How Trump flipped this rural Iowa county by 42 points

The Washington Examiner ^ | July 31, 2017 | Daniel Allott

[2ndDivisionVet]

CRESCO, Iowa — It wasn’t long after Hillary Clinton clinched the Democratic presidential nomination that Laura Hubka realized how little excitement there was for Clinton among Howard County residents. “I went out and started knocking on doors for Hillary Clinton, and making phone calls,” Hubka, who leads Howard County’s Democratic Party, said when I met with her in late June. “I got hung up on, some guy chased me out of his yard with a rake, the unions complained a lot. There was a lot of yelling at doors.”

Iowa and Howard County, with fewer than 10,000 people, had never been enamored with Clinton. Clinton came in third in the 2008 Democratic caucuses, Hubka reminded me, and won them only narrowly in 2016. In 2016, she lost the county by 8 percentage points to Bernie Sanders.

There was just something about Clinton even many Democrats here couldn’t abide. For Sandy Chilson of Lime Springs, a small town just three miles from the Minnesota border, that something became apparent during Bill Clinton’s presidency. Chilson voted for Clinton in 1992 but soon lost confidence in him. “I felt like I couldn’t trust him, and I have felt that way about Hillary ever since she started running,” she said. “I just don’t think she’s truthful.” Chilson supported Trump from the moment he got into the race.....

[2ndDivisionVet]

Go look at the County Democratic Chairwoman. I'll wait.

[lodi90]

Don’t underestimate the fact that Iowa has a front row seat to Mogadishu on the Mississippi antics.

[headstamp 2]

[Today’s Republican Party, Wacha said, is “more like the way the Democratic Party was 30 or 40 years ago.]

[2ndDivisionVet]

I lived in Story and Polk counties between 1974 and 2002 save for my time in the service.

[PeterPrinciple]

Today’s Republican Party, Wacha said, is “more like the way the Democratic Party was 30 or 40 years ago.”

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Any arguments?

[TalBlack]

“I got hung up on, some guy chased me out of his yard with a rake, ...”

Wondee what his FReeper handle is?

[spintreebob]

Too often all sides buy into the myth that the swing vote is a small percentage. My experience is that voter behavior from election to election can swing wildly.

A well planned, well executed strategy and tactics can do wonders. 7 precincts in a working class immigrant heavy suburb went 55% for Al Gore.

Next election 65% went for the most conservative anti-establishment Republican slate against against the pro-establishment slate of the RINO governor and the Teachers Union Democrat slate.

Next election the RINOs ran an anti-Hispanic candidate for governor and the suburb went 78% Democrat.

Then the RINOs and Union Democrats ran a coalition slate against the far right wing slate and the Alan Keyes types won 87%.

In these elections, the turout in the off years was as big as turnout in the presidential years.

Too often, when Republicans/conservatives see a district go Democrat, they conclude that that district is lost and they write it off. That is a big mistake.

[Political Junkie Too]

Any arguments?

Here's one... The Democrat party was just as lockstep 30 to 40 years ago, and the Republicans were just as spineless.

Bob Michel, Trent Lott, Howard Baker, Bob Dole...

-PJ

[libertylover]

Any arguments?

Yea. Forty years ago would be 1977. During the Vietnam War, Democrats already hated America and wanted the communists to win. They also already supported reverse discrimination and abortion and were turning anti-religion...