 In 1999, McKinley challenged State Senator John Judge, who less than two years earlier had won the seat in a special election.Previously, the seat had been held by Judge's wife, Patty Judge, who was elected to be the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture before assuming her current role as Lieutenant Governor of Iowa.McKinley defeated Jones by over 1500 votes and was re-elected in 2004 with 17,029 votes (60%), defeating Democratic opponent Dave Sextro.