What makes iowa a swing state

Presidents can win the popular vote and lose the electoral college vote. It is the states that do not consistently vote along party lines that determine whether a candidate will win or lose: Swing states. There is a reason why swing states exist in the United States—the U. Hudak credits the highly competitive presidential election between Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson as heightening political interest in winning over specific states.

He explains that the Republican Party had been founded only a few years earlier in Wisconsin, and it was taking off in the Midwest.

The party became known for supporting abolition and keeping the Union together. Southern states vote for the democratic candidate. Roosevelt was campaigning in the West. Close presidential elections throughout American history have borne this out: Harry S. Four years later, Bush eked out a win over John Kerry in Iowa by just.

Barack Obama's ties to the state, which launched his presidential campaign with a win in the Iowa caucuses in , moved the state in his direction -- as he carried it in both of his races. But even as Obama was winning at the top of the ticket, Republicans were making gains down-ballot. Republican Terry Branstad won the governor's race in and held the office until he left to join the Trump administration in His lieutenant governor, Kim Reynolds, took over and won a full term in -- not a great year nationally for Republicans.

Ultimately, President Trump won the state by over eight points nearly matching his margin from 9. Senator Ernst was reelected to the US Senate by nearly seven points.

After recounts in every county in the district and a contest filed with the US House Committee on Administration , Hart withdrew her contest in late March and Miller-Meeks formally succeeded former Democratic Representative Dave Loebsack who retired after serving seven terms in the US House. Young was running to regain his seat after being defeated by Axne in In the general election, Feenstra defeated Democratic candidate J.

Scholten by nearly 25 points. The most surprising results of election night came from races for the Iowa State Legislature.

As mentioned above, many Iowa Democrats were optimistic about their chances of taking back control of the Iowa State House for the first time since Going into election night, Democratic candidates for the Iowa State House had campaign fundraising advantages in many of the districts that were deemed competitive in the cycle.

In a night where Democrats thought they may make gains, Iowa Republicans won six additional seats in the chamber increasing their majority to 59 over 41 Democrats. Iowa Republicans also held serve in the Iowa State Senate and control the chamber By doing so, Iowa Republicans continue to control the two elected branches of state government. In an USAPP liveblog post on election day, I mentioned that I would be watching two major factors in the statewide races on election night.

One was the vote margin statewide in rural Iowa counties, which makeup much of the state, versus the six most urbanized counties in that state that Hillary Clinton won in Secretary of State Paul Pate posted unofficial numbers from early and election day voting on his Twitter feed November 5. Going into election day, Iowa Democrats had returned about , more absentee ballots than Republicans. Biden ended up winning the early vote by , While he probably received some crossover votes from registered Republicans, I would guess that he had support from roughly 60 percent of the , or so independents who voted before November 3.

My intent is not to make Democrats feel hopeless. A generation ago, who would have believed Colorado and Virginia would be considered safe states for the Democratic presidential nominee in ?

So a Democratic candidate could win a statewide election in Iowa. But we need to approach the races for governor and U. Senate without any illusions. We start out at a significant disadvantage, even if Senator Chuck Grassley retires. The Iowa GOP will devote substantial resources to turning those people into reliable voters.

Perspective helps. With it looking like Biden win, still feeling like this right now. And Blaire Erskine has a funny bit on our type of pain, but as felt from the other side down in Georgia here.