Trump vs Harris: Iowa Poll 2024 shows the presidential race tightening
A new Iowa Poll reveals Donald Trump leading Kamala Harris by 4 points, a significant improvement from President Biden’s previous 18-point deficit.
Iowa Republican lawmakers reaffirmed their commitment to former President Donald Trump’s bid for another term in a room packed with voters at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual banquet Saturday night in Des Moines.
Their statements of support for the Republican presidential nominee come as a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows Trump’s lead among likely Iowa voters in the presidential race with Vice President Kamala Harris has shrunk.
The message from the half-dozen lawmakers who spoke or sent messages to the banquet, many of whom are up for reelection this November, was clear: Iowa voters need to turn out at the polls for Trump.
“You’ve got one of two choices. You either can vote for the people that support evil, or you can support a guy that’s flawed like all of us, that’ll help save the country,” Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition President Steve Scheffler said.
The Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual fall banquet is one of the key gatherings of faith-based voters ahead of the November election.
Evangelicals remain an influential voter bloc in the U.S. and in Iowa. An Associated Press poll days after the 2020 presidential election found that Trump had received the support of about eight in 10 white evangelical Christians.
Tom Homan, who served in the Trump administration as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was the keynote speaker at the gathering in a ballroom at the Holiday Inn Des Moines-Airport/Conference Center.
The Iowa Poll found 90% of Republicans surveyed, and 60% of all respondents, said securing the border is a “critical” need, and Homan attacked Harris’ record on the issue.
“She claims she’s going to fix the border? She’s the one who broke it,” he said.
Top Iowa Republicans echoed Homan, urging attendees to recruit neighbors, friends and even enemies for Trump.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said she told Trump personally that voters are going to do the work to make sure he wins in Iowa.
Like Homan, Bird attacked Harris on immigration, which the Iowa Poll and other surveys show is a key issue among voters.
“If she can’t be trusted with the border, why in the world would we trust her in the White House?” Bird asked.
Gov. Kim Reynolds didn’t attend the banquet because she in India on a trade mission.
Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn asks voters to stay on target
U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, running for re-election in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District against Democrat Lanon Baccam, said the November vote is one of the most important in voters’ lifetime.
Nunn said there are certain groups that want to steal democracy from Republicans. He accused the Democratic Party of trying “to manipulate the election” in the 3rd District after the Associated Press reported Sept. 16 that independent candidate Joe Wiederien said he was recruited to run against Nunn. Wiederien, an avowed Trump supporter who has since dropped out of the race, called for an investigation of the Patriots Run Project, the group that solicited him to be a candidate and that the AP said had Democratic ties.
Baccam’s campaign has said it had no knowledge of the alleged ploy. Nunn at the banquet again denounced those who urged Wiederien to run, saying that “when they come to Iowa, when they manipulate guys like Joe, and friends like ours, when they try to steal an election by manipulating voters — guys, this is right out of Putin’s playbook, and it doesn’t stand here in Iowa.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks slams opponent
Also speaking at the banquet, U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who is running for another term in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, quickly criticized her Democratic opponent, Christina Bohannan, who has attacked her in campaign ads as being a supporter of a strict abortion ban.
“You would think that a law professor from the University of Iowa would kind of know how the Legislature works, but I’m getting all of the credit for passing the heartbeat bill,” Miller-Meeks said, referring to an Iowa law that took effect this summer, effectively banning most abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy.
Miller-Meeks said Harris and Bohannan are going to lie and buy their way into office.
“Does anyone believe that Kamala Harris owns a gun?” Miller-Meeks said, referring to the vice president’s recent statements about being a gun owner, as banquet attendees nodded in agreement with her skepticism. “I am voting for Donald Trump because the alternative is socialism and communism.”
Trump-endorsed U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson praises Gov. Kim Reynolds
U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, said at the banquet that Washington, D.C., needs to function more like Iowa’s politics.
The incumbent Hinson is being challenged in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District by Democrat Sarah Corkery.
“[Harris] is a disaster in waiting and a contrast that with what we’ve got here in Iowa and great leadership of our governor, traveling around the world to advocate for Iowa, traveling the state to advocate for the bills that we have done here in Iowa. What a contrast, right?” Hinson said.
Trump recently endorsed Hinson in a social media post. Hinson said Saturday she talked to Trump on the phone last week.
“A Loving Wife and Proud Mother of two sons, Ashley is a champion for the American family,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “In Congress, she is fighting hard to Secure our Border, Cut Taxes, Reduce Burdensome Regulations, Promote American Agriculture, and Defend our always under siege Second Amendment.”
U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra critical of Biden-Harris administration
In a recorded video, U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, who is seeking re-election in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, urged banquet-goers to support Trump to get the country back on track. He is running against Democrat Ryan Melton.
“I don’t need to tell you how important this election is to the U.S. We’ve seen what four years of Biden-Harris and the Democrats have done to our country,” Feenstra said. “President Trump will build the wall, he’ll restore energy independence and cut taxes for our families, our farmers, and our small businesses. He will keep men out of women’s sports and stop the radical (electric vehicle) mandates, and protect our farmland from China.”
U.S. Sens. Joni Ernst, Chuck Grassley want Trump back in office
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who also gave her address via video recording, said she is more passionate about defeating Harris in the election after watching the presidential debate Sept. 10. She said Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz would institute the most progressive presidential administration in history.
Ernst reiterated to voters in the room that they can’t let Harris undo the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion. Harris has said she wants to restore Roe v. Wade if elected.
“When Donald J. Trump was president, America was safe and prosperous. And folks, I believe he can truly make America great again,” Ernst said. “The fate of our great nation rests in the hands of patriots like you.”
Her Iowa Republican colleague, Sen. Chuck Grassley, echoed her in a letter read at the banquet.
“The solution is plain and simple, we need President Trump back in the White House,” Grassley said.
Sabine Martin covers politics for the Register. She can be reached by email at sabine.martin@gannett.com or by phone at (515) 284-8132. Follow her on X at @sabinefmartin.
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Publish date : 2024-09-21 17:10:00
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