Category: Democrats

The woman in charge of Democrats’ campaign efforts in the House next year will be Cheri Bustos, one of the party’s leading strategist on winning difficult Midwestern seats. The Illinois congresswoman was selected today by her House colleagues to chair the DCCC, the party’s campaign arm that oversees most House races. She beat out two Democrats from Washington State, winning with 117 votes to Suzan DelBene’s 83 votes and Denny Heck’s 32 votes. Another contender for the job from New York dropped out for health reasons. In selecting Bustos, Democrats now have someone who’s extremely skilled at getting elected in […]

Fred Hubbell campaigned extensively throughout rural Iowa during the 2018 election. Voters may just not have noticed it. As Iowa Democrats pick up the pieces from another stinging statewide loss, a lot of focus has been paid to the party’s continued lopsided defeats throughout rural Iowa. Carrying only 11 counties statewide, as Hubbell did against Governor Kim Reynolds, simply doesn’t cut it no matter how huge the vote margins are out of the state’s urban centers. It’s a trend that’s clearly been evident in the decade after Chet Culver’s 62-county win in the 2006 governor’s race, and one that’s deepened […]

A guest post from Brian Bruening, chair of the Clayton County Democrats in Northeast Iowa.  It’s easy to get caught up in national Democratic excitement after the November 6th election. We flipped two house districts in Iowa as part of the Democratic wave the crashed over the US House. However, on the state and local levels, November 6 was a bigger Democratic disaster than the Republican wave of 2010. While we flipped several Iowa House seats from Republican control in affluent suburban districts, a voting trend seen nationwide, Democratic representation in the Senate was decimated, and only one statewide office was moved […]

A guest post from Zack Davis, the state director for Let America Vote-Iowa. Photo: Let America Vote-Iowa Deputy Field Director Maddy Leahy with candidate Kenan Judge, whom she ran into as she was knocking doors for him in his district on Sunday. On June 9th, Let America Vote launched a boots-on-the-ground campaign in Iowa to elect voting-rights champions from Sioux City to Davenport and from the state House to the governor’s mansion. We assembled a team committed to partnering with campaigns and allies and adding real value to the effort to win back Iowa in 2018. And in the four and […]

Guest piece from New Jersey Senator Cory Booker on his recent trip to Iowa. It was an honor to be in Iowa last Saturday until Tuesday of this week, traveling across the state in support of your incredible ticket of Democratic candidates. What I witnessed lifted, encouraged, and inspired me: 1,200 Iowa Democrats filling a convention hall to support candidates up and down the ballot. Dozens rallying in the rain on a front porch in Adel before voting early at the county courthouse. Many more packing shoulder-to-shoulder into a storefront campaign office over the lunch hour in Boone. Filling a […]

Democrats in Iowa leapt at their first chance to cast a ballot in the 2018 election yesterday, far outpacing the number of Republicans who did the same. The Secretary of State’s office reported this morning that 7,870 votes are already in the bank from the first day and a half of early voting. Of those, 4,421 came from registered Democrats, 2,403 from registered Republicans and 1,008 from registered No Party voters. That’s down some from the first day of early voting in 2014, though Democrats enjoy a better advantage this year. By the end of that year’s first day of early […]

The Brett Kavanaugh hearing was the talk of the afternoon among the Democratic activists who braved the rain for this weekend’s Polk County Democrats Steak Fry. Party volunteers discussed their reactions to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh’s testimony as they intermingled with the Iowa and national politicians who gathered to speak. The Iowa candidates barely mentioned the hearing when they addressed the crowd, preferring to stick to their usual stump speeches that focused on state issues. But the four national speakers who came in – Senator Jeff Merkley, Congressman John Delaney, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and former Obama adviser Alyssa […]