Iowa Democrats Utterly Demoralized Over Continued Defeat: “It is so bad”

What was once a mixed-party state has now become dominated by Republicans.

After the 2024 election, Iowa Democrats are at their lowest point.

The continued defeat of Democrats and the wave of Republicans has left many completely demoralized.

The New York Times has more on the story:

Not long ago, Iowa was the center of the Democratic political universe.

In 2019, two dozen presidential candidates roamed the Iowa State Fair to grill pork chops and admire the famed butter cow as they vied for the state’s caucusgoers. Some Democrats still saw the state’s rightward jolt in 2016 as temporary, believing that their flipping of two congressional seats in 2018 had reaffirmed Iowa’s purple status. Days before the 2020 general election, Joseph R. Biden Jr. campaigned in Des Moines.

Now, as Republican presidential candidates flock to the fair, Iowa Democrats are at their lowest point in decades.

“It is so bad,” said Claire Celsi, a Democratic state senator from West Des Moines. “I can’t even describe to you how bad it is.”

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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. Deep in the minority, Democrats in the State Legislature have squabbled among themselves, ousting their party’s State Senate leader in June after a dispute over personnel.

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.

“There’s no question that Democrats are at a low point in Iowa,” said former Representative Dave Loebsack, whose eastern Iowa seat, which he had held for 14 years, flipped to a Republican when he chose not to seek re-election in 2020. “It’s difficult even to recruit people to run when we’re so far down.”

Iowa’s transition to a deep-red state has taken place with remarkable speed. 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.

Unsurprisingly, Democrats are losing control of much of rural America.

Democrats have progressively become more radical.

Putting their own extremist values into place.

All at the expense of working-class America.

Arguably this is essentially the reason why President Trump one the election.

People woke up to the fact that Democrats are not helping them.

They are only interested in helping themselves.

Let’s see what our friends at Fox News have to say:

Not long ago Democrats were competitive in the state, controlling the governor’s office for a dozen straight years and one of the two U.S. Senate seats for three straight decades. But Democrats haven’t won a gubernatorial election since 2006 or a Senate contest since 2008. 

In the race for the White House, former President Barack Obama carried Iowa by nearly 10 points in 2008 and by six points in 2012. But four years later, former President Donald Trump won the state by nine points in his White House victory. Trump carried Iowa by eight points in 2020 in his re-election defeat.

Last November, the sole remaining Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation went down to defeat.

Democrats told the Times the state was a “warning sign” to their party for ignoring rural working class voters who once made up a key part of their base.

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

Maybe it doesn’t pay to label the majority of the population as racists?

— Alien on Fire (@freeforever07) August 11, 2023

Sounds like the People of Iowa have a lot of common sense and can see the Democrat CORRUPTION for themselves!

— Linda Jacob (@LindaJa43848609) August 11, 2023

And, of course.

This colorful comment of an individual who can’t accept that Democrats are out of touch:

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

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