Dexter Merschbrock is a member of National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 373 from Cedar Rapids, spouse to a public school teacher, and father of three. He is originally from Fort Madison. 

The Iowa Democratic Party’s current state chair Rita Hart often talked in the last two years about the 90,000 Democrats in the state who turned out to vote in 2020, but didn’t turn out in the 2022 midterm elections. The theory seemed to be that if those Democrats voted in 2024, the party would see improved results. Either this theory was wrong or, even worse, Democrats failed to turn out 2020 voters at the same time Republicans were increasing their turnout percentage.

Either way, the result is the same: Iowa Democrats, led by chair Rita Hart, failed to convince enough Iowans to vote for them.