Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller says 2018 is a make-or-break kind of year for Iowa Democrats.
“I think this is an incredibly important election for the state and for the Democratic Party,” Miller says.
Miller, a Democrat who is seeking a 10th term as attorney general in November, does not have primary competition in tomorrow’s voting.
Miller says Democrats have been “slipping in power and influence” in Iowa and this election gives the party a chance to turn things around. And Miller warns that if Democrats don’t step up in 2018, it will be “quite a while” before they’ll get another chance to re-set Iowa’s political map.
“Democrats do realize how important this election is and are really quite concerned that particularly in statewide races we haven’t done very well in the last few years,” Miller says. “I don’t think I’m telling Democrats anything new about the urgency.”
Phyllis Weeks of Knoxville was active in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Weeks is among a new group of women called the Red Rock Social Advocates who’ve been meeting once every other week to “make things happen” in 2018.
“We decided that we were not going to cry in our beer,” she says. “We were not going to stay inactive. We were not going to be defeated.”
Weeks, along with Jason Mattie of Pella, were among the 100 or so Democrats who gathered in Albia Saturday night for a seven-county fundraiser. Mattie sees grassroots enthusiasm about the party’s prospects in the fall.
“A lot of Democrats are coming out of the woodwork, really,” Mattie says. “And it’s really neat to see that kind of build.”
Iowa Democratic Party chairman Troy Price was elected to rebuild the party last July. He points to this year’s record amount of early Primary voting by Democrats, fueled by interest in the contest for the governor’s race.
“In the course of this primary, yes, people are really fired up and they’ve worked really hard on behalf of their candidates, but my message has been consistent,” Price says. “….When this primary is over…we have to go back to work. We can’t afford another four years of Kim Reynolds and GOP control in the statehouse.”
The latest voter registration data from June 1 shows the largest block of Iowa voters — more than 700,000 — do not register with any political party. There were about 640,000 Republicans and about 600,000 Democrats on June 1. The Libertarian Party of Iowa has about 10,000 active members.
You must be a registered member of the Republican, Democratic or Libertarian Party to participate in that party’s primary.