Candidates appeal to bipartisanship in TV ads

In a rush of new political ads hitting Iowa’s airwaves this week, one common theme rang out: Candidates for the U.S. House want to convince Iowa voters they’re not just loyal to their own party and are willing to work across the aisle.

Democrats Cindy Axne in the 3rd Congressional District, Liz Mathis in the 2nd, and Christina Bohannan in the 1st, as well as 3rd District Republican Zach Nunn released TV ads this week.

For Nunn, Mathis, and Bohannan, it was the first ad of the general election.

In what is likely Iowa’s most competitive House election, both Axne and Nunn are shying away from tying themselves to their party in their TV presence.

The most recent Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll showed the race in a dead heat, with 47 percent of voters saying they preferred a Democratic candidate, while 44 percent said they preferred a Republican candidate. The difference is well within the 8.4 percent margin of error in the poll.

Axne, the incumbent Congresswoman in the race, made no mention of recent Democratic-led bills like the Inflation Reduction Act, instead pointing to work with Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley on regulations in the cattle industry and support for the CHIPS Act, which aimed to bolster American manufacturing.

“I’ll go anywhere to fight high prices,” Axne said in the ad. “I’ll even go against my own party.”

Nunn, a Republican state senator running for the seat, took no direct policy stakes, but he highlighted his military experience.

“I’ll work across the aisle to get results, stand up to special interests, and always put Iowans first,” he said in the ad.

Mathis took a directly bipartisan edge with her first ad, saying “Republicans need to stop the culture wars, and Democrats need to lower costs for families.”

While Bohannan did not directly call out Democrats or mention working across the aisle, she highlighted support for policies that are popular with a vast majority of both Democrats and Republicans, but which have been championed in policy by Democrats this year.

In an ad focused on health care, Bohannan said Congress should allow Medicare to negotiate the price of drugs and cap the price of insulin. The Inflation Reduction Act, which Democrats passed along party lines this month, allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices, but it did not garner enough support from Republicans to cap the price of insulin at $35 a month for people not insured under Medicare.

In a March Kaiser Family Foundation poll, more than 80 percent of voters said those two issues were critical or important focuses for Congress in health care, and less than 5 percent of voters said it shouldn’t be done in both cases.

The ads are largely targeting the small percentage of undecided voters in each district who will likely decide the outcome, political science professor at Grinnell University Barbara Trish said.

“My sense is that they’re probably writing off a large segment of the population, and they’re going after the undecideds and the persuadables,” she said. “The data that they have … probably gives a sense of the persuadability of the person.”

In the Iowa Poll’s district-level polling, the margin of undecided voters was slim:

— 6 percent in the 1st District

— 3 percent in the 2nd District

— 8 percent in the 3rd District

— 7 percent in the 4th District

The focus of the ads — the economy and health care — are a signal that the candidates are looking to appeal to independent voters, University of Iowa political science Professor Tim Hagle said.

Independent voters care more about “kitchen table issues” than party politics, especially when confidence in the economy is low, Hagle said. Consumer confidence hit record lows by some metrics in June and July due to rising inflation, but preliminary data from the University of Michigan show sentiment is rising in August.

Hagle also noted the ads are also playing on one common enemy of voters, regardless of party: Congress itself.

While people tend to have a higher view of their own representative, approval of Congress tends to be very low. In July data from Gallup polling, which tracks approval every month, only 17 percent of voters said they approved of the way Congress is handling its job, while 79% disapproved.

“If you’re looking to get the critical swing voters, you’ve got to focus on stuff they care about, which is not the political infighting,” Hagle said.