Both Oliver Weilein and Ross Nusser are one step closer to an Iowa City City Council seat following a primary election on Tuesday.
The primary election intended to narrow the three candidates to two. However, the third candidate, Sharon Degraw, withdrew from the race in January, making the primary election inconsequential. Despite this, the primary still cost the city $25,000 to facilitate.
Nusser and Weilein are vying for former City Councilor Andrew Dunn’s seat after he announced he’d be stepping down from the position in October 2024. DeGraw announced her departure from the race back in January but missed the deadline to be removed from the ballots, meaning voters could still support and vote for her.
Of the 932 voters reported in District C, Weilein received 641 votes, Nusser received 248, and DeGraw received 40. The special election, which will determine who ultimately gets Dunn’s seat, will be held on March 4.
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Only voters located in District C were allowed to vote in the primary, but everyone in Iowa City will be able to vote in the special election.
Despite the cold weather, several voters were determined to get out and place their ballots on Tuesday.
Veronica McDonald, a third-year student at the University of Iowa, said the overall experience of voting was quick and easy.
As a student who rents, the top issue for McDonald was affordable housing, which she believes Weilein will represent best in the city council.
“I think what Iowa City needs is somebody who is going to stick up to the landlords in this town and hold them accountable,” McDonald said. “When I talk to the people around me about housing in Iowa City, more than half talk about how renting is way too expensive, how their landlords never take their complaints seriously, and how they’ve generally been mistreated by their landlords.”
McDonald said she has also had negative experiences with landlords and hopes Weilein will continue to advocate for housing justice against abusive landlords.
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“I think Oliver is someone who will take action, as his track record has shown that he is a community advocate willing to take action,” McDonald said.
Third-year UI student Justine Raney was inspired to vote to ensure more power is not given to landlords in Iowa City.
Raney’s other priorities aligned with Weilein, such as taking care of people in the community.
“I voted for Oliver. He’s a friend of a friend, and I know he does work for the homeless and for mutual aid here in town,” Raney said. “Those are all things I believe in, and I want to see him succeed.”
Both McDonald and Raney said the voting polls were sparse when they went in around noon.
In an interview with The Daily Iowan, Johnson County Auditor Julie Persons said voter turnout had been relatively strong during early voting.
“We had 18 people come into the office [on Jan. 27] to vote early, which for this size election and for the amount of people eligible to vote, that’s a pretty good number,” Persons said.
The winner of the special election on March 4 will take over as the District C Representative for the remainder of Andrew Dunn’s term, which runs through the end of 2027.