A strong focus on health care was one of the keys to Democratic wins in 2018, and a new report on Iowa voters suggests health care should stay high on the agenda going forward. Working America’s latest Front Porch Focus Group report draws on conversations with 304 base Democratic and swing voters in Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Cedar Falls, and some smaller communities, finding that 42 percent of Democrats and 28 percent of swing voters listed health care as their top issue.
”Other” was the runner-up and only other issue to break into double digits with both groups: 14 percent of Democrats and 16 percent of swing voters. It was followed by jobs and the economy, retirement, and education. No other issue reached five percent with both groups, though government corruption came close.
Democrats should look to Iowa voters not because of the state’s early caucuses, but because “Between 2012 and 2016, Iowa’s drop in Democratic vote share at the presidential level was the largest of any state in the country.” In 2018, Democrats picked up two House seats in the state but fell short of winning Iowa’s gubernatorial race, even as they flipped seven governor’s seats nationwide. We can’t afford to write off any state, let alone a battleground like Iowa.