on Election Day.

Stewart received 1,334 votes via absentee ballot in Jefferson County compared to Dickey's 538.

Dickey told The Union Tuesday that he was nervous on Election Day because he knew so many Democrats had already voted.

'I had a 1,200-vote deficit to overcome in absentee ballots,” Dickey said. 'With the storm that hit us, I didn't know how [Election Day] would go. It was easy to be pessimistic.”

Dickey said he was left speechless seeing the outpouring of support from voters in the district, especially the large number who showed up for him on Election Day.

'I drove by county roads near Packwood that were still drifted over at 4 p.m. [Tuesday],” he said.

'The county was working so hard to get the roads opened up, and I'm humbled to see the results as they are with the storm we had.”