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Andrews, Wahls among Iowa State Fair Straw Poll winners
More than 2,000 fairgoers participated in the non-scientific straw poll conducted by the Iowa Secretary of State’s office
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DES MOINES — More than 2,000 Iowa State Fair attendees participated in the Iowa Secretary of State’s State Fair Straw Poll during a summer in which a number of competitive political party primaries have formed for the state’s 2026 elections.
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate’s office announced the results of the unofficial and unscientific straw poll Monday.
Anyone who attended the Iowa State Fair was able to vote in the State Fair Straw Poll on tablets set up at the Iowa Secretary of State’s booth in the Varied Industries Building.
Straw Poll participants had to choose a party to cast votes in the state’s various 2026 primary campaigns.
Pate conducts the State Fair Straw Poll as a means to engage Iowans and encourage participation in elections.
“While historically, the straw poll has been a good indicator of where Iowa voters stand in terms of the upcoming election, the real goal of the straw poll is to encourage Iowans to participate in our election process,” Pate said in a press release. “We have a city-school election coming up on November 4. Local elections matter. This is the time to truly make your voices heard and have an impact on your local communities.”
Among the State Fair Straw Poll winners were:
- Eddie Andrews in the Republican gubernatorial primary, with 39 percent to Brad Sherman’s 29 percent and Randy Feenstra’s 27;
- Matt Windschitl in the Republican primary in Western Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, with 38 percent of the vote to Kyle Larsen’s 23 percent;
- Zach Wahls with a narrow, three-vote victory over J.D. Scholten in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, although Scholten has since withdrawn from the race and the poll did not include Josh Turek, who had not yet announced his campaign when the poll started;
- Lindsay James in Eastern Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District’s Democratic primary, with 47 percent of the vote to Kathryn Dolter’s 35 percent, even though James has not yet officially declared her candidacy;
- Jennifer Konfrst in Central Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, with 51 percent to Sarah Trone Garriott’s 39 percent.
A pair of primary challengers to Republican incumbents did well in the State Fair Straw Poll: Jim Carlin, who is running for the U.S. Senate where Republican Joni Ernst is the incumbent, got 33 percent of the straw poll vote to Ernst’s 61 percent. And David Pautsch, who is running in Eastern Iowa’s 1st Congressional District where Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks is the incumbent, got 45 percent to Miller-Meeks’ 55.
Iowa’s 2026 primary election is June 2 and the general election is Nov. 3, 2026.
Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau
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