# Molly Donahue

Molly Donahue is a Democratic member of the Iowa Senate for district 37.

- Party: Democrat
- Seat: Iowa Senate, district 37
- Serving since: 2023-01-03
- Current term: IA 2025–26 session
- Open States ID: ocd-person/d675a03b-f474-4e1c-b48a-b78b399488c4

Source: https://americaspoliticalpulse.com/p/d675a03b-f474-4e1c-b48a-b78b399488c4 (America’s Political Pulse, Polarization Research Lab), data through 2026-10-27. Data under CC BY 4.0. Cite as: Westwood, Sean J., and Yphtach Lelkes. 2024. America's Political Pulse [data set].

## Headline

27% of Donahue’s statements contain a personal attack, 11.5 times the State Senate Democrat average of 2.4%.

## What Donahue says (IA 2025–26 session)

244 classified statements: 244 posts on X. Each rate is the share of statements with the label, against the State Senate Democrats average; rank 1 is the highest rate.

| Label | Donahue | State Senate Democrats average | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal attacks | 27.5% | 2.4% | 1 of 329 |
| Policy criticism | 11.9% | 10.3% | 112 of 329 |
| Policy discussion | 21.3% | 42.9% | 283 of 329 |
| Bipartisanship | 1.2% | 3.4% | 217 of 329 |
| Credit claiming | 1.2% | 16.1% | 310 of 329 |
| Extreme labels | 2.5% | 0.8% | 39 of 329 |

Most discussed policy areas: Education 42% (State Senate Democrats 15%); Economics and Public Finance 23% (State Senate Democrats 10%); Health 17% (State Senate Democrats 17%); Agriculture and Food 12% (State Senate Democrats 4.7%); Government Operations and Politics 12% (State Senate Democrats 14%).

## Ideology (CSIP)

CSIP score −0.68 (standard error 0.02), from 655 donors and 1,009 roll calls. Negative is left of 0, positive right of it, on one scale for every official. 45% of State Senate Democrats score lower.

## Votes (IA 2025–26 session)

589 roll calls. Attendance 93.3% (Iowa Senate 93.9%). Party unity 97.2% (95.7%). 17 votes against the party majority.

Key votes:

- 2026-10-02 · voted nay · Shall the bill pass? · HF 2801 A bill for an act modifying the major economic growth attraction program, and including effective date provisions. · pass · https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/HF2801/
- 2026-05-03 · voted not voting · Shall the bill pass? · SF 2472 A bill for an act relating to state and local government taxes, fees, financial authority, and budgets, by modifying property assessment provisions,… · pass · https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/SF2472/
- 2026-05-03 · voted not voting · Shall the bill pass? · HF 2788 A bill for an act relating to abortions including definitions, informed consent, dispensing of abortion-inducing drugs, and other abortion-related… · pass · https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/HF2788/
- 2026-05-02 · voted not voting · Shall the bill pass? · HF 2765 A bill for an act providing for the regulation of mining, making penalties applicable, and including effective date provisions. · pass · https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/HF2765/
- 2026-05-02 · voted not voting · Shall the bill pass? · HF 1036 A bill for an act relating to human trafficking, including screening children, civil statutes of limitations, an annual stakeholder meeting and… · pass · https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/HF1036/
- 2026-05-02 · voted not voting · Shall amendment S-5251 be adopted? · HF 1036 A bill for an act relating to human trafficking, including screening children, civil statutes of limitations, an annual stakeholder meeting and… · fail · https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/HF1036/
- 2026-05-02 · voted not voting · Shall the bill pass? · HF 2787 A bill for an act prohibiting warrant resolution clinics, including enforcement mechanisms, providing penalties, and including effective date… · pass · https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/HF2787/
- 2026-05-02 · voted not voting · Shall the bill pass? · HF 2781 A bill for an act relating to allocations of moneys from the juvenile detention home fund. · pass · https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/HF2781/
- 2026-05-02 · voted not voting · Shall the bill pass? · HF 2542 A bill for an act relating to habitual offenders, and providing penalties. · pass · https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/HF2542/
- 2026-05-02 · voted not voting · Shall the bill pass? · HF 2493 A bill for an act relating to the statewide preschool program by modifying provisions relating to eligibility, funding, and compulsory attendance and… · pass · https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/HF2493/

## Legislation (IA 2025–26 session)

Sponsored 136 bills: 136 reached committee, 2 passed one chamber, 0 passed both, 0 became law. Cosponsored 0. 1.5% of sponsored bills got out of committee (Iowa Senate 10.8%; rank 43 of 48).

Recent sponsored bills:

- SR 111: A resolution recognizing the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the University of Northern Iowa. (passed one chamber, 2026-03-25) https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/SR111/
- SF 2360: A bill for an act relating to partial payments of property taxes and including applicability provisions. (in committee, 2026-02-24) https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/SF2360/
- SF 2350: A bill for an act relating to the use of automatic registration plate readers, and providing penalties. (in committee, 2026-02-17) https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/SF2350/
- SF 2271: A bill for an act relating to captioning requirements for motion picture theaters. (in committee, 2026-02-12) https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/SF2271/
- SF 2272: A bill for an act providing for a veterans’ benefits and services poster for employers to display in the workplace. (in committee, 2026-02-12) https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/SF2272/
- SF 2269: A bill for an act appropriating moneys to Iowa state university of science and technology for use by the Iowa nutrient research center in supporting the Iowa… (in committee, 2026-02-11) https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/SF2269/
- SF 2248: A bill for an act providing for paid family and medical leave to certain employees who have a child receiving inpatient care in a neonatal intensive care unit. (in committee, 2026-02-12) https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/SF2248/
- SF 2247: A bill for an act relating to persons prohibited from participating in economic development programs. (in committee, 2026-02-12) https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/SF2247/
- SF 2261: A bill for an act relating to confinement feeding operations by requiring the installation and operation of pollution monitoring systems, and making penalties… (in committee, 2026-02-12) https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/SF2261/
- SF 2241: A bill for an act relating to charter school requirements, including reporting requirements, governance standards, financial accountability, and oversight by… (in committee, 2026-02-16) https://openstates.org/ia/bills/2025-2026/SF2241/

## Campaign money (2026 cycle)

Itemized receipts $16.0K (State Senate Democrats median $55.5K). 82% of itemized individual money came from in state. Aggregates only; no individual donors.

## Recent statements

Newest first. Posts on X are listed by date and link only.

- 2026-10-26 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion · https://x.com/mdonahueforia/status/2114853273220096030
- 2026-10-26 · Post on X · https://x.com/mdonahueforia/status/2114853452320997637
- 2026-10-24 · Post on X · https://x.com/mdonahueforia/status/2114108038273536389
- 2026-10-24 · Post on X · https://x.com/mdonahueforia/status/2114108214706860370
- 2026-10-24 · Post on X · https://x.com/mdonahueforia/status/2114108265751564622
- 2026-10-24 · Post on X · https://x.com/mdonahueforia/status/2114108299570446396
- 2026-10-24 · Post on X · https://x.com/mdonahueforia/status/2114114140973437164
- 2026-10-24 · Post on X · labels: personal attacks · https://x.com/mdonahueforia/status/2114115782682784021
- 2026-10-23 · Post on X · https://x.com/mdonahueforia/status/2113599765921595867
- 2026-10-22 · Post on X · labels: personal attacks, policy discussion · https://x.com/mdonahueforia/status/2113258789000687648

## Links

- Official site: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/legislator?ga=89&personID=27031
- Campaign site: https://donahueforia.com/
- X: https://x.com/mdonahueforia
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DonahueForIA/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-donahue-722b4b35

Full profile, with every chart and the methods: https://americaspoliticalpulse.com/p/d675a03b-f474-4e1c-b48a-b78b399488c4