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Cynthia Oppedal Paschen

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Cynthia Paschen
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Candidate, Iowa House of Representatives District 55
Elections and appointments
Last election
November 5, 2024
Next election
June 2, 2026
Education
High school
Ames High School
Bachelor's
Iowa State University, 1982
Personal
Religion
Catholic
Profession
Journalist
Contact

Cynthia Paschen (Democratic Party) is running for election to the Iowa House of Representatives to represent District 55. She declared candidacy for the Democratic primary scheduled on June 2, 2026.[source]

Biography

Cynthia Paschen earned a high school diploma from Ames High School and a bachelor's degree from Iowa State University in 1982. Her career experience includes working as a journalist and at the Ames Public Library.[1][2]

Elections

2026

See also: Iowa House of Representatives elections, 2026

General election

The primary will occur on June 2, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.

Democratic primary

Democratic primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 55

Cynthia Paschen (D) is running in the Democratic primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 55 on June 2, 2026.


Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary

Republican primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 55

Kurtis Bower (R), Beau Klaver (R), Brian Young (R), and Bryson Zabel (R) are running in the Republican primary for Iowa House of Representatives District 55 on June 2, 2026.


Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

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2024

See also: Iowa State Senate elections, 2024

General election

General election for Iowa State Senate District 28

Incumbent Dennis Guth defeated Cynthia Paschen in the general election for Iowa State Senate District 28 on November 5, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Dennis Guth
Dennis Guth (R)
 
69.4
 
21,185
Cynthia Paschen (D) Candidate Connection
 
30.5
 
9,302
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.2
 
58

Total votes: 30,545
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Iowa State Senate District 28

Cynthia Paschen advanced from the Democratic primary for Iowa State Senate District 28 on June 4, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Cynthia Paschen Candidate Connection
 
98.7
 
470
 Other/Write-in votes
 
1.3
 
6

Total votes: 476
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Iowa State Senate District 28

Incumbent Dennis Guth advanced from the Republican primary for Iowa State Senate District 28 on June 4, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Dennis Guth
Dennis Guth
 
98.9
 
3,475
 Other/Write-in votes
 
1.1
 
39

Total votes: 3,514
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Campaign finance

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Paschen in this election.

2020

See also: Iowa State Senate elections, 2020

General election

General election for Iowa State Senate District 24

Jesse Green defeated Cynthia Paschen in the general election for Iowa State Senate District 24 on November 3, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Jesse Green
Jesse Green (R)
 
65.7
 
21,732
Cynthia Paschen (D)
 
34.2
 
11,327
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.1
 
30

Total votes: 33,089
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Iowa State Senate District 24

Cynthia Paschen defeated Keith Puntenney in the Democratic primary for Iowa State Senate District 24 on June 2, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
Cynthia Paschen
 
67.0
 
3,172
Keith Puntenney
 
32.7
 
1,548
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.3
 
16

Total votes: 4,736
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Iowa State Senate District 24

Jesse Green defeated Chad Behn, Todd Rasmussen, and Joshua Dyer in the Republican primary for Iowa State Senate District 24 on June 2, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Jesse Green
Jesse Green
 
40.7
 
2,350
Image of Chad Behn
Chad Behn
 
31.8
 
1,837
Todd Rasmussen
 
19.5
 
1,127
Joshua Dyer
 
7.7
 
442
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.3
 
16

Total votes: 5,772
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

2014

See also: Iowa State Senate elections, 2014

Elections for the Iowa State Senate took place in 2014. A primary election took place on June 3, 2014. The general election was held on November 4, 2014. The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was March 14, 2014. Incumbent Herman C. Quirmbach defeated Cynthia Oppedal Paschen in the Democratic primary, while Jeremy Davis was unopposed in the Republican primary. Quirmbach faced Davis in the general election.[3][4] Incumbent Quirmbach defeated challenger Davis in the general election.[5]

Iowa State Senate, District 23 General Election, 2014
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.pngHerman Quirmbach Incumbent 59% 11,713
     Republican Jeremy Davis 40.8% 8,094
     Write-in Write-in 0.2% 38
Total Votes 19,845
Iowa State Senate, District 23 Democratic Primary, 2014
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.pngHerman Quirmbach Incumbent 72.7% 1,593
Cynthia Oppedal Paschen 27.3% 598
Total Votes 2,191

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Cynthia Paschen has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. If you are Cynthia Paschen, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

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2024

Candidate Connection

Cynthia Paschen completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Paschen's responses.

Expand all | Collapse all

I am a journalist and community activist running to give rural Iowans a voice in Des Moines.
  • We must fully fund public schools and Area Education Agencies (AEAs.) Private school vouchers are a scam.
  • Iowans deserve privacy in their medical decisions. Politicians have no business meddling in our reproductive health care.
  • I will fight to stop the Summit carbon capture pipeline.
Public education, Reproductive freedom, Clean water.
Elected officials must have the ability to have conversations with folks different from them and treat others with respect. "My way or the highway" is not working in Iowa.
My journalism training has taught me how to ask hard questions, find answers and how to tell other folks' stories. My 24 years as a hospice volunteer taught me a great deal about the power of stories, and the legacies we leave when we are gone.
Gov. Bob Ray was a progressive, open-minded leader with great character and integrity.
The Iowa State Education Association, Moms Demand Action/Everytown for Gun Safety, Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood of Iowa PAC.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

2020

Cynthia Paschen did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign finance summary


Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.


Cynthia Paschen campaign contribution history
YearOfficeStatusContributionsExpenditures
2024Iowa State Senate District 28Lost general$34,233 $28,730
2020Iowa State Senate District 24Lost general$28,712 N/A**
Grand total$62,945 $28,730
Sources: OpenSecretsFederal Election Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

See also


External links

Footnotes


Current members of the Iowa House of Representatives
Leadership
Majority Leader:Bobby Kaufmann
Minority Leader:Brian Meyer
Representatives
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
District 5
District 6
District 7
District 8
Ann Meyer (R)
District 9
District 10
District 11
District 12
District 13
District 14
District 15
District 16
District 17
District 18
Tom Moore (R)
District 19
District 20
District 21
District 22
District 23
District 24
District 25
Hans Wilz (R)
District 26
District 27
District 28
District 29
District 30
District 31
District 32
District 33
District 34
District 35
District 36
District 37
District 38
District 39
District 40
District 41
District 42
District 43
District 44
District 45
District 46
District 47
District 48
Chad Behn (R)
District 49
District 50
District 51
District 52
District 53
District 54
District 55
District 56
District 57
District 58
District 59
District 60
District 61
District 62
District 63
District 64
District 65
District 66
District 67
District 68
District 69
District 70
District 71
District 72
District 73
District 74
District 75
District 76
District 77
District 78
District 79
District 80
District 81
District 82
District 83
District 84
District 85
District 86
District 87
District 88
District 89
District 90
District 91
District 92
District 93
Gary Mohr (R)
District 94
District 95
District 96
District 97
District 98
District 99
District 100
Republican Party (67)
Democratic Party (33)