IA was a letdown in 2010 when the GOP almost made a clean sweep of the then-5 seats, coming within an inch of knocking off the 3 Dem incumbents. Some predictions for this cycle have claimed the parties may swap seats, with the Dems getting Latham’s seat and the GOP getting Braley’s.
I’ve found IA to be peculiar, anyhow. Why a state with those demographics and cultural leanings would not be ridiculously Conservative/GOP leaning is baffling. The Democrats have nothing but disdain for the kind of people that populate the state, yet these leftist charlatans are given a majority by them (recall that since after 1984, only once have they voted GOP for President, in 2004).
Iowa is the most politically confused, and confusing state..having sent both Grassley and Harkin to the Senate for decades....talk about an odd couple..
Iowa used to be a strong GOP state but it’s gone through some weird bouts since the Watergate years. For one thing, it seemed to have a dovish streak that doesn’t sit well with the national Republican Party. In 1984, it only gave Reagan a 53%-46% win over Mondale, than in 1988 it gives Dukakis a huge percentage, bigger than Massachusetts (!) It sometimes swings back to the GOP, but never to the point that it turns into another Kansas or Nebraska. It seems now to be divided mostly between a heavily Republican west and a more Democratic east. The bigger counties east vote Dem, but even quite a few of the smaller counties there also vote Dem. Maybe it’s a more populist area? I don’t know.
I thought it must the unions but Iowa is a right to work state. I don’t know what’s wrong with them, they used to be MORE Republican that Kansas and Nebraska.
Based on the disappointing recent polls numbers with this witch Appel leading, I have to call IA-3 our third most vulnerable seat, after CA-31 and NY-11.
Though perhaps things are looking up in NY-11, new Siena college poll out with the Republican Grimm in the lead, 44%-40%, with 4% for the Green. God bless the Greens.
Wow, this is a campaign commercial waiting to be filmed and broadcast.