民主党如何在爱荷华州争取选票

We are at a campaign event for Mariannette Miller-Meeks. She is running for another term in Iowa's first congressional district. We are going to keep fighting because you're worth fighting for. Iowans turned out heavily for Republican candidates in the 2024 election and in the cycle before that, and in the cycle before that. In what Democrats hope will be a blue wave year, Iowa could be a bellwether for the country. I sat down with each of the candidates in these races.

Trump's name came up often, as did Iowa's economy. The people at the doors, they know how much they're paying at the grocery store checkout line. They know how much they're paying at the gas pump. They know how much is in their bank account. The best way to beat sticky inflation is to grow our economy stronger than the inflation rates going. I think it's wrong to assume that farmers or rural Iowans will vote one way or another.

The number of farm bankruptcies being filed is going up. The number of farmers entering into financial mediation is going up. I'm Justin Papp and I cover politics for CNBC. There's going to be intense focus on these general election races across Iowa. If Democrats are able to flip one or both congressional chambers, they can jam up Trump's priorities and prevent Republicans from passing meaningful legislation in his last two years in office.

Iowa's an interesting state because it is a former swing state. It's been reliably red in recent cycles, but Democrats feel like the tides are turning, especially as Trump's favorability drops. I'm here because we're starting the campaign to win the midterms. We've got to win the midterms. For Republican candidates in Iowa. They're playing up their association with the president. President Trump endorsed me and he endorsed me because, number one, I'm conservative.

Number two, we're on the America First agenda. And number three, I'm a fighter. But they're also warning that if Democrats are elected, taxes will go up, the border will reopen, and Iowa's economy will continue to struggle. The race in Iowa District one is between Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks and incumbent Republican and Christina Bohannan, a Democrat. In 2024, Bohannan lost by roughly 800 votes to Miller-Meeks.

We have a lot of small towns here in this district. Our farmers, small business owners, hospital CEOs, often in rural, very deep red counties. They are so frustrated by these policies, they don't understand why they're doing this. We've had birthing clinics closed down. We've had family care internal medicine clinics closed down, and that's largely because of the Medicaid cuts. Democrats also see an opportunity in Iowa District three, where Republican incumbent Zach Nunn is hoping to defend his seat against the Democrat, Sarah Trone Garriott in one of the closest races in the country.

Sarah Garriott is a state legislator and she's a pastor. Republicans have tried to paint her as too progressive. In an interview with CNBC, Trone Garriott touted her history of winning for Democrats and Republican leaning districts. She also attacked Nunn for his party's failure to rein in price increases. Nunn also acknowledged that Iowans are struggling, but he pointed to recent successes in the House, like the passage of year round E15, which is a priority for Iowa corn farmers, as well as a rural housing bill that he says will allow more Iowans to buy houses.

He's not a bomb thrower. He's a fairly moderate Republican who has at times voted across the aisle with Democrats. Well, the good news about Iowa. Iowa has always been a purple state. And that means I've got to convince everybody from my Republicans, my independents, my mother in law, who's a Democrat to all at least hear our message, but more importantly, to work for them. Iowa has been reliably Republican in recent cycles.

Statewide, Iowa has about a 200,000 voter registration advantage for Republicans over Democrats. Republicans usually beat Democrats in terms of turnout percentage. They haven't voted for a Democratic president since 2012. I think the Obama administration created a lot of the problems that we have now. I think everybody is willing to struggle a little bit if it ends up ends up benefiting us in the long run. I think the the big concern is, is right now, I don't know that anybody sees what the big picture is.

If Democrats are able to flip a couple seats in Iowa, it could help tremendously in their attempt to take back power in the House. Congress is really where most of the lawmaking power resides and is supposed to reside. We need to hold congressional representatives accountable for their role in making life completely unaffordable for people.