Going from house to house you meet many interesting people. Sometimes you get a look of disgust and they turn you away right after “...I’m a volunteer for Braley/Democratic Party.” Sometimes you get the polite, “Thank you but I’m not interested.” Other times you get the responses like I’ve already blogged, the classic “Steve King was a jerk in high school, too.”
I’ve also met very few minority voters. From Wikipedia,
As of the census of 2010, there were 126,326 people, 53,236 households, and 30,931 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,784.3 people per square mile (688.9/km²). There were 57,217 housing units at an average density of 808.2 per square mile (312.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 87.98% White, 5.58% African American, 0.31% Native American, 2.21% Asian, 0.12% Pacific Islander, 0.93% from other races, and 2.87% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.31% of the population.
I have met exactly three African-American households and two Asian households. Not one Hispanic or Latino. I would think as many houses I’ve been to I’d have a higher contact.
The other weekend I went to a house to check up on a VbM request in a house with many more names. The patriarch answered the door (not the VbM holder) and I do my spiel. He listens and asks, “Is he a Christian?” I said I believe so, and he responds, “I’ll never vote for a Christian.” I point out that his opponent Joni Ernst is also a Christian, and he says he won’t vote for her, either. I wasn’t going to get past him to check up on the VbM holder (probably an adult child) so I thanked him for his time.
Not sure what in the past brought him to this viewpoint. I’m not going to pass judgment but his name was not a Johnson or a Smith, and he didn’t have an Iowan accent, so I figure he came from somewhere else. Usually we think of people of religious convictions saying they won’t vote for a democrat because of perceived views of abortion, or won’t vote for a Jew/Muslim/non-Christian, but rarely does it come up with someone turning against Christians. I suspect these folks are going to have a long time standing of never voting.
In other news, I parked in a church parking lot so that I keep my car off the streets while canvassing and not annoy folks with a stranger vehicle camped outside their house. This in itself is not unusual. What I saw when I came back did surprise me. There was a minivan with a bumper sticker reading, “Carson ’16.” Took a picture but it didn’t come out very clear, and I can’t find a match via The Google. However, The Google does have a wide diversity of bumper stickers for Dr. Ben Carson; somebody is ensuring the Supply of a Demand, so it must be happening, folks.
I had a person stop me when I said with whom I was by saying she was already voting for the Democrats, but then she muttered somewhat under her breath if only she knew where the polling stations were. I smiled and said, “That’s actually why I’m here,” and I handed her a flier with her voting information as well as where early voting was. She was actually happy and appreciated the fact I stopped by.
I reckon this particular race (Braley v. Ernst) is going to come down to a spread of less than a thousand votes.