Iowa governor Terry Branstad wins historic sixth term
DES MOINES — Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad swept back into office and into the history books on Tuesday with a commanding re-election victory over challenger Jack Hatch.
The Associated Press called the race moments after the polls closed at 10 p.m. ET.
Branstad, a Republican, is wrapping up his fifth term. He is already the longest-serving governor of a U.S. state, snatching the title from former South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow shortly after returning to office in 2011.
With his win Tuesday night, Brandstand will be in a position to overtake George Clinton, the founding father who served as governor of New York both before and after the United States won independence from Britain.
Clinton served 7,641 days in office. To get to 7,642, Branstad must serve until Dec. 14, 2015 — about 11 months into his sixth term.
Running on a record of bipartisan accomplishment, and with the benefit of a solid economy and widespread sense among Iowans that the state is on the right track, Branstad was never seriously challenged by Hatch, a Democratic state senator from Des Moines.
Still, the governor conducted his campaign with overwhelming force, raising more than $9.5 million, filling the airwaves with TV ads and relentlessly traveling across Iowa's 99 counties. His sales pitch to Iowans leaned heavily on the achievements of the past four years while sketching a modest agenda for the term to come.
He emphasized the passage of a commercial property tax cut that he says ultimately will reduce tax bills by more than $4 billion, a K-12 education reform package offering better pay and training for teachers and a long list of new investments by Internet companies, agricultural firms and alternative energy producers.
His new proposals, by contrast, are decidedly small-bore, including calls to expand high-speed internet in rural Iowa, create more affordable degree options at public universities, improve coordination between existing job training and economic development efforts and create a new process for funding cultural and leisure projects.