Cedar Rapids Mayoral Race Heads To Uncertain Runoff

Incumbent Cedar Rapids Mayor Brad Hart may not make it to the inevitable runoff for the city’s top job.

Candidates Tiffany O’Donnell and Amara Andrews earned more votes than he did on Tuesday, but because no one got 50% of the vote, a runoff election is triggered between the first and second place winners.

The margin between second and third place, however, is razor-thin.

O’Donnell has a comfortable lead with 42% of the vote, while Andrews secured 28%. Hart came in at a close third, 24 votes behind Andrews and with an ultimate 27.99% of the vote. Overall in the unofficial totals, O’Donnell received 10,991 votes, Andrews had 7,332 and Hart got 7,308. Sometimes totals can change a little bit with provisional ballots counted later.

Hart can and will likely request a recount, which any candidate can do under Iowa law.

Both Hart and O’Donnell are Republicans and Andrews is the sole Democratic candidate in a city that is overwhelmingly Democratic.

Andrews tried to make party registration an issue in the race while both Hart and O’Donnell stressed the position should be nonpartisan and pledged to serve that way.

by Nikoel Hytrek
Posted 11/2/21