Yamn Remailer
2023-08-12 05:00:52 UTC
As Republican presidential candidates flock to the state, Democrats
there are despondent, exhausted by repeated defeats and the loss of
their first-in-the-nation nominating contest.
Not long ago, Iowa was the center of the Democratic political
universe.
In 2019, two dozen presidential candidates roamed the Iowa State
Fair to grill pork chops and admire the famed butter cow as they
vied for the stateâs caucusgoers. Some Democrats still saw the
stateâs rightward jolt in 2016 as temporary, believing that their
flipping of two congressional seats in 2018 had reaffirmed Iowaâs
purple status. Days before the 2020 general election, Joseph R.
Biden Jr. campaigned in Des Moines.
Now, as Republican presidential candidates flock to the fair, Iowa
Democrats are at their lowest point in decades.
âIt is so bad,â said Claire Celsi, a Democratic state senator from
West Des Moines. âI canât even describe to you how bad it is.â
Ms. Celsi and others described themselves as exhausted by repeated
defeats at the ballot box, an inability to slow Republicans at the
State Capitol and the loss to South Carolina of the first-in-the-
nation status in Democratic presidential contests. Deep in the
minority, Democrats in the State Legislature have squabbled among
themselves, ousting their partyâs State Senate leader in June after
a dispute over personnel.
In interviews this week, Iowa Democrats said the state now stood as
a warning sign for what happens when their party falls out of touch
with voters who once made up key parts of its electoral coalition.
âThereâs no question that Democrats are at a low point in Iowa,â
said former Representative Dave Loebsack, whose eastern Iowa seat,
which he had held for 14 years, flipped to a Republican when he
chose not to seek re-election in 2020. âItâs difficult even to
recruit people to run when weâre so far down.â
Iowaâs transition to a deep-red state has taken place with
remarkable speed. Democrats controlled the State Senate as recently
as 2016. In 2018, Democrats won three of the stateâs four
congressional seats and three of the six statewide offices. But
after the partyâs bungling of its 2020 presidential caucuses,
President Donald J. Trump cruised to victory in Iowa that November.
The midterm elections last year were a Democratic blood bath in
Iowa, even though the party had over-performed in much of the rest
of the country.
The underfunded, little-known Democratic nominee for governor lost
by 19 percentage points to Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, and
carried only four of the stateâs 99 counties. Republicans took all
four congressional seats for the first time in 50 years, enacted a
gun rights amendment in the State Constitution, ousted two of the
three Democrats in statewide office and took supermajority control
of both chambers of the Legislature.
The three congressional seats Democrats held as recently as 2020 are
still winnable, Democrats say, but the party doesnât have 2024
candidates for any of them so far.
âWe should have candidates out there thinking, âIf I get a few
breaks, I can win,ââ said Pete DâAlessandro, a senior aide to
Senator Bernie Sandersâs presidential campaigns in Iowa. âThat we
donât is a direct reflection of having an incompetent party for the
last couple of years.â
Democrats, including Mr. DâAlessandro, express optimism about the
partyâs new chairwoman, Rita Hart, who has sought to empower
county-level leaders. Ms. Hart, who in 2020 lost the congressional
race for Mr. Loebsackâs seat by six votes, said Iowa Democrats would
have to fight for a focus on local issues.
Ms. Hart took over the party in January, after a period in which
Iowa Democrats had four leaders in less than two years. She has
sought to instill some continuity while reorienting the partyâs
priorities away from the presidential cycle and toward local needs.
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âThe way the media has changed, the way people have gotten their
information, we have not shifted to understanding that weâve got to
talk to our fellow Iowans,â she said. âIâm very convinced that weâve
got to empower our county parties to do just that.â
The struggles of Iowa Democrats reflect the broader migration of
white, rural voters to Republicans, a long-term trend that has
accelerated during Mr. Trumpâs political career. Iowa has just two
big cities, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, and two college towns that
state Democrats can still count on winning.
Interviews with two dozen Democrats in the state suggest that the
party has suffered from a confluence of problems, including
diminished campaigning during the coronavirus pandemic; Mr. Trumpâs
appeal to the white, rural voters who dominate state politics; and
weak messaging in the 2022 elections.
Democrats have faced numerous setbacks this year, including
Republicansâ passage of a six-week abortion ban â which has been
temporarily halted by a court order â and a new program that
allocates state money toward private school vouchers.
âItâs just been so exhausting and frustrating to continue to take
losses,â said Sarah Trone Garriott, a Democratic state senator who
was the partyâs rare bright spot last year when she flipped a
suburban Des Moines district to beat the Republican president of the
chamber.
She added, âIf I had known everything that I was getting into, I
donât think I would have run in the first place, because itâs just
been really hard, but I see so much opportunity in Iowa.â
Losing the first presidential contest after the state party had
suffered international ridicule for the 2020 caucuses fiasco forced
what several Democrats described as a long-overdue reckoning. No
longer can the party rely on a periodic influx of fund-raising and
attention. Internal discussions now center on how to act more like
successful red-state Democrats elsewhere, nominating moderate
candidates who can attract independent voters who have been tilting
more conservative with each election.
âIâm hopeful that now our attention is on getting people elected and
getting Democrats to turn out the vote rather than a national entity
that overtakes everything,â said J.D. Scholten, a state
representative from Sioux City who in 2018 nearly defeated
Representative Steve King, a hard-right Republican with a history of
racist remarks.
Mr. Scholten, who spent years playing professional baseball in
several countries, will not attend the State Fair because heâs
pitching for a team in the Netherlands this summer. Ms. Celsi said
she wouldnât go because it is âKim Reynoldsâs show.â And Mr.
Loebsack said he was staying home because the country music acts at
the fairâs amphitheater did not appeal to him and his wife.
Itâs clear that Iowa Democrats have a long way to go.
Republicans, with a hammerlock on the stateâs politics, dominate
fund-raising and media attention â and that was before the G.O.P.
presidential candidates made themselves regulars at local fund-
raisers and other political events.
That has left Democrats doing a lot of finger-pointing and soul-
searching about what has gone wrong, whether they have hit rock
bottom yet and how to maneuver their way back to political
relevance.
âThe Iowa Democratic Party didnât prepare for the transition to
understanding and using social media,â said Jack Hatch, a longtime
state legislator who was the Democratic nominee for governor in
2014. âSome individual campaigns understood, but not the party. As a
result, we had one message for all campaigns, which weakened all our
campaigns. One message doesnât work in Iowa.â
Fuck you un-American Democrats seems to be working loud and clear.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/11/us/politics/democrats-iowa-
state-fair.html
there are despondent, exhausted by repeated defeats and the loss of
their first-in-the-nation nominating contest.
Not long ago, Iowa was the center of the Democratic political
universe.
In 2019, two dozen presidential candidates roamed the Iowa State
Fair to grill pork chops and admire the famed butter cow as they
vied for the stateâs caucusgoers. Some Democrats still saw the
stateâs rightward jolt in 2016 as temporary, believing that their
flipping of two congressional seats in 2018 had reaffirmed Iowaâs
purple status. Days before the 2020 general election, Joseph R.
Biden Jr. campaigned in Des Moines.
Now, as Republican presidential candidates flock to the fair, Iowa
Democrats are at their lowest point in decades.
âIt is so bad,â said Claire Celsi, a Democratic state senator from
West Des Moines. âI canât even describe to you how bad it is.â
Ms. Celsi and others described themselves as exhausted by repeated
defeats at the ballot box, an inability to slow Republicans at the
State Capitol and the loss to South Carolina of the first-in-the-
nation status in Democratic presidential contests. Deep in the
minority, Democrats in the State Legislature have squabbled among
themselves, ousting their partyâs State Senate leader in June after
a dispute over personnel.
In interviews this week, Iowa Democrats said the state now stood as
a warning sign for what happens when their party falls out of touch
with voters who once made up key parts of its electoral coalition.
âThereâs no question that Democrats are at a low point in Iowa,â
said former Representative Dave Loebsack, whose eastern Iowa seat,
which he had held for 14 years, flipped to a Republican when he
chose not to seek re-election in 2020. âItâs difficult even to
recruit people to run when weâre so far down.â
Iowaâs transition to a deep-red state has taken place with
remarkable speed. Democrats controlled the State Senate as recently
as 2016. In 2018, Democrats won three of the stateâs four
congressional seats and three of the six statewide offices. But
after the partyâs bungling of its 2020 presidential caucuses,
President Donald J. Trump cruised to victory in Iowa that November.
The midterm elections last year were a Democratic blood bath in
Iowa, even though the party had over-performed in much of the rest
of the country.
The underfunded, little-known Democratic nominee for governor lost
by 19 percentage points to Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, and
carried only four of the stateâs 99 counties. Republicans took all
four congressional seats for the first time in 50 years, enacted a
gun rights amendment in the State Constitution, ousted two of the
three Democrats in statewide office and took supermajority control
of both chambers of the Legislature.
The three congressional seats Democrats held as recently as 2020 are
still winnable, Democrats say, but the party doesnât have 2024
candidates for any of them so far.
âWe should have candidates out there thinking, âIf I get a few
breaks, I can win,ââ said Pete DâAlessandro, a senior aide to
Senator Bernie Sandersâs presidential campaigns in Iowa. âThat we
donât is a direct reflection of having an incompetent party for the
last couple of years.â
Democrats, including Mr. DâAlessandro, express optimism about the
partyâs new chairwoman, Rita Hart, who has sought to empower
county-level leaders. Ms. Hart, who in 2020 lost the congressional
race for Mr. Loebsackâs seat by six votes, said Iowa Democrats would
have to fight for a focus on local issues.
Ms. Hart took over the party in January, after a period in which
Iowa Democrats had four leaders in less than two years. She has
sought to instill some continuity while reorienting the partyâs
priorities away from the presidential cycle and toward local needs.
Editorsâ Picks
For âOnly Murdersâ Season 3, Not the Same Old Song and Dance
Robbie Robertsonâs 16 Essential Songs
26 Easy Summer Recipes to Make You Feel Better About (Almost)
Everything
âThe way the media has changed, the way people have gotten their
information, we have not shifted to understanding that weâve got to
talk to our fellow Iowans,â she said. âIâm very convinced that weâve
got to empower our county parties to do just that.â
The struggles of Iowa Democrats reflect the broader migration of
white, rural voters to Republicans, a long-term trend that has
accelerated during Mr. Trumpâs political career. Iowa has just two
big cities, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, and two college towns that
state Democrats can still count on winning.
Interviews with two dozen Democrats in the state suggest that the
party has suffered from a confluence of problems, including
diminished campaigning during the coronavirus pandemic; Mr. Trumpâs
appeal to the white, rural voters who dominate state politics; and
weak messaging in the 2022 elections.
Democrats have faced numerous setbacks this year, including
Republicansâ passage of a six-week abortion ban â which has been
temporarily halted by a court order â and a new program that
allocates state money toward private school vouchers.
âItâs just been so exhausting and frustrating to continue to take
losses,â said Sarah Trone Garriott, a Democratic state senator who
was the partyâs rare bright spot last year when she flipped a
suburban Des Moines district to beat the Republican president of the
chamber.
She added, âIf I had known everything that I was getting into, I
donât think I would have run in the first place, because itâs just
been really hard, but I see so much opportunity in Iowa.â
Losing the first presidential contest after the state party had
suffered international ridicule for the 2020 caucuses fiasco forced
what several Democrats described as a long-overdue reckoning. No
longer can the party rely on a periodic influx of fund-raising and
attention. Internal discussions now center on how to act more like
successful red-state Democrats elsewhere, nominating moderate
candidates who can attract independent voters who have been tilting
more conservative with each election.
âIâm hopeful that now our attention is on getting people elected and
getting Democrats to turn out the vote rather than a national entity
that overtakes everything,â said J.D. Scholten, a state
representative from Sioux City who in 2018 nearly defeated
Representative Steve King, a hard-right Republican with a history of
racist remarks.
Mr. Scholten, who spent years playing professional baseball in
several countries, will not attend the State Fair because heâs
pitching for a team in the Netherlands this summer. Ms. Celsi said
she wouldnât go because it is âKim Reynoldsâs show.â And Mr.
Loebsack said he was staying home because the country music acts at
the fairâs amphitheater did not appeal to him and his wife.
Itâs clear that Iowa Democrats have a long way to go.
Republicans, with a hammerlock on the stateâs politics, dominate
fund-raising and media attention â and that was before the G.O.P.
presidential candidates made themselves regulars at local fund-
raisers and other political events.
That has left Democrats doing a lot of finger-pointing and soul-
searching about what has gone wrong, whether they have hit rock
bottom yet and how to maneuver their way back to political
relevance.
âThe Iowa Democratic Party didnât prepare for the transition to
understanding and using social media,â said Jack Hatch, a longtime
state legislator who was the Democratic nominee for governor in
2014. âSome individual campaigns understood, but not the party. As a
result, we had one message for all campaigns, which weakened all our
campaigns. One message doesnât work in Iowa.â
Fuck you un-American Democrats seems to be working loud and clear.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/11/us/politics/democrats-iowa-
state-fair.html