By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, says Democrats have “a long ways” to go to be competitive in Iowa when it comes to voter registrations.

“Republicans are up almost 100,000 more Republicans since 2016,” Pate said, to applause, during an appearance this weekend at a fundraiser for Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks. “…For the first time in my adult life, Republicans outnumber the no-party as well as the Democrats.”

.At the beginning of September, there were nearly 462,000 “no party” or independent voters in Iowa compared to over 634,000 active registered Republicans — that’s a difference of over 170,000. Pate, who has been Iowa’s top election official for the past seven years, said the number of active Democratic voters in Iowa is down about 85,000 since 2016. “So when you hear their party chairman claiming they’re on a rebound, they’ve got a long ways to rebound,” Pate said at the Miller-Meeks fundraiser.

Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman Rita Hart has said party registrations in the Democratic column has grown since Kamala Harris became the party’s presidential nominee. According to data on the secretary of state’s website, the number of active Democrats in Iowa grew by about 1900 from August 1 to September 3 and the number of Republican voters grew by about 3100. The number of registered independent or “no party” voters grew the most during the past month — by nearly 8500.