#hardman — Public Fediverse posts

Dems tout another special election as a boost for their party ahead of midterms

Democrat won a special election for an Iowa state Senate seat Tuesday,
denying Republicans the opportunity to regain a supermajority in the chamber
and handing the Democratic Party a large-margin victory ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.


#Renee #Hardman,
a member of the West Des Moines City Council, received 71.4 percent of the vote in the special-election race for state Senate District 16, according to unofficial results from the Iowa secretary of state.

Republican candidate Lucas Loftin received 28.5 percent of the vote in the race,
which encompasses a suburban Des Moines jurisdiction.

A Republican win Tuesday would have restored the party’s former two-thirds supermajority
and allowed Republican Gov.
Kim Reynolds’s nominees to be approved on a party-line vote.

Reynolds will now need to win over at least one Democratic lawmaker to confirm nominees. Hardman’s election fills a vacancy after the death of state Sen. Claire Celsi, a Democrat, in October.

Hardman will be the first Black woman to serve in the Iowa Senate. In 2017, she became the first Black woman to be elected to the West Des Moines City Council. She also served as mayor pro tem in West Des Moines.

Democrats say the large margin in the race,
in which some 10,300 votes were cast,
is yet another sign of momentum for their party
after Iowa Democrats flipped two right-leaning Senate seats earlier this year.

Democrats tend to over-perform in off-year races and special elections,
but in the wake of 2024 losses, the party has attributed several recent off-year gains around the country to national momentum against Donald Trump and Republicans.

Along with the Iowa wins, Democrats saw gains earlier this year in a special election for the state Senate in Georgia
and a state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin.

And while Republicans retained a ruby-red congressional district in Tennessee earlier this month,
the race was more competitive than initially expected.

Democrats also swept major off-year elections in Virginia and New Jersey,
including governors’ races in both states.

Hardman’s winning margin has also surpassed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s 2024 margin in Polk County
— the county that encompasses much of Senate District 16.

Hardman received 71.46 percent of the vote in Polk County on Tuesday, while Harris won Polk County last year with 54.8 percent of the vote.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/12/31/iowa-renee-hardman-election-win/

New blog alert!

To mark World Photography Day, the post focuses on the photographic collection of Edward Chambré and Margaret Hardman, held by the The National Trust.
https://www.exploreyourarchive.org/shining-a-light-on-the-photographic-collection-of-edward-chambre-and-margaret-hardman/

#Chambre #Hardman #TheNationalTrust #MargaretMills #photograph #photographs #photography #archives #history #histodons #sunshine #sun #garden #gardens @histodons @archivistodon

Enfin une bonne nouvelle 😁
WALLACE ET GROMIT : La Palme de la Vengeance Bande Annonce VF (2025) Nouvelle
#animation #hardman #humour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37UHk3leXVg