Rita Hart elected to lead Iowa Democratic Party as chair, focuses on 'winning elections'

Rita Hart will lead the Iowa Democratic Party as its next chair, promising to help steer the party through a tumultuous period that has included steep election losses and a national threat to its first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses.

"My focus is squarely on helping our party begin winning elections again," she told members of the party's State Central Committee Saturday.

The group voted to name her chair over two other candidates, former state legislator Bob Krause and campaign operative Brittany Ruland.

After about an hour and a half of tabulations that frustrated many members of the committee, leaders announced that Hart won 34 votes, Ruland won 14 and Krause had one.

Hart's tenure follows bitter midterm losses for Iowa Democrats. They did not send a single Democrat to Congress, lost ground in the state Legislature and ceded the attorney general and treasurer's offices to Republicans. State Auditor Rob Sand narrowly won a second term, making him the highest-ranking member of the party.

She will also need to navigate the future of the party's presidential caucuses after a panel of the Democratic National Committee voted to strip Iowa of its first-in-the-nation status.

In a speech to the committee Saturday, Hart emphasized her experience as a candidate, including her ability to fundraise and to perform well in corners of the state often overlooked by Democrats.

"I won two races in a state senate district that Donald Trump carried twice," she said. "And in my 2020 congressional race, we raised $5 million and outperformed Joe Biden by more than any of the other Iowa congressional races. This last year I became Clinton County chair where I've seen at a grassroots level the kind of support that our county parties need in order to work more effectively."

She said she is "under no illusion that this will be easy" but is "heartened" by the support she's received so far.

Hart was elected to the Iowa Senate in 2012 and again in 2014, and in 2018 she was gubernatorial candidate Fred Hubbell’s running mate. Hart lost her 2020 congressional race to Mariannette Miller-Meeks by a historically close six votes and is now serving as chair of the Clinton County Democratic Party. She lives in rural Iowa near Wheatland and has farmed with her husband.

Sandy Dockendorff, a state central committee member who nominated Hart, said she believes Hart can help turn the party around.

"When I asked her to come talk with an influential farmer in my very rural community, she drove down and talked to him," she said. "Afterwards, he told me that he believed that there was an opportunity for Democrats to be potential allies because of her. This is what we need."

Ahead of the vote, Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls, D-Coralville, said the party's No. 1 concern should be winning tough elections.

"That means continuing to work in these competitive state legislative districts, and then I would also say just a renewed emphasis on really organizing at the precinct and county level," he said. "That’s something that we certainly need to be doing because a strong county organization is how you have a strong Democratic party throughout the state."

Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Register. Reach her atbpfann@dmreg.com or 515-284-8244. Follow her on Twitter at@brianneDMR.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Rita Hart elected to lead Iowa Democratic Party as chair