Former president Donald Trump won 60 percent of the rural vote in Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses, well above his statewide total of 51 percent. But his victory Monday in the first-in-the-nation test of voter support for presidential candidates was built on the vote in towns, where most Iowans live, said a Daily Yonder analysis.
“Out of all votes cast for Trump at the Iowa caucus, 70 percent of his 56,000 votes came from urban residents,” the Daily Yonder said. “Rural people only make up 23 percent of Iowa’s 3.1 million residents. Those rural voters comprised 30 percent of Trump’s total support.”
With overwhelming backing, Trump won 98 of Iowa’s 99 counties. Statewide, the results were Trump, 51 percent; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, 21 percent; and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, 19 percent. In rural counties, it was Trump, 60 percent; DeSantis, 18 percent; and Haley, 13 percent, said the Daily Yonder.
It’s just as well that Iowa is losing its place as the kickoff state for presidential politicking, wrote Art Cullen, editor of the Storm Lake Times Pilot. “The caucuses nationalized our politics” and encouraged polarization while obliterating discussion of local issues, such as rural population loss.
“Everyone kneels at the golden calf of corn ethanol, and that’s about all the caucuses got done for us. If you’re good with ethanol, you’re good,” wrote Cullen in an editorial on Wednesday. “Not sure how we will water half the nation’s cattle when the aquifer runs dry, didn’t hear a whole lot about crop insurance or a farm bill this year.”