Marshalltown and the southeast corner of Marshall County will have a new representative in the Statehouse come January.

David Blom, a 26-year-old union sheet metal worker from Marshalltown, defeated two-term incumbent and retired educator Sue Cahill (D-Marshalltown) after receiving 6,435 of the 12,314 votes cast (52.26 percent) in the House District 52 race. Between Cahill and her predecessor Mark Smith, the seat had been held by a Democrat for 24 consecutive years and was one of the only remaining House seats occupied by a member of the minority party who hailed from a community outside of Iowa’s major metropolitan areas.

“I feel that we did a very good job this year in presenting our case and presenting why (we deserved to be elected). I felt that I was the best candidate for the position, but I am not sure what more Democrats can do. I think that if that is the will of the majority of the people, then that is the direction we’re going in,” Cahill said.

Blom told the T-R he was honored to have the support of Marshalltown and Marshall County voters while also praising Cahill and her backers for running a strong campaign.

“I’m excited to get to Des Moines and advocate on behalf of our veterans and staff at the Iowa Veterans Home, to make sure every student has a fully funded education as the son of a public school teacher, and a lot of families I met while knocking on doors are struggling with housing and food insecurity. And so it’s really important that we continue to advocate for people who are struggling with the rising cost of living and keep taxes low on working families and seniors who are on a fixed income,” he said.

He added that he planned to take Wednesday off to rest and recover before returning to his job at Raymon Enterprises in Albion and “working overtime” for his constituents in Des Moines. Blom felt voters were encouraged by his youth and willingness to step forward to seek office.

Conversely, the defeated incumbent reflected on an outcome she described as “surprising.”

“I appreciate the support I had from all of my Marshall County supporters who came forward, knocked doors and contributed money to the campaign and put that forward. I wish (Blom) luck, and I think that we follow what the voters, what their prerogative is, and I’ll wish him the best in his work,” she said.

In a county race that drew much scrutiny in the month or so leading up to the election, incumbent Republican Auditor/Recorder Nan Benson won another term with 67.45 percent of the votes cast (10,498 out of 15,565) over independent challenger Joel Oliva, who was endorsed by local leaders like Republican Board of Supervisors Chairman Jarret Heil and Marshalltown Mayor Joel Greer.

As unofficial results were not fully posted until about 10:40 p.m. on Tuesday, Benson said her office dealt with computer issues, but she was thankful that they didn’t have anything on the level of Story County, where several machines malfunctioned and required a hand count after the polls closed.

“We have to count ourselves lucky. I’m very humbled by the voters in our county and pleased that they’ve got the confidence in me. I just will be happy to get the truth out there about all the things that have really went on and let everybody know what’s really happened and going on here,” she said. “I look forward to getting all that information out there for everybody… There’s just been a lot of really not correct information, at all, swirling around, and our other problem is that the (Local Option Sales Tax) failed quite decisively.”

In other county races, Republican Kevin Goodman of Haverhill officially won the race to succeed retiring Supervisor Steve Salasek, handily defeating Libertarian Johnathon Remster of Marshalltown. Goodman received 11,014 of the 14,905 total votes cast (73.9 percent). Sheriff Joel Phillips, a Republican, also won his first full term in office in an uncontested race.

Because of the delay in Story County, the results in the Senate District 26 race to replace the retiring Sen. Jeff Edler (R-State Center) or the House District 51 race to replace retiring Rep. Dave Deyoe (R-Nevada) were not available at presstime, but Republicans Kara Warme and Brett Barker held decisive leads in their respective races.

Warme, who serves in a leadership role at YSS and resides in rural Ames, received 9,536 votes in Marshall County to Democrat Mike Wolfe’s 6,866 in Senate District 26 (which covers all of Marshall County and most of Story County outside of Ames), and Barker, the current mayor of Nevada, received 3,099 votes in the county to Democrat Ryan Condon’s 1,307 in Marshall County for the House District 51 race. That district covers most of Marshall County outside of Marshalltown and the southeast corner and most of Story County outside of Ames.

Former President Donald Trump bested Vice President Kamala Harris in Marshall County with 9,812 votes to her 7,134 votes, and he received almost 57 percent of the total votes cast in the county. Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) won another term representing Iowa’s Fourth District in the U.S. House and enjoyed a comfortable margin of victory over Democrat Ryan Melton locally, receiving 9,626 of the 16,287 votes cast in the race.

Overall, the turnout rate in Marshall County was just over 70 percent as 17,403 ballots were cast out of 24,836 eligible voters.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.