12 Nov Iowa Swing Voters on Democratic candidates, trade issues, and more
Engagious was in Dubuque, Iowa, last week, conducting a roundtable with swing voters who either voted for Obama and then Trump, or Romney and then Clinton.
The plural of caucus is caucuses, but it’s more fun to say Hawkeye Cauci. But whatever your preferred plural, the Iowa caucus-races fast approach, and like Alice and the wet animals, candidates are moving; but unlike the adventurers in Wonderland, everybody won’t win.
One of our respondents plans to vote in the Democratic caucuses, but she hasn’t done her homework yet, doesn’t really know the candidates yet, and isn’t excited about anyone yet.
Actually none of our respondents was much excited about any of the Democratic candidates.
(But don’t Tweet about it, Mr. President, because they weren’t all that excited about you, either. You’re not going to keep all the Iowa votes you won in 2016.)
They want the parties to stop fighting each other and fight for the American people.
Do they like the freebies the Democratic candidates are offering? They pointed out that they’re not really free—somebody always pays. Usually it’s them, in the form of higher prices. (Like Alice handing over her thimble so it can be awarded back to her.)
They want our trade issues to be resolved. The tariffs are hurting Iowa farmers.
They’re willing to pay higher prices to resolve our trade imbalance with China, but they’ll blame and punish the president for it.
They’re neutral on the idea of rolling back Obama-era environmental regulations, until they hear exactly what’s being rolled back. Most of the specifics push respondents into the “strongly oppose” range.
For detailed dial scores and discussion findings, see the full report.
No Comments