Iowa, Attorney General

Iowa held an election for attorney general on November 6, 2018. The candidate filing deadline was March 16, 2018.

SETTING THE STAGE
Heading into the 2018 election, the sitting attorney general was Tom Miller (D), who was first elected in 1978 and was re-elected in 1982, 1986, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014. Miller announced on May 10, 2017, that he planned to seek election to a tenth term in 2018.
At the time of the 2018 election, Iowa was a Republican trifecta as a result of the Republican Party gaining a majority in the Iowa State Senate in the 2016 elections. Iowa was under divided triplex control in 2018.
In the five presidential election cycles leading up to the 2018 election, Iowa was won by the Democratic candidate in 2000, 2008, and 2012 and by the Republican candidate in 2004 and 2016. The widest margin of victory was Barack Obama's ten percent margin in 2008 while the narrowest was Al Gore's 0.32 percent margin in 2000.

State election history

This section provides an overview of federal and state elections in Iowa from 2000 to 2016. All data comes from the Iowa Secretary of State website.

Historical elections

Presidential elections, 2000-2016

This chart shows the results of the presidential election in Iowa every year from 2000 to 2016.

Election results (President of the United States), Iowa 2000-2016

Year	First-place candidate	First-place candidate votes (%)	Second-place candidate	Second-place candidate votes (%)	Margin of victory (%)
2016	Donald Trump	50.7%	Hillary Clinton	41.3%	9.4%
2012	Barack Obama	51.7%	Mitt Romney	46.0%	5.7%
2008	Barack Obama	53.7%	John McCain	44.2%	9.5%
2004	George W. Bush	49.9%	John Kerry	49.2%	0.7%
2000	Al Gore	48.5%	George W. Bush	48.2%	0.3%

U.S. Senate elections, 2000-2016

This chart shows the results of U.S. Senate races in Iowa from 2000 to 2016. Every state has two Senate seats, and each seat goes up for election every six years. The terms of the seats are staggered so that roughly one-third of the seats are up every two years.

Election results (U.S. Senator), Iowa 2000-2016

Year	First-place candidate	First-place candidate votes (%)	Second-place candidate	Second-place candidate votes (%)	Margin of victory (%)
2016	Chuck Grassley	60.1%	Patty Judge	35.7%	24.4%
2014	Joni Ernst	51.5%	Bruce Braley	43.3%	8.2%
2010	Chuck Grassley	63.4%	Roxanne Conlin	32.8%	30.6%
2008	Tom Harkin	61.4%	Christopher Reed	36.5%	24.9%
2004	Chuck Grassley	70.2%	Arthur Small	27.9%	42.3%
2002	Tom Harkin	54.2%	Greg Ganske	43.8%	10.4%

Gubernatorial elections, 2000-2016

This chart shows the results of the four gubernatorial elections held between 2000 and 2016. Gubernatorial elections are held every four years in Iowa.

Election results (Governor), Iowa 2000-2016

Year	First-place candidate	First-place candidate votes (%)	Second-place candidate	Second-place candidate votes (%)	Margin of victory (%)
2014	Terry Branstad	58.4%	Jack Hatch	36.9%	21.5%
2010	Terry Branstad	52.3%	Chet Culver	42.8%	9.5%
2006	Chet Culver	53.7%	Jim Nussle	44.1%	9.6%
2002	Tom Vilsack	52.7%	Doug Gross	44.5%	8.2%

Congressional delegation, 2000-2016

This chart shows the number of Democrats and Republicans who were elected to represent Iowa in the U.S. House from 2000 to 2016. Elections for U.S. House seats are held every two years.

Congressional delegation, Iowa 2000-2016

Year	Republicans	Republicans (%)	Democrats	Democrats (%)	Balance of power
2016	3	75.0%	1	25.0%	R+2
2014	3	75.0%	1	25.0%	R+2
2012	2	50.0%	2	50.0%	Split
2010	2	40.0%	3	60.0%	D+1
2008	2	40.0%	3	60.0%	D+1
2006	2	40.0%	3	60.0%	D+1
2004	4	80.0%	1	20.0%	R+3
2002	4	80.0%	1	20.0%	R+3
2000	4	80.0%	1	20.0%	R+3

Trifectas, 1992-2017

A state government trifecta occurs when one party controls both chambers of the state legislature and the governor's office.

Iowa Party Control: 1992-2019
Four years of Democratic trifectas • Five years of Republican trifectas

Year	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
Governor	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
Senate	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	S	S	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R
House	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R

Demographics

Demographic data for Iowa

	Iowa	U.S.
Total population:	3,121,997	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	55,857	3,531,905
Gender
Female:	50.4%	50.8%
Race and ethnicity**
White:	91.2%	73.6%
Black/African American:	3.2%	12.6%
Asian:	2%	5.1%
Native American:	0.3%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0.1%	0.2%
Two or more:	2%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	5.4%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	91.5%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	26.7%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$53,183	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	13.8%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Iowa.

As of July 2016, Iowa's three largest cities were Des Moines (pop. est. 220,000), Cedar Rapids (pop. est. 130,000), and Davenport (pop. est. 100,000).