The Iowa State Capitol on Feb. 13, 2024. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Incumbent Rep. Monica Kurth, D-Davenport, kept her lead over Republican challenger Nathan Ramker in the recount for Iowa House District 98 that concluded Tuesday.
The Scott County Auditor’s Office confirmed Wednesday that the recount board elected to let Election Day results, that showed Kurth ahead of Ramker by 45 votes, stand.
Ramker has conceded the race. Speaking with the Iowa Capital Dispatch Wednesday, the Republican candidate, a CBD shop owner from Blue Grass, said “nothing really changed” through the recount process, but that he plans to run again in 2026. Having started the race as a newcomer and late in the campaign season in 2024, Ramker said he believes he will have a better shot at the seat in the future.
The House District 98 recount was the final state legislative race recount to conclude. In all three of the races, the candidates ahead on Election Night maintained their leads — Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-Waukee, stayed ahead of Republican challenger Mark Hanson in Iowa Senate District 14, and Republican Mike Pike defeated incumbent Sen. Nate Boulton, D-Des Moines, in Senate District 20 as the recounts concluded.
There is still one race remaining up for a recount — the race for Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, where U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks faces Democrat Christina Bohannan. By Tuesday night, 18 of the 20 counties in the district had finished the recount process, with Miller-Meeks still in the lead by nearly 800 votes. Johnson and Keokuk counties were continuing recounts Wednesday.
Bohannan has not yet conceded the race, while Miller-Meeks declared victory at her Election Night watch party. The incumbent Republican has called her opponent an “election denier” for calling for a recount and not conceding despite the margin of victory — a much wider gap than the six votes Miller-Meeks initially won her seat in Congress with in 2020.
The House GOP campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee, criticized Bohannan for pursuing a recount, stating that the process cost more than $21,000 in public funding as of Tuesday evening.
After recounts are approved by county officials, they next go to the Iowa Secretary of State alongside other election results. The Iowa State Board of Canvass plans to meet Monday, Dec. 2 to certify general election results.