Iowa Democrats, facing a nearly decade-long drought of statewide victories, are expanding their ground operation to levels not seen since before the party’s 2016 collapse in the Midwest, the Associated Press reported. The push comes as Vice President JD Vance is set to appear in Des Moines on Tuesday to campaign for Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, a district that includes the capital, its suburbs, and much of the state’s rural center. President Donald Trump chose Iowa as his first stop when he began midterm campaigning earlier this year, signaling the White House’s recognition of the state’s unusually competitive landscape.
The Democratic coordinated campaign, which will support candidates for governor, U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House, plans to have 60 field organizers on the ground by June, roughly twice as many as during the 2018 midterms. Another two dozen staff members will work for the coordinated campaign. State party chair Rita Hart told the AP that Democrats are “investing so much in these organizers and in our county parties and supporting and training our volunteers,” adding that “it’s through these kinds of conversations where we build trust with voters.” The party has signed leases on eight field offices with plans to open at least seven more, including in blue-collar areas along the Mississippi River that twice backed Barack Obama before flipping to Trump.
Senate and gubernatorial retirements by Republicans Joni Ernst and Kim Reynolds have opened two statewide seats, and Democrats are contesting three of the state’s four GOP-held congressional districts. “Iowa is still, in my view, a purple state,” Hart said. “We just haven’t given them an opportunity to show that lately.”
State Auditor Rob Sand, the party’s gubernatorial nominee, ended last year with $13 million in his campaign account. He is running what Hart called “the best statewide ticket we’ve had for a generation” on a reform platform that includes term limits, a ban on lawmaker stock trading, and open primaries. “The system helps incumbents get reelected, rather than actually forcing them to solve our problems,” Sand told the AP. He frequently highlights his rural roots, Christian faith, and bowhunting, along with a disdain for partisan politics.
In the Senate race, state lawmakers Josh Turek and Zach Wahls are seeking the Democratic nomination in the June 2 primary. Turek, who describes himself as a “prairie populist,” said there are too many millionaires in Congress who do not know what it is to live paycheck to paycheck. Wahls, endorsed by several labor unions, argued that corruption in politics benefits corporate interests over working people.
The party’s economic message is central to its strategy. Farmers are squeezed by tariffs and face higher prices for fertilizer and diesel fuel, while factory and meatpacking closures have cost hundreds of jobs. Rural residents are driving farther for healthcare as clinics close. Christina Bohannan, who is making a third bid to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in a southeast Iowa district, told the AP, “Everybody’s talking about affordability. I don’t want it just to become a catchphrase that people can kind of just brush aside as political rhetoric. This is real.” She said both major parties “have failed to really fight for working people.”
Former Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin said Trump’s stumbles have created an opening. “I think a lot of people wanted to get things shaken up a little bit,” he said. “But I don’t think they wanted them shaken up like this.” Harkin added that Democrats in the Midwest “got painted with this broad brush, and we didn’t fight back well enough. We became more defensive.” Iowa Democratic strategist Jeff Link told the AP that the party’s anti-Trump posture had alienated rural voters. “Because the knee-jerk reaction to Trump is to be the opposite of Trump, we went away from economic populism to our detriment,” Link said. “By just being anti-Trump, it is being condescending towards people that chose him three times.”
Republicans counter that Democrats’ national brand remains a liability in the state. “You can’t have political born-again experiences,” said Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa. He acknowledged the cycle would not be easy but said Iowans trust Trump’s long game on tariffs and the Iran war. Democrats, he told the AP, “are not going to erase your history in one election cycle.” He predicted that rebuilding trust in places that flipped from Obama to Trump “will take a long time.”
Democrats face a steep registration deficit: Republicans hold roughly 200,000 more registered voters statewide and lead in each congressional district. Still, the party says 7,000 people have signed up over the past year to volunteer, training sessions are being organized, and spending for the cycle is expected to match presidential-year levels—in the high seven figures. Hart said the party is pivoting from text messages and digital ads to in-person organizing. “Since the pandemic, we’ve really struggled with getting back to the basics with person-to-person communication,” she said. “We’ve got to get back to that.”