http://2020 meltdown leaves Iowa Democrats on edge After the botched caucuses and the party’s Election Day wipeout, the state’s first-in-the-nation status is more precarious than ever.
Aside from ousting Donald Trump from the White House, the story of the 2020 election has an unhappy ending for Democrats. They failed to win back the Senate, nearly lost the House and fell short in statehouses all across the country.
But from the botched caucuses in February to the party’s wipeout on Election Day, nowhere was more miserable this year for Democrats than in Iowa. Long a focal point of the party’s political universe, Democrats there are now on the brink — their losses up and down the ballot in November have made the state’s first-in-the-nation caucus status more precarious than ever.
“There’s a lot of soul searching going on in Iowa right now,” said Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Polk County Democrats. “It looks pretty dire for the next couple of years.”
The hits started early, with the caucuses, and are still coming a month after the election. Earlier this week, state officials certified Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ six-vote victory over Democrat Rita Hart in the state’s open 2nd Congressional District — making it one of two House seats that flipped to GOP control this year. If that excruciatingly narrow result withstands a challenge from Hart, it will leave Democrats with just one of Iowa’s four House seats.
That’s on top of Trump trouncing Joe Biden in the state, Democrats failing to dislodge GOP Sen. Joni Ernst and Republicans expanding their majority in the legislature. This month, the party is expected to release an audit of the caucus fiasco, just as Democrats begin to look ahead to the midterms and the presidential nominating calendar for 2024.