Democrats see a path back to Iowa as Republicans court voters ahead of June contests
After years of losing political ground in Iowa, Democrats say they see an opening to make the state more competitive again, pointing to growing dissatisfaction with Republican leadership and economic pressures that they link to the Iran war and rising prices. In the background, Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to visit Des Moines on Tuesday to support Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, whose district spans the city, its suburbs and the state’s rural center.
Iowa Democratic leaders say the upcoming campaign season is also shaped by an unusual number of open seats on the ballot, including Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republican Sen. Joni Ernst opting out of reelection bids. Iowa Democrats are trying to convert that structural opportunity into new ground operations and down-ballot attention, with plans to place more organizers in the field by June than the party had during former President Donald Trump’s first-term midterm elections.
Rita Hart, the Iowa Democratic Party chair, said in an interview that “Iowa is still, in my view, a purple state,” adding that Democrats have not recently “given them an opportunity to show that lately.” Republicans counter that Iowa will remain firmly Republican, and they point to the strength of Trump’s recent performance in the state as well as their own arguments about how Democrats should message to voters.
Democrats’ staffing plan centers on field outreach and a coordinated push for multiple offices. Iowa Democrats plan to have 60 field organizers on the ground by June, nearly double from eight years ago during Trump’s first-term midterms, and another two dozen people to staff a coordinated campaign intended to support candidates for governor, the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate, among other races.
At the top of the statewide ticket, Iowa Democrats are backing Rob Sand, the state auditor running for governor. Sand ended last year with $13 million in his campaign account, and he has highlighted what he describes as his rural roots, his Christian faith, and bowhunting, while also portraying himself as disinclined toward partisan politics, as Democrats seek appeal across Iowans of different backgrounds.
In the U.S. Senate race, state lawmakers Josh Turek and Zach Wahls are seeking the Democratic nomination in the June 2 primary. Democrats also say they are targeting three of the four Republican-held U.S. House seats, as they attempt to translate attention from statewide races into competitiveness across congressional districts.
Iowa Democrats say they believe a populist economic message could resonate, particularly as farmers face new strains and rural residents confront higher costs and access problems. They argue tariffs squeeze farmers, while fertilizer and diesel fuel prices rise, and they describe job losses connected to factories and meat processors shutting down. They also point to rural residents driving longer distances to see doctors as healthcare clinics close, and they say some of their candidates will take policy contrast with their own party as part of the appeal.
Turek and Wahls, who both describe their approach as responsive to rural concerns, say Democrats have abandoned rural and small-town voters who supported Trump to change the status quo. Turek called himself a “prairie populist,” and he said there are too many millionaires in Congress who don’t know what it is to live paycheck to paycheck. Wahls, endorsed by several labor unions, said corruption in politics benefits corporate interests over working people.
Christina Bohannan, running again to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in a southeast Iowa district, said both major parties “have failed to really fight for working people.” She added, “Everybody’s talking about affordability,” and she said, “I don’t want it just to become a catchphrase that people can kind of just brush aside as political rhetoric. This is real.”
Sand, meanwhile, has framed his campaign in terms of broader political change, targeting what he says is a system that favors incumbents. He has introduced proposals including term limits, bans on stock trading while in office and open primaries, and he has argued that the political system “helps incumbents get reelected, rather than actually forcing them to solve our problems.”
Republicans argue Democrats remain out of step with Iowans, including on the values they say voters prioritize. Jeff Link, an Iowa Democratic strategist, said that in the past it was not uncommon to find Democrats in governors’ mansions or Congress in the Midwest and Plains, but that Trump’s promises to resurrect manufacturing jobs and “drain the swamp” helped him win over voters who had supported populist Democrats. Link said Republicans’ dominance also reflects Democratic strategy shifts, saying, “Because the knee-jerk reaction to Trump is to be the opposite of Trump, we went away from economic populism to our detriment,” and he added that being “anti-Trump” has been condescending toward voters who chose him three times.
Tom Harkin, a former Democratic senator from Iowa, also said Trump’s performance has helped create an opportunity for Democrats to seek change. He said, “I think a lot of people wanted to get things shaken up a little bit,” while also stating, “But I don’t think they wanted them shaken up like this.” Harkin said Democrats have a chance to rebrand themselves and said Democrats in the Midwest were painted with a broad brush and did not fight back enough, which he said left them more defensive.
Jeff Kaufmann, the chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, argued that Democrats’ political approach remains too far to the left for many Iowans. “You can’t have political born-again experiences,” he said, arguing that “tweaking the message and running away from the national party is not going to ‘erase your history in one election cycle.’”
Kaufmann acknowledged the effort would be difficult but argued that Iowa voters trust Trump’s long game, including plans he says are intended to protect Iowa farmers with tariffs and address the nuclear threat by going to war with Iran. Kaufmann said it took years for Democrats to lose Iowa communities that flipped from supporting Barack Obama to backing Trump, adding, “It’s going to take a long time for them to build it back up again.”
Beyond messaging, Democrats say they are focused on building a durable presence on the ground. They say the environment for their party has been bleak since Obama won the state in 2008 and 2012, while Republicans have maintained control of Iowa’s state government for nearly a decade. With all six members of the federal delegation also Republicans, Democrats say they lag by roughly 200,000 registered voters statewide and operate at a deficit across all four congressional districts.
Iowa Democrats said 7,000 people have signed up over the past year to volunteer for candidates and that the state party will hold volunteer training sessions. Hart said the party has signed leases on eight field offices and plans to open at least seven more, including in blue-collar areas in eastern Iowa along the Mississippi River that backed Obama before pivoting to Trump.
Hart said senior leaders expect spending this election cycle to reach the high seven figures, comparable to presidential years, and that the party is shifting from text messages and digital advertising back toward in-person outreach. “Since the pandemic, we’ve really struggled with getting back to the basics with person-to-person communication,” Hart said, adding, “We’ve got to get back to that.”