The Iowa caucus was an embarrassment for the Democratic Party. While the results continue to trickle in, Democrats should be less concerned with the winners and losers and more concerned about the turnout in certain counties, which could spell disaster come November.
One such county is Dubuque, where the turnout Monday was incredibly low. This should worry Democrats as it could reflect the public’s rejection of the Democratic candidates and their far-left agendas.
As reported in Politico, Dubuque is the center of Iowa’s Roman Catholic community with five nunneries and two Catholic universities. Nearly 50 percent of the residents are Catholic. Therefore, former Vice President Joe Biden, who is Catholic, would seemingly make a strong showing in Dubuque. As reported by Politico:
“While [Sen. Bernie] Sanders’ popularity with organized labor will make him competitive here, this should be Biden Country — he’s a familiar face, visited frequently during the campaign and has played up his Catholic background here. Biden also has the support of popular local Rep. Abby Finkenauer.”
Apparently county residents weren’t very excited about Biden, Sanders or any of the other Democratic candidates.
While Democrats expected a high turnout in Dubuque, they were sorely disappointed. As reported in The Washington Free Beacon, Steve Drahozal, chairman of the Dubuque County Democrats, was shocked by the low numbers.
“We were blown away by the fact that we did not have the turnout that we expected. … We had expected higher numbers,” Drahozal told local NBC affiliate KWQC-TV.
As a matter of fact, a correspondent for KWQC noted that only 217 people caucused at a high school in Dubuque County, which has a population of 97,000 and about 65,000 active registered voters, including 25,000 Democrats.
As Drahozal noted, high turnout is “key” for Democrats after the 2016 election. While turnout in Dubuque was a “little bit higher” than it was in 2016, he said, it was still much lower than expected.
One obvious reason for this could be the candidates themselves, the policies they promote and the direction of the Democratic Party as a whole.
Frighteningly, many of the candidates promote a far-left, extreme agenda. The democratic socialist Sanders, for example, is pushing open borders, free health care for illegal immigrants, “Medicare for All,” elimination of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, higher taxes and late-term abortions. These policies are dangerous and could, ultimately, bankrupt the country.
These concerns were solidified in a recent article in The Christian Science Monitor, where some people in Dubuque expressed their fear if a socialist candidate received the Democratic nomination:
“We’re afraid if Sanders gets it,” Linda, a middle-aged woman who declined to give her last name, said the day before the caucuses at a Biden town hall at Clarke University in Dubuque, The Monitor reported.
“Republicans who I know who don’t like Trump anymore — they wouldn’t vote for a socialist,” her friend Mary was quoted as saying.
Wayne Demmer, who runs a farm outside Dubuque, told The Monitor he was “nearly certain the county will go blue in 2020” — unless Sanders or Sen. Elizabeth Warren, another far-left candidate, were to win the Democratic nomination.
“It does scare me if we end up with one of these giveaway candidates,” he said Friday. “People in Iowa still go out and work for what they have. And that’s the concept of all of rural America. We live by the saying don’t give someone a fish, give them a fishing pole.”
This is problematic for the Democratic Party because most of its leading candidates promote far-left agendas. Even former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, whom some describe as “moderate,” promotes many radical policies.
Biden, possibly the most “moderate” of the Democratic candidates, seemingly offered Democrats a viable choice to challenge President Donald Trump in November.
However, based on Biden’s poor showing in Iowa — with 97 percent of the results in, he was in fourth place and received only 16 percent of the vote — it is clear that people in Iowa aren’t impressed with him or his policies. If the people aren’t impressed with Biden, and many are afraid and critical of other candidates’ socialist policies, Democrats have reason to be very concerned.
They are running out of time and have very few options as November is right around the corner.
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