A Republican will not appear on the ballot this fall to challenge a Democratic incumbent for a local legislative seat after the chair of a Linn County GOP special nominating convention refused to certify the results.
Linn County Republicans held a special convention Aug. 13 to nominate a candidate to run for Iowa House District 73, since no one ran for the seat in the June GOP primary and the party was left without one.
Geralyn Jones (Submitted photo)
The district covers a portion of Cedar Rapids and much of northern and eastern Marion, and currently is represented by Democrat Elizabeth Wilson, who is seeking re-election to a second term. Wilson won the open seat in 2022, edging out Republican Susie Weinacht, a former Cedar Rapids City Council member, by 300 votes after a recount.
Geralyn Jones, chair of the Linn County Chapter of Moms for Liberty, and Jim Conklin, a former chair of the Linn County Republican Party Central Committee, both sought the local party’s nomination to run for the Iowa House seat against Wilson.
Justin Wasson, who serves on the Iowa GOP’s state central committee and served as chair of the special nominating convention, said Conklin received nine votes to Jones’ seven and was declared the winner Aug. 13 by a Republican Party of Iowa staffer.
After adjourning the special nominating convention, Wasson and Conklin said they formalized paperwork to submit to the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office for Conklin to be listed on the Nov. 5 ballot. That included a signed and notarized affidavit of candidacy and a convention certificate.
However, the next day, the Republican Party of Iowa audited the votes cast and discovered a tabulation error, party spokesman Luke Wolff said in a statement last week to The Gazette. Wolff said the error “flipped the already close election, deeming Geralyn Jones the correct winner of the convention.”
Wasson said the state party deemed Jones the nominee by “weighed vote” based on the voting strength of each precinct represented at the convention.
Jim Conklin (Submitted photo)
The Republican Party of Iowa’s constitution states votes cast by party precinct committee members at convention to fill a ballot vacancy or to nominate a candidate in a special election be made “proportionate to the vote cast for the party’s candidate for the office in question in the respective precincts at the last general election for that office.” That meant each precinct committee member’s votes would be weighted corresponding to the number of Republicans that voted in their precinct in the last general election, which was held in 2022.
Wasson and Conklin, though, contend the state party came to the conclusion too late, and no one contested the results the night of the convention.
Wasson said Tuesday both Jones and Conklin “had a case” for winning the nomination.
“The strongest case in my mind was we approved rules at the convention and we followed those rules,” which said the election could be contested only by raising a point of order, he said. “There was an opportunity to contest the results within the convention, and no one did.”
Wasson contends the voting body itself is the ultimate judge of election disputes, absent a bylaw or special rule that grants the state party that authority. He said he proposed to state party officials Aug. 14 they reconvene the convention to amend the minutes and change the declared winner from Conklin from Jones.
“But the body itself had to do it. I couldn’t do it arbitrarily,” Wasson said. “A winner was declared at convention and I signed the paperwork based off that. … I will not sign paperwork not reflective of the convention. … I believe I did things by the book,” and he said he consulted with an attorney and three parliamentarians.
A spokeswoman for the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office said it rejected paperwork submitted by the Republican Party of Iowa nominating Jones as the party’s candidate because it lacked the signature of the chair of the special nominating convention. The office said it did not receive nominating paperwork from the party for Conklin.
Justin Wasson (Submitted photo)
The deadline to file an affidavit of candidacy and political party convention certificate to appear on the ballot was Aug. 21, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
And Saturday was the deadline for candidates to file nominating petitions and other paperwork to run as an independent unaffiliated with a political party. Neither Jones nor Conklin submitted paperwork to run as an independent, meaning their only path forward to seek the seat in the general election is to run as a write-in candidate, said Ashley Hunt, communications director for Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate.
Hunt said Pate’s office has not received a written objection from Jones or the state party challenging the office’s rejection of Jones’ nomination for House District 73.
Jones did not immediately return a message Tuesday seeking comment. She posted on Facebook Aug. 25 that she is no longer a candidate, and said voters in the district “have been robbed of your chance to elect a Republican to represent House District 73.”
Bernie Hayes, chair of the Linn County GOP, declined to comment for this article.
Conklin, speaking Monday to The Gazette, accused the Republican Party of Iowa of “putting their thumb on the political scale.” He said he is not running an official write-in campaign for the seat, but announced his candidacy for 2026.
www.thegazette.com
Linn County Republicans held a special convention Aug. 13 to nominate a candidate to run for Iowa House District 73, since no one ran for the seat in the June GOP primary and the party was left without one.
The district covers a portion of Cedar Rapids and much of northern and eastern Marion, and currently is represented by Democrat Elizabeth Wilson, who is seeking re-election to a second term. Wilson won the open seat in 2022, edging out Republican Susie Weinacht, a former Cedar Rapids City Council member, by 300 votes after a recount.
Geralyn Jones, chair of the Linn County Chapter of Moms for Liberty, and Jim Conklin, a former chair of the Linn County Republican Party Central Committee, both sought the local party’s nomination to run for the Iowa House seat against Wilson.
Justin Wasson, who serves on the Iowa GOP’s state central committee and served as chair of the special nominating convention, said Conklin received nine votes to Jones’ seven and was declared the winner Aug. 13 by a Republican Party of Iowa staffer.
After adjourning the special nominating convention, Wasson and Conklin said they formalized paperwork to submit to the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office for Conklin to be listed on the Nov. 5 ballot. That included a signed and notarized affidavit of candidacy and a convention certificate.
However, the next day, the Republican Party of Iowa audited the votes cast and discovered a tabulation error, party spokesman Luke Wolff said in a statement last week to The Gazette. Wolff said the error “flipped the already close election, deeming Geralyn Jones the correct winner of the convention.”
Wasson said the state party deemed Jones the nominee by “weighed vote” based on the voting strength of each precinct represented at the convention.
The Republican Party of Iowa’s constitution states votes cast by party precinct committee members at convention to fill a ballot vacancy or to nominate a candidate in a special election be made “proportionate to the vote cast for the party’s candidate for the office in question in the respective precincts at the last general election for that office.” That meant each precinct committee member’s votes would be weighted corresponding to the number of Republicans that voted in their precinct in the last general election, which was held in 2022.
Wasson and Conklin, though, contend the state party came to the conclusion too late, and no one contested the results the night of the convention.
Wasson said Tuesday both Jones and Conklin “had a case” for winning the nomination.
“The strongest case in my mind was we approved rules at the convention and we followed those rules,” which said the election could be contested only by raising a point of order, he said. “There was an opportunity to contest the results within the convention, and no one did.”
Wasson contends the voting body itself is the ultimate judge of election disputes, absent a bylaw or special rule that grants the state party that authority. He said he proposed to state party officials Aug. 14 they reconvene the convention to amend the minutes and change the declared winner from Conklin from Jones.
“But the body itself had to do it. I couldn’t do it arbitrarily,” Wasson said. “A winner was declared at convention and I signed the paperwork based off that. … I will not sign paperwork not reflective of the convention. … I believe I did things by the book,” and he said he consulted with an attorney and three parliamentarians.
A spokeswoman for the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office said it rejected paperwork submitted by the Republican Party of Iowa nominating Jones as the party’s candidate because it lacked the signature of the chair of the special nominating convention. The office said it did not receive nominating paperwork from the party for Conklin.
The deadline to file an affidavit of candidacy and political party convention certificate to appear on the ballot was Aug. 21, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
And Saturday was the deadline for candidates to file nominating petitions and other paperwork to run as an independent unaffiliated with a political party. Neither Jones nor Conklin submitted paperwork to run as an independent, meaning their only path forward to seek the seat in the general election is to run as a write-in candidate, said Ashley Hunt, communications director for Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate.
Hunt said Pate’s office has not received a written objection from Jones or the state party challenging the office’s rejection of Jones’ nomination for House District 73.
Jones did not immediately return a message Tuesday seeking comment. She posted on Facebook Aug. 25 that she is no longer a candidate, and said voters in the district “have been robbed of your chance to elect a Republican to represent House District 73.”
Bernie Hayes, chair of the Linn County GOP, declined to comment for this article.
Conklin, speaking Monday to The Gazette, accused the Republican Party of Iowa of “putting their thumb on the political scale.” He said he is not running an official write-in campaign for the seat, but announced his candidacy for 2026.
Iowa GOP nominated candidate for Linn County seat. Why one won’t be on the ballot
A Republican will not appear on the fall ballot to challenge a Democratic incumbent for a local statehouse seat after the chair of a Linn County GOP special nominating convention refused to certify the results.
www.thegazette.com
