IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Democrat Jackie Norris ended her campaign for Iowa’s open U.S. Senate seat Thursday, saying she will focus on her job as head of the Des Moines Public School Board following the school principal’s arrest by immigration authorities.
Norris said the Sept. 26 detention of Superintendent Ian Roberts by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents challenged her focus as CEO of Iowa’s largest school district and put “our community and me personally in the crosshairs of vicious and coordinated attacks.”
“These realities have robbed time and oxygen from the work I set out to do: advocating for our children and families – and the backbone of our communities, their educators and caregivers,” Norris wrote in a message posted on social media.
She added that she will continue to lead the board as it transitions to interim superintendent, seeking voter approval in November for a $265 million bond for school and program improvements and engaging in “ongoing investigations to get the answers our community deserves” about Roberts’ hiring.
Norris’ departure leaves a Democratic primary field with several male candidates seeking the seat vacated by Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican who is retiring after two terms. They include State Senator Zach Wahls, State Representative Josh Turek and military veteran Nathan Sage.
On the Republican side, U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson is running for the nomination against, among others, former state senator Jim Carlin. Republicans are preferred to retain their seat in a state where Republican President Donald Trump won 56% of the vote in the November 2024 election, defeating Democrat Kamala Harris by 13.2 percentage points.
Ernst’s surprise announcement last month that she would not run for re-election in 2026 provided an unexpected start. But that move didn’t make the Democratic campaign more aggressive or make Republicans worried about the seat.
Democrats need to gain a net four seats to win the Senate majority, a towering task for the party considering that most of the states that have Senate elections next year will be led by Trump in 2024. Democrats have focused more on recruiting candidates in scorching spots like Maine, where Trump lost last year, and North Carolina, where Trump narrowly won.
Roberts’ arrest by ICE came at a terrible time for Norris, a former chief of staff to former first lady Michelle Obama, who launched her campaign in August highlighting her service on the Des Moines school board and her previous work as a classroom teacher.
It came into the spotlight as the public tried to understand how the board could have hired Roberts in 2023, when authorities said the Guyanese native was living and working in the U.S. illegally. Days after the arrest, Norris faced criticism for posting a video soliciting donations before the Sept. 30 quarterly fundraising deadline.
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AP political reporter Thomas Beaumont wrote from Des Moines, Iowa.
