The Democrats’ long wander into the weeds

Nothing is on the horizon to block Iowa’s steady march to the right and off a cliff.

Gov. Kim Reynolds came off a historic legislative session that has Ron DeSantis calling the Tall Corn State the “Florida of the North.” There’s book banning, gay bashing, welfare demeaning, private school vouchers and more from solid majorities in both the House and Senate for her to celebrate.

The public appears to be rolling with the agenda, while holding reservations about the vouchers.

The state’s congressional delegation is entirely Republican.

It’s going to take a seismic event, or series of them, and a messianic messenger for Democrats to even get back in the conversation.

There are no statewide races on the 2024 ballot. Iowa will be flooded with conservative propaganda — it’s already started — with the Republican presidential nominating process. Being anti-woke, whatever that is, will be the thing. The environment will heighten Reynolds’s visibility and burnish her image as a politician of national prominence. Democrats will ignore Iowa because there’s nothing at play here.

Iowa needs a two-party system but doesn’t have one. That’s been a long time coming. The GOP has played the long game in rural states since 1980 by investing in media, messaging and organization. It’s paying off in flyover country.

If the election were held today, you would want to bet on Trump winning Iowa bigly.

The next legislative session will be just as harsh as Republicans try to fire up their base heading into the general elections. Reynolds wants to eliminate the state income tax, for starters, and again the public appears to agree with her. The loyal opposition can barely get a message through.

It will take something seismic and someone messianic for the Democrats to even get into the conversation.

Abortion? Perhaps. The Iowa Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on a bill that could ban abortion. Historically, abortion politics have not played well for Democrats in Iowa. It is not clear they can turn the issue to their advantage in statehouse races.

Education? Huge tax cuts are popular, but the bite will be felt in public schools as we dole out vouchers for private education. It won’t be an immediate disruption, more like a slow erosion that increases class sizes and closes rural schools with declining enrollment.

Gay rights? Eighty-three congregations, in places like Pocahontas and Marcus, just pulled out of the Iowa Methodist Conference over allowing gay pastors and marriage.

Economic issues? Voters are going with tax cuts in the absence of a strong Democratic message.

As for a messenger, the minority party has State Auditor Rob Sand, the only statewide Democratic officeholder whose authority was eviscerated by the legislature. Not many people seem too worked up about him being stripped of investigative authority. He is a Decorah native who has worked assiduously to develop a reputation as a moderate turkey hunter who eschews party politics.

Harold Hughes broke through in 1962 under somewhat similar circumstances with a campaign built around liquor by the drink. Hughes had a fire in his belly. Does Sand?

The only other elected Democrat of prominence who understands rural areas is Rep. JD Scholten of Sioux City. He has the fire in his belly but does not appear to be in the inner circle of Des Moines. He continues to make appearances around the state and is not afraid of being associated with labor unions. Democrats fail to appreciate how important western Iowa is to winning statewide elections, and how their abandonment of rural voters has led to their demise.

They have until 2026 to figure something out. Sure, a lot can happen to change things. Who knows what happens with Sen. Chuck Grassley, age 89? Or abortion politics. For now, the Republicans are having a ball while on a roll, and there isn’t a whole lot the other side is doing about it. They need someone to fly the flag and lead the charge out of the weeds, with a message that can be heard out here. Starting with: Whatever happened to the family farm, an open market and the good union jobs? Somebody needs to change the conversation.

Art Cullen is the editor of the Storm Lake Times Pilot in Northwest Iowa, where this column appeared. For more columns and editorials, please consider a subscription to the Times Pilot. Or, if you wish, you can make a tax-deductible gift to the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation to support independent community journalism in rural Iowa. Thanks.

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