Iowa voters say agriculture, education are top issues ahead of 2024
Rebecca Boyer and Elisa Wingerd join 'Fox & Friends' after 2024 Republican candidates kicked off their campaigns.
Iowa Democrats admitted they felt the party was at the "lowest point in decades" ahead of the 2024 election, as Republicans continue to dominate in the Hawkeye State.
The once purple state has turned bright red, in recent years, as Republican Governor Kim Reynolds signed into law a school choice bill, and restrictions on abortion and gender transition treatments for minors this year.
Despondent Democrats complained to the New York Times that they are exhausted by defeat after defeat at the ballot box.
"It is so bad," Claire Celsi, a Democratic state senator from West Des Moines told the paper. "I can’t even describe to you how bad it is."
FILE - Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds speaks at the Republican Party of Iowas 2023 Lincoln Dinner in Des Moines, Iowa, July 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
Former Representative Dave Loebsack, who represented Iowa's 2nd congressional district from 2007 to 2021, said it was undeniable that Democrats were struggling in the state.
"There’s no question that Democrats are at a low point in Iowa," he said. "It’s difficult even to recruit people to run when we’re so far down."
First-term Democratic state senator Sarah Trone Garriott admitted her party has struggled more than she expected.
"It’s just been so exhausting and frustrating to continue to take losses," she said. "If I had known everything that I was getting into, I don’t think I would have run in the first place, because it’s just been really hard, but I see so much opportunity in Iowa."
DES MOINES, IOWA - AUGUST 09: Members of the Republican Party of Iowa show their support for a variety of candidates from their float during the Iowa State Fair Kick-Off Parade on August 09, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Getty Images)
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.
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DES MOINES, IOWA - JULY 15: Democratic presidential candidate former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden pauses as he speaks during the AARP and The Des Moines Register Iowa Presidential Candidate Forum at Drake University on July 15, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Democrats are left "doing a lot of finger-pointing and soul-searching about what has gone wrong, whether they have hit rock bottom yet and how to maneuver their way back to political relevance," the report said.
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Fox News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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