Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart Shares Strategy for Rural Iowa
And challenges The New York Times story: How Are Iowa Democrats? ‘I Can’t Even Describe to You How Bad It Is.’
I spoke with IDP Chair Rita Hart yesterday and asked her about the IDP’s plans to make gains in rural Iowa. She lays out how she is working to help build stronger county parties and the strategy for the future. She discusses the recent county survey, the new county ambassador program, and messaging. She stresses she is part of a team, and that they are optimistic going forward. She also shares her thoughts on targeted counties, the successes of the Biden/Harris administration, and other matters.
On August 11, The New York Times published a story titled “How Are Iowa Democrats? ‘I Can’t Even Describe to You How Bad It Is.
The subtitle is: As Republican presidential candidates flock to the state, Democrats there are despondent, exhausted by repeated defeats and the loss of their first-in-the-nation nominating contest.”
Rita challenges the story as part of the interview below. A lightly edited transcript follows:
Rita, can you tell us a little bit about what the Iowa Democratic party is doing to message to, to make gains, have success in rural Iowa?
That's one of the reasons why I took this job and one of the reasons why so many people encouraged me to take this job is because I'm a rural Iowan. I live there…in the western part of Clinton County, my husband and I are farmers. I've lived my entire life on a farm. And so, as the Democratic Party has struggled with rural voters, I think Democrats are looking for leadership to turn that tide. And to be able to give that, make a good stab at bringing back some rural voters, and have better opportunity in these rural districts. So it's really important that rural Iowa does get our message because rural Iowans have been struggling under Republican leadership right now, you know, my little town of Wheatland is a great example, where we're one of the only small towns in Clinton County to have a grocery store. People in rural areas are feeling left behind because it's harder and harder to get good, local food. Our nursing homes are in Jeopardy. Healthcare is becoming further and further away. Now, we're being threatened by these Public School, the voucher program that Governor Reynolds has instituted that is going to negatively affect our rural school districts.
These are important issues for my friends and my neighbors. And, for me. And so, what I'm trying to do here with the Democratic party is to lay the groundwork so that we can do a better job of reaching out to rural voters. And so the first thing that I did as the chair was to put out a county party survey because I really believe that the county party structure has not been given the emphasis and the resources that it needs to get out the reliable Democratic vote. And from there, broaden our scope. So, I put out that County party survey to kind of get a read on the level of activity for all 99 County parties. And that was a very helpful step. It's allowed us now, to open up that conversation of what County parties do and how can better help them to get that job done.
And another program I instituted is the Iowa Democratic Party County Ambassador program and so every county should in the end…where we're working hard on that program and we've got the majority of our counties now, have an ambassador, somebody who lives in the community, somebody who's known in the community who has held elected office, or who has run for office, who has been very involved in county party operations, who has agreed to be an ambassador between the state and the county. Somebody who will go to every central committee meeting, gets to make sure that they know the people and know what their county party is trying to accomplish. So again, based on the work that we're doing to get county parties up to a common level, each county has certain goals that they want to achieve, that you know, perhaps they need to have better fundraising efforts, or maybe they, they need to make sure that the all of their precinct positions are filled, whatever their goals are that ambassador is going to be our direct liaison to help them accomplish those goals and to be a messenger. So, we meet with those ambassadors once a month and get feedback from them, find out what the struggles are, what the successes are and share them with the other ambassadors, and create some alliances from one county to another county.
And bringing messages from the state down to the county and be a good listening ear so that they are bringing those successes and those comments and things that the state can learn from the counties back to us. So that program is just getting started, but it is going strong and we're seeing rewards from it already.
We know that going forward, we are going to be working hard on a long-range goal to strengthen all 99 counties. We also know that we have to have some short-term goals for focusing on a few counties that we can work with the Senate and the House on targeted districts so that we can flip some seats. And the other thing I would mention is that I find that one of the biggest things that the county parties do that really have strengthened the party in general, is the recruitment process to make sure that we have candidates that are running that have… that are running for school board, for conservation board, for library board, for all the local offices that I think are important to again to be sending out that Democratic message.
I know there has to be targeted districts. I know there are districts that you have to put resources into, try to turn them, or keep a seat. But are any of those targeted districts in rural Iowa?
Well absolutely. I don't have a list of targeted districts here in front of me. But yes, there's... depending about, you know, we target the district, first of all based on what the overall picture looks like and how close previous elections were and what the registration is in those districts, that kind of thing. But from the very beginning, I have said that we need to concentrate on those 10 districts up and down the Mississippi River. Those are rural districts. Many of them who voted for Barack Obama twice and then turned for President Trump twice. And so they are districts that we need to concentrate on because they are in our grasp. But we do have to concentrate on them to get our message out in a way that resonates.
Do you distribute talking points? Oh, let's just say on the successes of the Biden Administration, say, all the investments in rural Iowa, the different kinds of things that are being done? I think it's important to share those kinds of things but not everybody knows them. So do you provide guidance on those kinds of issues?
Absolutely, you know, we have it on our website. We send out emails to our county parties. And we asked those county parties to amplify these messages to, to make sure that they are spreading that word locally. There's more than 2000 projects that are going up all over the state of Iowa as a result of President Biden's policies, as a result of the infrastructure act, as a result of the inflation reduction act, and these projects are projects that are really going to make a difference in people's lives. And many of them are in these rural counties are in, there's one in Clinton County. A farmer's market project that I think is very exciting. These are projects that are child care centers, that are going to improve recreational opportunities, which I think is huge for our rural, our rural districts, you know, that not only is it just great to be able to have people come to a rural county and enjoy the recreational opportunities that exist there. But it just makes, it's one of the biggest reasons why people like to live in rural Iowa so that they can fish, so that they can hunt, so that they can go, they can bird watch so that they can do all the things that are so important to people who live out in these areas.
So do you have candidates yet? For our districts, our national candidates? Do you have any of those yet?
You can expect some announcements very soon on Congressional races. We do have Ryan Melton running in the fourth district. So, you can expect some more.
Is there media training for county chairs and for candidates? As a former member of the media in the past, some of our chairs have sort of been unprepared to deal with the media and then the candidates as well; is there training?
You know, there are lots of training things being planned. The training and that kind of work that has been done by the Senate Majority Fund and the Truman Fund have been mainly for candidates. Um, so I'd like to get to your point. I'd like to expand that and that's something, I think that definitely falls under the IDP is to do additional trainings for our county chairs for our... And again, as we work with the counties, to make sure that every county has a communications team. That would be, you know, a way to strengthen our ability to get our message out, is to make sure that that we have a communications team with every county and that they have received some media training. So definitely on our list of things to do.
With respect to media training, staying on message would seem to be important to me. I'm sure that you read the August 11th piece in the New York Times where we have some of our leadership, some people that I respect a lot telling us how bad, telling the world, how bad things are in Iowa. That's not what I see as a very effective message. Would you share your thoughts on that?
On the record or off the record? I'm teasing. Yeah, that that article was very disappointing, but I would say, and I have, we've done some follow-up talking to some of the individuals who made those comments. And I would say this, they are all so disappointed in that article, I do think you're right. There is some follow-up going on about media training and how you talk to reporters, etc? Because I think it's pretty clear. Actually, we've followed up with that reporter and it's very... it is my opinion, that that reporter was looking for the story that ended up being written. So the reporter interviewed twenty-some people, only quoted a few of those, and chose the comments that supported the narrative that that story was intended to, you know, give off and so. So yeah, that is very disappointing because there were I'm sure a lot more positive comments than negative ones, you know, given, and yet that's what made the story. So yeah, it's disappointing and we need to do some follow-up on making sure that that doesn't happen again and doing what we can to correct that damage. That's yeah, that's really a tough situation to be in.
But I try to concentrate on the fact that we are doing good things. And even though that story was written, it doesn't, it doesn't change the fact that as I travel across the state and talk to Democrats, they are committed, they are positive. They understand that we need to roll up our sleeves and go to work. But there's nothing that's more worthwhile than turning this around. They also recognize that Iowa has flipped back and forth many times in history, that politics changes on a dime and they all recognize that the Republicans have gone too far. You know, that they are too extreme on so many issues and they are not in sync with Iowans’ attitudes on things like book banning, on the importance of public education, and the danger that exists because of this voucher program, taking money away from our public school systems and this six-week abortion banned that is just too far.
So, Democrat’s message is that we need more balance in government and I think the vast majority of Iowans have always taken pride that we're more of a purple state, that they harken back to the days of Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley when people on both sides of the aisle cross the aisle to vote for the other guy. And that's what creates good policy is when people believe that there are good people on both sides of the aisle and that we ought to be listening to both of them and that when you elect good people who work well with others that you end up with good policy and that ends up being better lives for our average Iowans.
People are encouraged by a change in approach, and that's what I'm trying to do here as the chair of the party, is taking a look at how we got where we are today, and taking the steps that we've got to take in order to turn this around and people are responding. I wouldn't have taken the job if people weren't willing to make some of these changes and also were very quick, to say, Rita, if you will step up as chair, I will help in this way…
And so we've got, we're working really hard here to create a team approach around everything we do with the help of IDP staff but a lot of volunteer people who are stepping up and who recognize that that's what it's going to take in order to to get different results. So we're excited about every day working towards getting to a better place here in Iowa.
Addendum: Shortly after this interview took place, University of Iowa Law Professor Christina Bohannan declared that she will challenge incumbent Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks for the first district seat in 2024 Bohannan lost to Miller-Meeks by nearly 7 percentage points in 2022.
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Did she not like the NYT story because of inaccuracy, or because, as Harry Truman said, "I don't give 'em hell, I just tell the truth and it sounds like hell?" Facts are facts, Iowa Dems have lost the last four gubernatorial elections, only occupy a third of the Iowa Legislature, none of the congressional delegation and just one elected seat in the executive branch. The Black Hawk County Democrats seem to be an "outlier" in every sense of the phrase. They hold all the local Statehouse seats except for a sliver of Sandy Salmon's district grazing the county's northwest corner; they've also held the courthouse since the late '80s. We have a diversity of rural and urban, labor and farm, race and ethnicity. And a large block of indepentent voters. Those from here who have aspired to play a larger role statewide role have been turned aside. Maybe it's time for the Iowa Dems to think outside the box, or the Golden Circle, and seek some input from someone who knows how to win elections. Bringing Gov. Tim Walz down from Minnesota for the Iowa State Fair is fine, but it also makes a tacit statement as to how thin the Iowa Dems bench is. There's talent out here, the state Dems just have to cultivate it. And as Neil Young once sang, "in the field of opportunity it's plowin' time again." The process has to be more, um, democratic, not trickle-down from the capital city.
Out here in Western Iowa, many of us feel abandoned by the IDP. We have good candidates who run great campaigns but lose because the GOP floods their opponent’s campaigns with $$$ right before the election. When Rita Hart says the IDP will be prioritizing counties in the Eastern side of the state, it is just more of the same for us. Not impressed. I hope to see changes, but we’ll see...