Benitz comfortably defeats Holden in supervisors race

By Brandon Hurley

Managing Editor

news@beeherald.com

Republican Dan Benitz trounced his opponent in Greene County’s only contested race on election night, garnering 62.7 percent of the vote.

Benitz, a Greene County resident for more than 50 years, defeated democratic candidate Mike Holden Tuesday, Nov. 8 to capture the district 3 Greene County board of supervisors seat.
Benitz secured a total of 2,242 votes compared to 1,324 votes for Holden, a percentage of 37.05.
A total of 3,670 ballots were cast in Greene County, 56.21 percent of the county’s registered voters. A total of 1,418 absentee ballots were cast, a mark of 21.72 percent.

The rest of the local government races were uncontested.

• Republican Dawn Rudolph secured another term as a supervisor, securing the district 2 seat with 98.2 percent of the vote (2,939 votes)

• Democrat Deb McDonald retained her seat as county recorder, garnering 97.95 percent of the vote thanks to 2,677 ballots cast.

• Republican Katlynn Mechaelsen secured her first full term as county treasurer, nabbing 99.05 percent of the vote (3,019 votes).

• Libertarian Thomas Laehn solidified a second term as county attorney, garnering 97.8 percent of the tally (2,619 votes).

REPUBLICANS REIGN

At the state level, Greene County initiated a significant red wave, as republicans comfortably secured the local nod in all nine of the races. Most notably, republican governor Kim Reynolds secured 68 percent of Greene County’s vote (2,472 votes) compared to 29.69 percent for Deidre DeJear (1,078).

Republican Zach Nunn garnered 63 percent of the vote (2,245 votes) in the U.S. Representative District 3 race, compared to 36.72 percent for incumbent Cindy Axne. Chuck Grassley also garnered significant favor from local voters in the senate race, securing 65.55 percent of the vote (2,339 votes) compared to 34.14 percent for democrat Michael Franken (1,218).

Full election results can be found online at https://www.co.greene.ia.us/ by visiting the Auditor’s page.