Iowa
SUPER STATE STRATEGY
Our primary objectives in Iowa are to: 1) flip the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Joni Ernst, 2) compete for the state’s six Electoral College votes, and 3) break unified GOP control of the state government by flipping the Iowa State House.
In the state house, we are currently targeting seven districts—five GOP-held seats and two Democratic holds. Geographically, these targets are distributed across the state and include races near Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Omaha, NE. All seven races were decided by razor-thin margins of less than 5% in 2018.
In the state senate, we are currently targeting five districts—four GOP-held seats and one Democratic hold. Many of these geographies overlap with our state House targets in Iowa, and improving the performance of statewide Democratic candidates in these regions is critical to our pathway to victory in the Iowa General Assembly.
By the numbers
8
Seats needed to flip the state senate
4
Seats needed to flip the state house
1
United States Senate seat to flip
6
Electoral College votes
IA State Senate targets
IA State House targets
What's at stake
93% of Iowa counties don't have an abortion clinic: To obtain an abortion in Iowa, patients must undergo a state-mandated ultrasound and minors must notify their parents before receiving treatment. As of 2017, 58% of Iowa women lived in counties without an abortion clinic with just nine facilities providing abortions statewide, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
952,000 disenfranchised Iowans with felony convictions: After Kentucky’s Democratic governor restored voting rights to 140,000 people with felony convictions in 2019, Iowa became the only remaining state that permanently disenfranchises all people convicted of felonies. Combined with faulty criminal history data, this policy means that improper voter roll purges could prevent eligible Iowa voters from receiving absentee ballot request forms.
$2 billion in agricultural industry losses from 2019 flooding: Severe floods in spring 2019 caused larger and longer-lasting damage to Iowa’s farmlands, with billions of dollars in lost crops and livestock as well as damaged roads and equipment. Compared to 2011, when 127,000 flooded acres became unusable, 2019’s rains damaged 145,000 acres along the Missouri river.
What's at stake facts updated June 2020
Live in IA? Set up a 1:1 call with a member of the Swing Left team to find out how you can make the biggest impact.
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