LEE COUNTY – The red wave that’s defined Lee County’s geopolitical character continued Tuesday night with the election of Donnellson’s Blaine Watkins.
Watkins, a 23-year-old Republican from a farming family in Lee County, defeated Fort Madison businesswoman Nannette Griffin in the special election for the 100th District Iowa House seat.
Watkins watched the results pour in with Lee County GOP members at River Rocks in Fort Madison and sweated a little as tabulations came over the Lee County website just after 8 p.m. when polls closed.
Griffin held a small advantage with absentee votes of about 110, but Watkins slowly started to chip away at the lead. With Keokuk’s two voting centers, Montrose and West Point, reporting, Watkins had cut the lead to just two at 1804-1802.
Fort Madison’s Roling Hall was next to come in and extended the Democrats' lead to 47, but Watkins' hometown came through with a landslide precinct. Watkins captured 68% of the vote at the Pilot Grove Community Center to seal the win 2749-2574, setting off the repeated chant of “Let’s Go!” among the polished wood and brass of the café and about 70 people in attendance.
“We did it. I don't know how, but we did this,” Watkins told the group.
“This victory is not just me, not just my team, but everybody here who cares about common sense in Iowa."
Watkins gave some singular credit to a peer of his in the statehouse, Zeke Walker, who convinced him to run for Martin Graber’s seat following the Fort Madison representative’s death earlier this year.
“I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge representative Martin Graber. He has served this district with dedication, integrity, and pride. I'm honored to continue his strong legacy of conservative leadership and I look forward to building on top of his work.”
He also thanked Griffin for a quick and hard fought campaign,
“These are never easy and I respect anybody and everybody willing to put their name and their title on a position like this.”
Watkins said there would be a little lag in getting him to Des Moines. The Lee County Board of Supervisors will canvass the votes on Thursday in a special meeting.
“They're gonna probably have a lag. We're thinking maybe the 24th I'll get up there,” he said.
“But you gotta do paperwork and gotta get stuff taken care of and make sure everything is certified and right and then, yeah, we’ll get up there.”
Griffin said she had a sense that when Pilot Grove was all that was left, and she had just a 43-vote lead, that things were likely going to change.
“I figured Donnellson would go his way. That’s his hometown, but you know that's a rural area which I really don't understand since what's happened nationally, but that's what it is,” Griffin said.
“I did get a lot of people that were Republicans tell me that they voted for me or were going to vote for me so I think I held my own at the forum.”
Lee County Farm Bureau held a forum late last week in Donnellson where the two debated issues for close to an hour.
“I just don’t understand where people’s heads are at. So we’re just going to get more of the same. I tried to give the people a different voice.”
Griffin said she’s not sure about continuing to seek office. She fell to State Sen. Jeff Reichman in the general election in November.
“I’m not sure about in two years. We’ll have to see, nationally, how that goes. But I just got off the phone with (Iowa Democratic Chairwoman) Rita Hart and asked her how I could continue to be a voice for the Democratic party,” she said.
“I can only say that it might be even more frustrating in the next few years and how that affects Iowa. Some of these things (President) Donald Trump is doing are affecting Iowa.”
Griffin won Fort Madison 578-533 and won the absentee voting 1010 to 870. She also won the Heritage Center in Keokuk 442 to 381, while Watkins won Hidden Towers in Keokuk 207-95, Ivor Fowler in Montrose 173-123, West Point 173-132, and Donnellson.
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