Category: Democrats

Many of Democrats’ elected officials at all level of Iowa government will look a lot younger if things go well this November. A new generation of young Democrats won primaries and secured nominations in last night’s primary in key races across the state. Half of Iowa Democrats’ congressional candidates will be under 40. As will half of their non-incumbent statewide candidates. And exciting, young Democrats prevailed in several local legislative primaries that will ensure them a seat at the Statehouse. That all is no small feat in a state with a much older population that often prefers to vote for longtime […]

Iowa held its primaries today and the results in several key races have big implications for the state and national political environment in 2018 and beyond. Here’s Starting Line’s summary of what happened for all you national political watchers. Democrats Smash Turnout Records By far the best news of the night for Democrats was the record turnout in many places around the state. Just over 100,000 voted in the 2016 Democratic primary. Only 72,388 showed up in 2014. Neither of those years had statewide contested primaries with big spending. 2006 was the last time that happened, and just under 150,000 […]

For this evening’s Democratic primary election results, Starting Line will be using this page to keep you updated on all the major developments. I’ll be filling in results and add a little bit of commentary for the key races below as the numbers come in. I will also have individual stories that I’ll post separately on. Just keep refreshing this page and watch our social media feeds. Forgive any of the awkward formatting below. Governor’s Race Fred Hubbell has won (see story here), and may end up with over 50% of the vote statewide. He’s currently at 58% of the […]

Thousands of Iowa Democrats have already cast their vote for a candidate who won’t be in the race on Election Day. That’s a frustrating situation to be in for many former Nate Boulton supporters. But there’s simply no option to change your vote after the county auditor has received your absentee ballot. Many are now wondering if they’ll vote early again, criticizing the entire process and discouraging others from voting before Election Day. That’s an understandable feeling to have, but one that folks should reconsider before trying to turn too many people off to the process. It’s important to remember […]

Guest post via Josh Hughes, school board member and Drake University student. For years, Democrats did little to build the bench of their party by engaging with young people. When we did, the focus was always on college-aged voters. The investments were only made in those who might actually be able to vote for Democrats—not a bad strategy for an organization dedicated to winning votes. However, in doing so, Democrats failed to engage a large portion of the population—those too young yet to vote. Almost no resources at the national or local levels were allocated to engage those under age […]

Early voting began for the June 5 primary last week, but the overall numbers for the Democratic primary aren’t too impressive yet. A big reason for that is due to the later start of the early vote – Republicans reduced that timeframe from 40 days to 29 with their new voting restrictions. And the new requirements for additional information on absentee ballot requests may have made campaign efforts to collect those more difficult. Regardless, the numbers that we have so far are interesting and could have an impact on how turnout in the primary could favor certain Democrats. Starting Line […]

It seems every time you get a political fundraising email, the candidate insists that their most critical finance deadline ever is looming. When you get last-minute pitches for funds from now until Monday, though, they’re probably telling the truth. Monday, May 14 is the final day of the next fundraising period for Iowa campaigns (non-federal ones, that is). On May 19, every candidate for governor, other statewide offices and state legislature will report what they raised between January 1 and May 14. As we explained before this year’s earlier fundraising report for everything candidates raised in 2017, Iowa has an […]