Nearly two-thirds of Iowans who spoke with Our News Outlet this week said they do not plan to vote in next month’s midterm elections.
The central question is which party’s voters will stay home.
Once considered a battleground, Iowa has become a Republican stronghold during the Trump era. Yet Democrats are suddenly competitive in several key races, including the Senate contest between Republican Ashley Hinson and Democrat Josh Turek.
Our News Outlet spent two days traveling through northern Iowa, speaking with likely voters and everyday residents who repeatedly voiced frustration with the political status quo in Washington.
Democratic likely voters appeared noticeably more energized, while Republican voters were not uniformly committed to their party’s candidate.
Hinson’s supporters showed enthusiasm during a get-out-the-vote bus tour stop at Decker Truck Line’s corporate headquarters and terminal in Fort Dodge, which Our News Outlet attended.
But just a few miles away, in the city’s hollowed-out downtown lined with empty storefronts, the atmosphere was markedly different.
Travis Lawson, 36, lives on Social Security and disability benefits.
Travis Lawson spoke with Our News Outlet in Fort Dodge on Wednesday
Mindy, a 49-year-old healthcare worker living in Fort Dodge, Iowa, is not planning to vote this year
He is a Trump supporter who “likes the way that they do stuff” and intends to vote Republican—but not for Hinson.
Mindy, 49, is a mother of two and a Fort Dodge resident who works in healthcare after completing a local two-year college program. She told Our News Outlet she does not plan to vote this year because, in her view, “a lot of them are liars” when it comes to politicians.
She was also discouraged by the barrage of negative television advertisements airing during the campaign, a concern echoed by several other voters who spoke with Our News Outlet.
John Van Weef, who lives in Waterloo, Iowa, was visiting his children in Fort Dodge when he told Our News Outlet that “politicians are rigged” and the economy is “poor.” He then pointed to a crumbling alley behind him as evidence, he said, of mismanaged infrastructure spending.
Van Weef said he would vote for himself rather than choose either party.
Democrats, meanwhile, turned out in notably larger numbers on the first day of early voting Wednesday. Our News Outlet spoke with several of them outside polling locations in Nevada and Fort Dodge.
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Bill Vogel, 84, told Our News Outlet in Nevada that “President Trump’s corruption” was the main reason he is supporting Democrats this year.
His wife, Mary Kate, 80, cited Trump’s use of taxpayer money to “build monuments to himself” as one example of what she called “corruption.”
Bill and Mary Kate Vogel, both Democrats in their 80s, voted Wednesday in Story County, hoping to take a stand against what they see as “corruption” by President Donald Trump
Sydney Rose, 19, a Marion, Iowa, native and future educator, is backing Josh Turek for the US Senate because she supports his position on “public money going to public schools”
After the first day of early voting, more than 17,000 people had voted, with Democrats outpacing both Republicans and no-party voters.
Although tangible, the figure is not a shock, as Republicans do not typically vote early, even though the gap should increase before election day if more Democrats do.
While nationally Democrats look more enthusiastic to vote than Republicans, the trend reverses in Iowa.
When the sample moved from registered to likely voters, the Democratic lead also shrank in a recent Iowa poll conducted by Marist University.
CNN’s Iowa poll points the same way: likely voters in Iowa want Republicans to control the Senate, 53 percent to 46 percent, and CNN noted signs that Iowa offers a better playing field for Republicans than Ohio, where Trump has also won three times.
A three-term Congresswoman, Hinson is in a statistical dead heat with Turek.
A poll released by Marist University Wednesday found Turek leading his opponent 48 percent to 45 percent.
However, 59 percent of likely statewide voters believed that Hinson would be elected in November.
Turek told his supporters on Thursday in Cedar Falls that ‘young people… union workers, people in rural communities and farmers’ would make the difference in his race.
Sydney Rose, 19, a native of Marion, Iowa, shared that she is backing Turek because she appreciates his stance on ‘public money going to public schools,’ as an education major who plans to teach in the Hawkeye State after graduation.
As a younger voter, Rose also shared that she is ‘trying to be optimistic’ about the future, and believes that a vote for Turek is one to stop the United States from becoming a ‘second or third-world country.’
