What Iowa Voters Have to Say About 2024 Election

DES MOINES, IOWA—The United States may collapse if it could actually’t control the border, says Jay Hayward, 68, of Grinnell, Iowa. 

“Illegal immigration, this is serious,” Hayward told The Daily Signal on Saturday whereas standing in line to attend a Donald Trump rally in Fort Dodge, Iowa. 

“This is a great nation. If it doesn’t turn around soon, we could be looking at some sort of collapse,” he added. “Is there anyone other than me that feels like this is Rome 476 A.D.?” 

But the border disaster isn’t his solely concern. As a Chicago native, he stated he’s additionally frightened about election security. 

“The rule of law; free, fair, and open elections,” Hayward added. “I am from Chicago and I have seen them steal elections for most of my life.”

The Daily Signal talked to Iowa voters simply lower than two months away from the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses about what are their most urgent issues. Like Hayward, some named border safety and election integrity. Still others talked concerning the economic system and free speech as urgent points that candidates ought to deal with in 2024. 

“I’m tired of being censored, afraid to say something to offend people,” stated Sheila Toms, 50, a resident of Lytton, Iowa, additionally whereas ready in line to attend the Trump rally in Fort Dodge. 

Toms stated she was unsure what could possibly be executed to maintain Big Tech accountable. A lady standing subsequent to her—who didn’t need to be interviewed—stated, “Elon Musk needs to buy them all.”

“Amen,” Toms stated to the Musk reference. She additionally answered, “More oversight. They are the new generation … Tech companies are how the kids are learning in school.” 

The greatest drawback going through the United States is the decline of constitutional government, stated Michael Ames, 53, of Winterset, shortly after attending the Thanksgiving Family Forum on Friday in Des Moines, Iowa. 

“I worry about us wandering away from our constitutional, Judeo-Christian roots,” Ames instructed The Daily Signal. “So that’s a huge thing for me.”

The discussion board featured three presidential candidates—Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and Ohio businessman Vivek Ramaswamy—in a dialogue of points. The occasion was placed on by The FAMiLY Leader, a Christian conservative group, and The Daily Signal was the media sponsor.

Also attending was Jay Fox, 23, of Urbandale, Iowa, who helps the following president holding Big Tech corporations accountable for meddling within the elections.

“They should hold Big Tech accountable, especially for election interference,” Fox stated. “Big Tech should be like a town square for people to be able to speak their minds. I don’t like the censorship. I’m not a fan of it.”

Fox was disenchanted about Ohio voters’ choice to add unrestricted abortion to the state’s structure. However, he seen it as a brief time period setback for the pro-life trigger and doesn’t suppose conservative candidates will waver.

“I just think it wasn’t a good turnout,” he stated of the Ohio referendum. “I still think candidates will double down on their pro-life stances.”

Fox stated the final time the United States has been heading in the right direction was 2019, or earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We were on the right track, it seems like just a few years ago, right before COVID probably,” he stated. 

However, Joel Duvall, 50, from Madrid, Iowa, stated you’ll have to return to the Ronald Reagan administration within the Eighties to discover when the nation was actually heading in the right direction. 

“Reagan. We’ve had a few times where we were possibly on the right track but I think as a country, as a whole, when we were on the right track was under Reagan’s leadership,” stated Duvall, who was additionally attending the Family Forum.

Most Iowa voters requested concerning the final time the nation was on target stated it could have been simply earlier than the pandemic, or in the course of the Trump administration. 

Charles Daugherty, of Cedar Rapids, agreed with Duvall that it was in the course of the Reagan administration. 

The 77-year-old Daugherty additionally added he frightened a few lack of respect within the United States. 

“Both parties, we have to learn how to be civil to be able to discuss with a calm attitude what we believe because we are commanded to love,” Daugherty, who was attending the Family Forum, stated. “Jesus was able to speak to people and they liked to hear what he had to say. He wasn’t condemning, didn’t call people names.”

He stated political name-calling can drive good individuals from political engagement. 

“I have a young lad in the last election who was excited to vote in his first presidential election, but he didn’t vote because he felt that in the debates the candidates—two for president—were acting like 8-year-olds,” Daugherty stated. “Now that is an opinion of our 20-somethings. We can’t have respect unless we give respect.”

The border may have far-reaching penalties for the nation, stated Alden Trotman, 48, who’s a visiting nurse from Penndel, Pennsylvania, and now dwelling in Audubon, Iowa. He traveled to Fort Dodge to see the Trump occasion. 

“You allow an unknown amount of people into the borders. We are the only country in the world that does this,” Trotman stated. “You do that in Germany, Saudi Arabia, France, Italy, you do that in any other country, you are packed up and shipped out that day. Why should we be any different? If you earn the right to be here, God bless you. But don’t sneak in.”

Trotman stated sure Big Tech companies had been an issue. 

“Some parts that are valuable, pushing medical advancements, technology, learning to advance people is a great thing,” he stated. “To control and spy and try to influence what we do is not good technology. TikTok is a company run by China. Their version of TikTok in China has an algorithm that promotes people doing wonderful things. The same TikTok that we have, the algorithm promotes us to do silly things and the dumber we can be the funnier it gets and the funnier it gets the more we promote them. Education is not something that is promoted.”

Melissa Wnuk, a resident of Ames, Iowa, attending the Trump rally, stated the highest points are the economic system, clear elections, and border safety. 

Elaine Vanwyk, 80, of Pella, Iowa, stated regardless of the result in Ohio, she doesn’t imagine the Republican presidential candidates appear to be backing down from the pro-life trigger. 

“As far as we’ve heard, they have a strong pro-life case, all the Republican candidates,” stated Vanwyk, who attended the Family Forum together with her husband Jerry. 

Barbara Vaughn, a resident of Swea City, Iowa, attending the Trump rally, named her high 2024 points as “the economy, the wall, the illegal immigrants coming in … causing every type of problem.”

Jonathan DeRose, 31, a resident of Alta, Iowa, who traveled to the Trump rally, is anxious about free and truthful elections. 

“We all know—or most of us know—there was fraud going on,” DeRose stated. “We need to do away with the system that would help the fraud go on.”

Dennis Longhenry, 72, of Webster City, Iowa, had some coverage prescriptions for elections. 

“No mail-in ballots, because I got six of them in 2020,” Longhenry, who was attending the Trump rally, stated. “I was going to put Trump on every one of them, but I thought I’d go to jail. Also, if you’re not legal you don’t vote. If you’re not a citizen, you don’t vote.”

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