Iowa 2022 primary election results

Iowa voters cast their ballots in a handful of primary races on Tuesday, including a string of House contests, the gubernatorial race and for the Democratic nominee to challenge seven-term incumbent Sen. Chuck Grassley. Polls closed at 9 p.m. ET.

State Significance

One of Tuesday's most closely watched contests is the three-way fight to take on the 88-year-old Grassley. After facing ballot access and management issues, former Rep. Abby Finkenauer, one of Iowa's rising star Democrats, is locked in a tightening race with retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Mike Franken, both of whom are also being challenged by rural physician Glenn Hurst.

The race for the nomination to face Grassley in a former swing state that has increasingly trended conservative may still go to Finkenauer. But her primary victory, which once seemed assured given her background, is now far less secure. In April, some Iowa Republicans challenged her ballot eligibility, claiming she didn't properly qualify after failing to submit enough valid signatures on her nominating petitions. The Iowa Supreme Court eventually deemed her candidacy valid.

Finkenauer had, however, submitted to the secretary of state only the minimum number of signatures required to access the ballot -- a confounding move for a practiced politician. Finkenauer has not been backed by President Joe BIden, though she was his first congressional endorser in the 2020 Democratic primaries.

Franken, meanwhile, has been polling upward. In the latest fundraising period, he was the only one of the three hopefuls to pull in more than $1 million, despite trailing Finkenauer in overall spending.

In Iowa's 3rd Congressional district -- widely believed to be House Republicans' best pickup opportunity of the midterm cycle -- incumbent Democrat Rep. Cindy Axne is on a quest to hang onto her recently redrawn seat, which she narrowly won in 2018 before it swung to Trump in 2020. It's now absorbed additional Trump voters.

Axne is Iowa's only elected Democrat in federal office.

Her district is also sought after by GOP favorite Zach Nunn, a state lawmaker and Air Force veteran who led private missions to extract Americans from Afghanistan when the U.S. left the country last year. On the trail, Nunn has steadily leaned on his experience in the Iowa House and Senate and has launched some campaign ads.

Nunn will face off in the Republican primary against businesswoman Nicole Hasso, a culture warrior who gained recognition for her critique of the New York Times' series "The 1619 Project," about the origins and legacy of slavery, authored by Iowa native Nikole Hannah-Jones.

"I am a Christian, I am a conservative, I'm a wife, I'm a mom and I guess now I am a woman and a biologist," Hasso has said. Her nod to being a "biologist" refers to the nomination hearings for incoming Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson when Republicans asked what the definition of a woman was and Jackson answered that she was a judge, not a biologist.

Gary Leffler is the third candidate in the race. Leffler, who was outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is best known for parading around in an antique tractor adorned with a patriotic paint job. The West Des Moines native has done little fundraising.

Republican incumbent Gov. Kim Reynolds is also up for reelection, though Reynolds -- who was selected to deliver her party's State of the Union rebuttal earlier this year -- faces no opposition. She'll face another uncontested candidate, Democrat Dierdre DeJear, in November.