Kamala Harris and Tim Walz fire up Philadelphia campaign rally
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris introduces her vice presidential pick, Tim Walz, during a campaign rally in Philadelphia.
Iowa Democrats are trying to wrap their minds around a new feeling in politics as Vice President Kamala Harris takes over as the party’s nominee for president and reshapes the contours of the 2024 election cycle in her image.
“You bump into Democrats, and it’s like, is this hope? Do I feel hope?” said House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights. “I think the only word I can use is happy, like we just feel joy.”
For a party that has struggled with devastating election losses as the state has turned increasingly red, Iowa Democrats say the burst of enthusiasm that has rippled through their ranks over the past two weeks has lifted their spirits as they look to claw back seats this November.
Few Iowa Democrats were publicly calling on President Joe Biden to end his re-election bid, but now that he has, they say they’re grateful to him for listening to the party and making room for this new wave of excitement and energy.
“People feel heard, because they said they were concerned about voting in the exact same election this time as they did four years ago, and Democrats responded,” Konfrst said.
In the weeks after Biden’s shoddy debate performance, fundraising froze, she said. Now, there’s a renewed surge of both money and volunteers.
She said Harris’ decision to name Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate has resonated with many Iowa Democrats, who often eye their progressive neighbor to the north with envy.
“When a lot of folks sort of stayed away after 2020, you know, Tim Walz was here,” Konfrst said. “He was here to help us raise money. He was here to talk to voters. And so a lot of us got to know him.”
She said the decision has helped juice enthusiasm in parts of the country, like Iowa, where Democrats can feel overlooked.
“It was another one of those moments that was like, Oh my gosh, they’re listening! They know what to do,” Konfrst said. “And as a Midwesterner, it feels damn good to have Democrats invest in, believe in and see the Midwest as part of the future of the party.”
Republicans, who recently rallied around their own candidate, former President Donald Trump, at the Republican National Convention in the wake of a failed assassination attempt, also boast of their party’s enthusiasm and unity going into November.
And they argue Americans will quickly move on from their initial excitement once they see how “radical” a Harris-Walz administration would be.
“Kamala is a champion of Biden’s progressive agenda, and now her and Gov. Walz will take these policies even further,” Republican Party of Iowa Chair Jeff Kaufmann said in a statement after Walz was revealed as Harris’ running mate. “A Harris/Walz White House means wide-open borders for terrorists and deadly drugs, the abolishment of private health insurance, a ban on fracking, reckless spending and more crime in our cities. They are dangerous and irresponsible politicians who cannot be in charge of the United States of America.”
Can renewed enthusiasm boost down-ballot candidates?
The new sense of enthusiasm is a far cry from where Democrats stood just weeks ago.
A June Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll found Republicans were more likely than Democrats to describe themselves as optimistic and excited about the November election.
The top feelings Democrats cited were exhaustion and dread.
According to the poll, 61% of Democrats said they were exhausted by the race and 59% said they were dreading it.
More: Iowa Poll: Most Republicans are optimistic about presidential race; most Democrats dread it
Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said one of her biggest goals this election cycle is pushing back on the apparent apathy that caused 92,000 Democrats who had previously voted to stay home in the 2022 midterm elections.
She said that if the party can just get its own members to turn out and vote, it will help to reverse the losses they’ve shouldered in recent elections.
“This cycle has always been, for us here in Iowa, about improving our Democratic turnout,” she said. “And a lot of that has to do with enthusiasm. And when you have increased enthusiasm for the top of the ticket, that is going to help us all the way down to the bottom of the ticket.”
She said she’s seeing major changes in Democrats’ attitudes since the party made changes at the top of the ticket.
“I’m a county party chair myself, and we always put out in our newsletter a cry for volunteer help,” she said. “And the week after the announcement, we got like a five-fold increase in response. And, I think, as I talk to county chairs across the state, that is happening everywhere.”
She said the party had its best online fundraising week of the year after Harris announced, garnering more than 400 contributions in 72 hours — 35% of which came from first-time donors.
The party sold out its Liberty and Justice Celebration after Harris announced, drawing a boisterous crowd of about 450 people.
And last week, more than 1,000 Iowans joined a Zoom call organized by former Harris campaign staffer Deidre DeJear to support the new ticket, raising more than $25,000, she said.
Lanon Baccam, the Democratic candidate in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, said he has felt the shift in enthusiasm in his race, which is expected to be among the most competitive in the state.
“We saw more people knocking doors for us last Saturday than we’ve ever seen,” he said in an Aug. 3 interview at a campaign event in Urbandale.
“There is a surge — surge — of support and enthusiasm,” he said. “Again, I think there’s a lot of young folks out there who have been disillusioned by the whole political system because it continues to be the same folks at the top. But now, with this change I think they’re realizing that things will change, right. It does not have to be the same. And so I think a lot of folks are excited.”
Kamala Harris isn’t expected to win Iowa, but she might be able to narrow the margins
Democrats say they’re being realistic; they don’t believe they can flip Iowa away from Trump in this November’s presidential race.
But they do hope to shrink his expected margin of victory as much as possible.
A June Iowa Poll showed Trump leading Biden 50% to 32% among likely voters — an 18-point advantage that is more than double Trump’s 8-point 2020 margin of victory in the state.
There has not been public polling of Iowa since Harris took over as the party’s de facto nominee. But Democrats are hopeful that the change will help shrink that 18-point lead to something more in line with Trump’s 2020 margin of victory.
That shift could make all the difference as they try to reclaim a pair of congressional seats and a smattering of statehouse districts, they said.
“Democratic legislative candidates last cycle outperformed the top of the ticket by 8%,” Konfrst said. “And so if we can have that floor raised a little bit, we can all do a little better.”
Still, elections analysts give the edge to Republicans in all four of the state’s congressional races, and Republican control of the Legislature is so dominant it would likely take several election cycles to substantially shift power away from them.
Hart also wants to caution some Iowa Democrats that the state’s races are still expected to be hard-fought slogs.
“I just don’t want people to think it’s going to be magical, because it’s not,” she said. “We can’t take anything for granted. And we know how close these races have been the last few cycles and we still do have quite a bit of time before now and the election.”
Des Moines Register reporter Stephen Gruber-Miller contributed to this report.
Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register. She is also covering the 2024 presidential race for USA TODAY as a senior national campaign correspondent. Reach her at [email protected] or 515-284-8244. Follow her on Twitter at @brianneDMR.
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Publish date : 2024-08-13 00:24:00
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