If I Were Chair of the Iowa Democratic Party ...
Iowa Democrats need to go back to basics and that starts with organizing locally
The last four election cycles in Iowa have been rough to say the least for Iowa Democrats. They have lost three straight presidential races and two gubernatorial races. Lost control of several statewide executive offices. Lost all four Congressional races in two successive cycles. And lost seats in the state legislature. If the party has not hit rock bottom yet, it is awfully close. The party is really at a crossroads and needs to make a choice moving forward: Is the party satisfied with being relegated to permanent minority status challenging Republicans only at the margins? Or are Iowa Democrats ready to reboot and start charting a course that includes winning races again?
If Democrats choose the latter then they should start building from the bottom-up. And history provides a good guide regarding how once upon a time Iowa Democrats built winning coalitions after an extended period of Republican dominance.
I would note here that I am not a member of the Iowa Democratic Party. In fact, I am a registered No Party Voter who has served as a precinct captain for candidates on both sides of the ideological divide starting with Jeb Bush in 2016 and most recently for Amy Klobuchar in 2020. That said, having a strong, robust Democratic Party in Iowa is important moving forward as our system is healthier when we have two competitive parties.
County and precinct party organizations are the building blocks of the political party. Local organizations build connections in the community both during and in between elections. Through community outreach and canvassing, these groups can identify likely supporters of Democratic candidates and recruit future volunteers. They seek out volunteers to place signs in their yard or on their fence lines. They can be the point of contact for absentee ballot requests and voter mobilization efforts. In fact, there is evidence in the political science literature that local canvassers are more effective at turning out their neighbors than canvassers from outside the local area.
In 2024, the only contact I had with a local party organization was an ask regarding whether I wanted yard signs to put in my yard. No canvassing for candidate preference. No absentee ballot request forms. No information on the early voting satellite site at Central College in Pella. Nothing.
Local party officials can also serve as a conduit to the state party organization informing the state party of trends they are seeing locally which help inform the decisions made at the state level. Listening to local party officials and party members can help build bridges to voters. It can serve to build trust and reciprocity, which might make a difference for an on-the-fence voter in a close election.
When I wrote my book on Trump’s 2016 win in Iowa, I was interested in not only the perspectives of Iowa Republicans but also Iowa Democrats, so I interviewed eight individuals (four Republicans and four Democrats) who have worked on statewide campaigns. But I also sent a survey out to county party officials from both parties in all 99 Iowa counties. In response to survey items on the Clinton campaign, there is evidence that local party officials felt like the Clinton campaign and state-level organizers didn’t listen to them and local concerns. The following excerpt from the book summarizes the finding:
Because the campaign was structured hierarchically, several local party leaders from northeast and southeast Iowa felt their input was not welcome. They did not perceive any “coordination with the locals” and that “a lot of strategic direction” was “coming from state-level organizers” with “very little communication being sent back up the chain from the local and regional organizers on the ground.” One northeast Iowa Democratic respondent even went as far as to say that “Clinton was very top-down, and they knew better than the people on the ground.” (38)
So if I were the Iowa Democratic Party Chair, my first step would be to empower local party organizations across the state. I would provide them with training opportunities in canvassing and voter registration so local volunteers understand best practices in both areas. I would also provide them the resources to re-establish relationships with local Democrats and build connections to other voters who may be persuadable. This begins with outreach and engagement in local communities.
As Pete Davis recently wrote in The Nation, Democrats need to “directly care for members and the broader community.” Host a barbeque in a neighborhood or community. Help elderly members with errands, especially in the winter months when roads and sidewalks are slick. Help young families find childcare which is a real concern for many.
Why should local party organizations do these things which don’t appear “political?” Because it builds community connections. It builds trust and reciprocity. By engaging in community development activities in the off years, local canvassers will then have the necessary relationships developed when the activities are political during election years. In the end, we shouldn’t be surprised if voters who may be sympathetic to Democratic candidates and issues disengage if the only engagement they receive from the party happens six to eight weeks prior to an election, especially if that engagement comes through the form of a daily, sensationalized plea for campaign donations.
Many who read this column might believe that it is too late for Iowa Democrats to make up meaningful ground to be competitive again. In other words, as Art Cullen wrote in November 2024, “Iowa is a one-party state.” The evidence for Iowa continuing to be a red Republican state into the distant future is compelling. With the right strategy and tactics, I wonder if there may be opportunities to make gains, however. I think this for a couple of reasons.
First, there is evidence in the political science literature demonstrating that support for limited government by Republican voters may not be grounded in conservative principle but on other factors. For example, John Sides, Michael Tesler, and Lynn Vavreck, in their book, Identity Crisis, found that in the 2016 primaries, Donald Trump actually fared better with Republican primary voters who were economically liberal, not economically conservative. In fact, Trump did much better than other candidates such as Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, John Kasich, with Republican primary voters who supported tax increases for the wealthy; viewed Social Security and Medicare as important; and scored higher on an index of economic liberalism. The authors also note that since the 1980s, Republican voters have been much more likely than Republican elected officials to support the expansion of Social Security. This suggests that support for Republican candidates is not driven by conservative principle but by other factors.
One such factor may be what Katherine Cramer calls “rural consciousness.” Rural consciousness is an identity taken on by rural Americans grounded in both social class and geographic place. Rural Americans believe that urban Americans lack understanding of and respect for rural values and lifestyles. They believe elected officials often ignore their preferences and needs. They believe that tax dollars flow from rural areas to state capitols and never come back which leads to a perception that urban areas and public officials are subsidizing services in urban areas with their tax dollars. This in turn leads to resentment toward urban areas, and due to this perception of urban bias, they blame government. Ultimately, they feel disrespected by urban Americans and government.
All of that said, their opposition to big government and preference for smaller government was not rooted in conservative principles or ideology. Cramer’s research finds that rural Americans were not opposed to government services per se. Their opposition was rooted in rural consciousness. In other words, their support for small government was not driven by principle, but was driven by a sense that if government was not going to be responsive and respectful of rural America, and tax dollars for services are not going to be used to help rural communities, then it is time to shrink the footprint of government.
While Trump made gains in Iowa’s more urban counties in 2024, the core constituency of the Republican Party in Iowa still resides in rural counties around the state. Additionally, Republicans have made significant gains in Iowa’s medium-sized cities as Laura Belin has written about.
While Cramer’s work was completed in Wisconsin, the interview and survey data I collected for my book in 2016 suggests rural consciousness is present in rural Iowa as well. Those that I interviewed and surveyed indicated that rural Iowans do feel disrespected and ignored by urban areas and government. They feel like their tax dollars go to Des Moines and never come back. They believed that economic opportunities were disproportionately located in the urban areas of the state which further depressed their local communities. And in their minds, Democrats are to blame for pushing an agenda that does not include rural interests. Robert Leonard saw evidence of this political phenomenon in local Iowa voters as well and wrote about it in early 2017 in a New York Times opinion piece.
So how do you start to overcome the challenges posed by rural consciousness? You build bridges in these communities. You listen. You demonstrate that you care about the preferences and lifestyles of rural Iowans, and that you are willing to work to help support their local communities. You do all of this by organizing in local communities.
The other reason I think there may be opportunities for Democrats to make gains is that there is historical precedent for the impact of local organizing by Democrats. James Larew’s book, A Party Reborn: The Democrats of Iowa 1950-1974, discusses how Iowa Democrats achieved electoral gains through local organizing.
Take, for example, the organizing work done by Neal Smith, Lex Hawkins, and Robert Johnston in the 1950s in Polk County. Their collective work canvassing the county, building networks of volunteers, and helping potential voters overcome voter registration challenges led to increases in voter registration and voter turnout. They made electoral gains as well. After the 1954 election, the Democrats in Polk County controlled the Polk County Board of Supervisors and every county administrative office, and they won each state legislative seat that represented Polk County. These gains were firsts in the history of Polk County.
In 2017, newly elected Polk County Democratic Chair, Sean Bagniewski, would replicate many of the same organizing tactics of Smith and Hawkins. The result: In 2018 they helped Cindy Axne win her Congressional seat and the Democratic margin in the gubernatorial race exceeded 37,000 votes which was larger than Barack Obama’s margins in Polk County in 2008 and 2012.
Also take the example of John Culver and Dick Clark. When Culver moved back to Linn County in 1963, Iowa’s second Congressional district was a fairly safe district for Iowa Republicans. In the leadup to the 1964 campaign, Culver, who along with Dick Clark built a strong campaign organization, which according to Larew, served to “broaden his political base, identify his political following, and draw out the maximum number of votes in a district traditionally considered a Republican stronghold” (141). Culver used this organization, which canvassed and mobilized both Democratic voters and independents who preferred Culver, through a vast network of local volunteers, to win the second district seat in 1964. Ultimately, Clark and Culver used an expanded version of this model to win seats in the U.S. Senate in 1972 and 1974.
The common thread across these examples that led to electoral success for Iowa Democrats: Strong local party organizations.
How the Iowa Democratic Party will move forward in 2025 is anyone’s guess. It might be the case that Iowa Democrats have accepted their fate as a permanent minority party in Iowa. However, if the party wants to attempt to win elections again, focusing on building local party organizations in Iowa’s counties, even within Iowa precincts, is the best step forward.
This path will be a long one with incremental gains and maybe even some losses. The party may even want to think about a phased approach for this work, focusing first on organizing in areas where Democrats have advantages already, which might yield victories in state legislative races in the short term. Then the party could move on to organizing the rural areas of the state. Organizing in rural Iowa will be more difficult, but if supported with resources might yield electoral dividends in state legislative or Congressional races, or even in statewide races. Remember, Christina Bohannon only lost in the first Congressional district by 799 votes. If Iowa Democrats could have squeezed 45-50 more votes in each county outside of Johnson County, Bohannon would have been elected to the 119th Congress.
The focus of this piece was on local party organization moving forward. My friend, Robert Leonard, has a great piece out on what he perceives as opportunities in front of the Iowa Democratic Party that were lost due to choices made by the party over the last few years. In addition to tackling local party organizing, I agree that the party needs to make better choices moving forward when they have these opportunities in front of them. While to some they may seem like small choices, coupled together they suggest a lack of strategy in rebuilding the party. If you are interested in learning more, you should take a look at this piece and others which focus on the future of the Democratic Party in Iowa.
I am interested in your thoughts and comments about this piece, so please use the comment button below to leave your thoughts and comments.
If you visit my Substack, you'll see I have comprehensive, and I mean comprehensive, voter education materials posted. I tried to GIVE them to Democratic candidates ... No one was interested. But they went all nuts after the election trying to reach thousands of voters to "cure" their ballots. They forgot that an ounce of prevention would have been worth a ton of cure.
You have to fire all the current political consultants and party staff and replace them with people with a completely different mindset. If you don't, nothing will change.
By the way, I'm happy to license my materials to any candidate who wants them. And I'll help develop an effective website for them.
The amount of people that have been groomed into the belief that democrats are “communists” is frightening
The prejudice against “the left” is without any evidence based in fact