DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Media Iowa Capitol Bureau) – Thousands more Iowans have registered as Republicans in recent years compared to Democrats or Independents, but something may be changing over the past month.
State Rep. Kenan Judge, from Waukee is hitting the doors to try and win over voters. Judge is a Democrat in a district, where there are more active republicans and independents than his own party.
Despite that, he won by nearly 10.5 points in 2022. “That doesn’t mean it’ll happen again this year. You have to work and you have to talk to people and your votes matter,” he said.
Judge is going up against Oliver Bardwell, a Republican.
Currently, Republicans statewide have 168,000 more active registered voters than Democrats.
University of Iowa Political Science Professor Tim Hagle says this is for a couple of reasons, such as a 2021 law that moves voters’ status to inactive if they miss an election.
“That occurs much faster than it used to. It used to be every four years if you didn’t vote then you’d get moved to inactive, now it’s two,” he said.
Hagle says shifts in registration are cyclical, and one reason democrats likely dropped is because they didn’t have a competitive caucus. “Usually, if you have an incumbent president, even with the caucuses you’re probably not going to have a whole lot of activity. But when you have an open caucus, it provides an opportunity for whichever party has that caucus to really increase their voter registration,” Hagle said.
While Democrats are down, Hagle says the change in the Democratic presidential ticket has changed the energy in the race. “The Harris campaign is relying on vibes and this is the “Brat Summer” kind of a thing. Which, you know, don’t ask me to explain it, but it may be resonating to a certain extent,” he said.
Harris’ campaign has embraced the “Brat Summer trend”, which is a young vibe that means embracing yourself and your imperfections.
The Iowa Secretary of State’s office publishes monthly voter registration reports, but Hagle receives weekly reports.
Hagle says the change in energy has translated into voter registrations. “Even though the no-party registrations still dominate, the last couple of weeks we’ve seen Democrats over Republicans. Not by a lot, but still some,” he said.
Judge says by continuing to knock on doors and meet voters, he thinks he can continue to connect with them. “You know, we live in a lot of ways in a polarized world, but I think I can transcend that and talk to folks that maybe don’t agree with me on my politics,” Judge said.
The final number of voter registrations for this month come out in early September.
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Conner Hendricks covers state government and politics for Gray Media-owned stations in Iowa. Email him at conner.hendricks@gray.tv; and follow him on Facebook at Conner Hendricks TV or on X/Twitter @ConnerReports.
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