Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate won re-election for a third term as secretary of state, winning 53 percent of the vote. He is a former state senator, mayor of Cedar Rapids and president of the Iowa League of Cities.

According to the Des Moines Register, the Associated Press called the race around 11:30 p.m., ending a hard-fought race between DeJear and Pate. DeJear was the first African-American candidate for a statewide office in Iowa to be nominated by a major political party.

A media release on his campaign website says Pate followed through on some parts of his campaign promises from 2014 by “instituting Voter ID in Iowa, making it easier to vote, with innovations such as online voter registration, creating an address confidentiality program for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, and expanding opportunities for overseas military members to cast their ballots.”

Pate ran on a campaign of promoting secure elections in which it is “easy to vote, but hard to cheat,” according to his campaign website.

Last year, Iowa passed a voter ID law which would require voters to show a state-issued ID at the ballot box. However, this law was blocked by a judge in July on the basis that it interfered with Iowan’s right to vote, The Des Moines Register reported.

This year Iowa voters had to show an ID at the polls, but were allowed to affirm their identity by signing an oath as an alternative, The Des Moines Register said.

The law was also a focal point of the race because it created some concern among voters, especially college students.

Sophomore Jailyn Seabrooks, a religion and political science major, was disappointed with the result of the election, partly due to the new voter ID law.

“He has implemented some really strong and really harmful voter ID laws,” Seabrooks said. “So this loss is hard for that reason, it’s also hard because (Deidre DeJear) had the chance to be the first African-American ever elected in a statewide office, so it’s just hard to know that we haven’t broken that ceiling.”

“But in a lot of other ways, I’m really excited because she’s a really promising upcoming figure in American politics, and I hope that she continues seeking office in other ways,” Seabrooks added.