Candidates, campaigns make final election push

DES MOINES — The final push is on.

Candidates in Tuesday’s election are delivering their closing arguments — their tightened message that is designed to motivate or sway as many voters as possible.

At the same time, their campaign operations are in the full-blown sprint to the finish — knocking on doors, sending text messages and airing ads on TV and social media, all to maintain constant contact with the targeted voters on their lists.

With the general election just days away, candidates and their campaigns are exhausting all their strategies to drive up voter turnout in their favor.

But that’s bad news for potential voters already suffering from election fatigue. It means more campaign ads, more ringing doorbells, more mailers and more text messages are on the way.

“I’m pretty sure campaign managers don’t want to end up with money in the bank. You’d rather win after spending it all than lose with unspent money still there,” said Dennis Goldford, a political-science professor at Drake University. “All this despite the fact that any and all civilians — non-political, everyday people — are truly sick of all of the ads. Still, you want to scare people about your opponent and say how wonderful and on-your-side your own candidates are.”

Donna Hoffman, a political-science professor at the University of Northern Iowa, also warned voters that they should expect those ads to continue to flood the airwaves and streaming services right up to the election. The only respite, Hoffman said, could come for Iowans who already have cast early ballots: They may see fewer targeted campaign contacts like door knocks and text messages.

As for the candidates, Hoffman said the final days of a campaign commonly feature a focused version of a classic stump speech.

“Candidates typically craft a closing message in the last week of a campaign where they are focusing on getting out the vote, projecting a sense of urgency, and highlighting what they feel are the key issues for the voters at that point in time,” Hoffman said.

The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Early voting will be open through Monday at local elections offices across the state. Mailed ballots must be received in the local elections office by 8 p.m. Tuesday.

So what are the candidates in Iowa saying in these final days of the campaign? Here are some examples from this past week.

U.S. Senate

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley’s closing pitch appears to contain themes of working hard and in bipartisan fashion.

The 89-year-old Republican incumbent seeking an eighth six-year term in the Senate unveiled his final campaign ad this week, which is titled, “I’m not done yet.” The ad reminds viewers that Grassley still jogs every morning at 4 a.m., travels to each of the state’s 99 counties every year and cultivates bipartisan relationships.

Democratic challenger Mike Franken, 64, a retired U.S. Navy admiral, is mounting by far the biggest challenge Grassley has faced in his re-election campaigns. Franken’s closing message, as heard at a campaign event this past week in Cedar Rapids, argues that Grassley is no longer the bipartisan senator he once was, that Grassley has been in the Senate too long and it’s time for a change.

“We deserve something other than a senator for life,” Franken said in Cedar Rapids.

Governor

If polling and fundraising are indicators, Republican incumbent Kim Reynolds stands on the precipice of another four-year term, and perhaps a re-election victory by a wide margin over Democratic challenger Deidre DeJear and Libertarian candidate Rick Stewart.

Reynolds has spent the last two weeks of the campaign barnstorming the state with a bus tour. Her message has been consistent throughout her campaign — highlighting what she believes are the successes achieved during her tenure and with Republican control of the Iowa Legislature: three rounds of state income tax reductions, a state budget with a $2 billion surplus, moves to reopen businesses and schools sooner than many other states during the COVID-19 pandemic and a ban on transgender girls playing in girls’ sports.

“Here in Iowa, we still know right from wrong, boys from girls, and liberty from tyranny,” Reynolds says in her final campaign ad.

DeJear told reporters it’s that type of decisive issue that is one of the reasons she believes Iowa needs new leadership. That notion of new leadership, along with an appeal for unity, have been among the top of DeJear’s closing arguments.

“I see Iowans for who we truly are, and we’re hardworking people,” DeJear said this past week. “And there is no doubt in my mind, as I’ve been traveling throughout this state, Iowans are working way too hard. And a large part of the impediment in that way is our current failed leadership’s ability to overcome the challenges that Iowans are facing.”

Iowa Legislature

Iowa House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst joined Democrat Elizabeth Wilson, a former Linn-Mar school board member running for House District 73, for a news conference Thursday in Marion to discuss Iowa House Democrats’ four-part policy agenda of lowering costs for Iowans, investing in public schools, protecting reproductive freedom and legalizing marijuana for recreational use.

The proposal, dubbed the “people over politics” agenda, will be the framework for Democratic proposals in the next legislative session.

“It is based on what we’ve heard from Iowans all across the state — rural, urban, suburban,” said Konfrst, of Windsor Heights. “We have heard from people who want the Legislature to come together and just get something done.”

To lower costs, Konfrst said House Democrats would pass legislation that expands access to affordable housing and child care, and lowers taxes for working families while stopping tax cuts for large businesses.

Their agenda also calls for codifying a fundamental right to abortion in the Iowa Constitution, which would require Democrats to win back majorities in both the Iowa House and Senate, and hold those majorities through a second election so they could pass a proposal, which would then go to Iowa voters.

Winning back those majorities is unlikely to happen this election. Republicans have a 32-18 majority in the Senate and a 60-40 majority in the House.

One of the most competitive districts this election is in Eastern Iowa, in Senate District 46, where two incumbent senators — Democrat Kevin Kinney and Republican Dawn Driscoll — were put in the same district by the decennial redistricting process.

Both parties have put significant resources into that election. Kinney has been endorsed by a number of current and former Republicans, and Reynolds has swooped in late in the campaign to help Driscoll, including by appearing in a campaign ad in which she advocates for Driscoll and attacks Kinney.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com