It’s easy to forget that not that long ago, Iowa was perceived to be a pretty Democratic-leaning state. The state had Democratic governors from 1999 to 2011; Tom Harkin occupied one of the state’s two Senate seats from 1985 to 2015; and just one cycle ago, Democrats represented three of the state’s four seats in the House of Representatives. In 2018, a good year for Democrats, Republican Kim Reynolds won the governor’s race, 50.3 percent to 47.5 percent.
The Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa survey out this morning suggests that this November could be a wipeout for Iowa Democrats:
Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds leads Democratic challenger Deidre DeJear by 17 percentage points with less than four months until November’s election.
A new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll finds 48 percent of likely midterm voters support Reynolds versus 31 percent who support DeJear. Five percent support Libertarian Rick Stewart.
The same poll showed GOP senator Chuck Grassley ahead of Democrat Mike Franken by 8 percentage points. Technically, that would be Grassley’s most competitive election since 1980; the Register notes that, “The margin is narrower than in any Iowa Poll matchup involving Grassley since he was first elected to the U.S. Senate. Grassley has not polled below 50 percent in a head-to-head contest since October 1980, before he went on to defeat incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. John Culver.”
It’s possible some Iowans are getting a little wary about another six-year term for the 88-year-old Grassley. But at 39 percent, Franken has a steep hill to climb.