Iowa has over the past couple of years transformed from a purple state to a deep red one, and Democrats are absolutely horrified.

“It is so bad. I can’t even describe to you how bad it is,” Claire Celsi, a Democratic state senator from West Des Moines, told The New York Times this week.

Why the sad face?

“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,” according to the Times.

“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,” the paper notes.

Maybe it’d help if Democrats would stop alienating Iowa voters?

“The struggles of Iowa Democrats reflect the broader migration of white, rural voters to Republicans”

Democrats removed Iowa from the first primary because it didn’t like the race of the population

One thing voters can understand is when they’re devalued https://t.co/ahfZrr60ww

— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) August 11, 2023

“There’s no question that Democrats are at a low point in Iowa. It’s difficult even to recruit people to run when we’re so far down,” former Rep. Dave Loebsack, whose seat flipped to Republican in 2020 after he retired, said to the Times.

But the most amazing thing about Iowa’s transformation from purple to red is the speed at which it happened.

“Democrats controlled the State Senate as recently as 2016. In 2018, Democrats won three of the state’s four congressional seats and three of the six statewide offices. But after the party’s bungling of its 2020 presidential caucuses, President Donald J. Trump cruised to victory in Iowa that November,” according to the Times.

Meanwhile, the Democrat nominee for governor got walloped by Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, reportedly carrying only four of the state’s 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 Times reporting continues.

Democrats reportedly claim that at least three of the seats they held as recently as 2020 are still winnable, but the problem is they don’t have any candidates for them.

“We should have candidates out there thinking, ‘If I get a few breaks, I can win.’ That we don’t is a direct reflection of having an incompetent party for the last couple of years,” said Pete D’Alessandro, a senior aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders’s former presidential campaigns in Iowa.

The only potential good news for Iowa Democrats is Democrat Party of Iowa chair Rita Hart. Though she herself lost a congressional race in 2020, she’s been instrumental in reinvigorating her party and refocusing it on local issues.

It was my honor to show MN @GovTimWalz around the @IowaStateFair with @iowademocrats chair Rita Hart. pic.twitter.com/gCads1KCaB

— Sarah Trone Garriott (@SarahforIowa) August 10, 2023

“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 party’s priorities away from the presidential cycle and toward local needs,” according to the Times.

“The way the media has changed, the way people have gotten their information, we have not shifted to understanding that we’ve got to talk to our fellow Iowans. I’m very convinced that we’ve got to empower our county parties to do just that,” she said to the Times.

The key word there is “to,” as in talk TO Iowa voters. Not talk down at them like so many Democrats have a tendency of doing.

As an example, just read some of the Twitter responses from the left to the Times’ reporting:

“falls out of touch”? What are they supposed to do, sponsor the next Klan rally?

— Kevin Rusch (@KevinR70) August 11, 2023

The Democrats fell out of touch with people who easily turned to Fascism when it beckoned them.

— Pablo Roca de Oro (@PaulHGoldsteinC) August 11, 2023

Out of touch? A retired Admiral like Franken is out of touch vs a Trump terrorist-coddler like Grassley? Grassley who steal tax payer dollars for his corporate farms? Another NYT fail

— MoleAtMAL (@mole_at_MAL) August 11, 2023

Iowa stopped being a swing state. As the Republicans became more and more extreme, Iowa has decided “yes, we want more of *that*”. Nothing Democrats can do about people who love fascism. So we’re focusing on new purple states renouncing fascism like AZ and GA. Suck it up.

— Lukuion (@Lukuion) August 11, 2023

In other words, Iowa voters are a bunch of fascists and racists, so to hell with them. Talk about a winning strategy …

“It’s just been so exhausting and frustrating to continue to take losses,” said Sarah Trone Garriott, a Democrat state senator who managed to secure a win last year.

“If I had known everything that I was getting into, I don’t think I would have run in the first place, because it’s just been really hard,” she added.

Yeah, it can definitely be hard to succeed politically when your party treats the very voters you need to win like trash …

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Vivek Saxena

Senior Staff Writer
Vivek@bizpacreview.com

V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.

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