Carlin will serve the remaining year of Anderson's seat, which will be up for election in November 2018. Carlin's victory means there will be another special election early next year to fill his House seat once he resigns it to move to the Senate.

Carlin said on Tuesday night that he is looking forward to promoting his agenda in the Senate, which, like the House, Republicans control.

"I'm going to advocate that have meant a lot to me since the beginning, you know, tax reform. Iowa has some of the highest personal and corporate tax rates in the country," Carlin said.

"Iowa needs to be more business-friendly," he added.

Carlin plans to work on social and medical issues as well.

"I'm going to work on advocating for more pro-life legislation," he said.

In addition, Carlin wants to look into stopgap measure on Iowa health insurance premiums, and wants to see more "choice in education."

Carlin, 55, has practiced law for 25 years in Sioux City. He decided to run for the open seat since the terms run for four years instead of the two-year House terms, which Carlin said means he can focus less on campaigning and more on representing people.