Immigration and Social Issues, Not Iraq, Dominate Among Iowa Republican Voters

This story is a collaborative effort between Iowa Independent and Huffington Post’s OffTheBus Project.  As part of our investigation, OffTheBus members spoke with more than a third of Iowa’s Republican county chairs. The team was coordinated by Theresa Weathers and Steven Greenberg, and interviews were conducted by Kirsten Anderson, Mariangela Anzalone, Robin Carpenter, Adam Dancy, Kim Farris, Mayhill Fowler, Melissa Hapke, Saba Kennedy-Washington, Chris Nelson, Randall Tigue, John Tomasic, P.S. Peete, Heidi Pickman, Constance Sere.

While the war in Iraq might loom large in the minds of Democratic caucus-goers, Iowa Republicans are much more focused on immigration and cultural issues, according to a new survey of state GOP chairs. The local Republican officials, like the leading GOP presidential candidates with the exception of Ron Paul, mostly agree that a stable Iraq is key to U.S. national security and the war on terror. But the Iraq war itself is not playing out as a stand-alone voting issue.

“The war is certainly an issue, but I don’t think it carries the same impact the media says it does,” said John Markham, chair of the Dubuque County Republican Party in eastern Iowa.

The war is “probably not [hitting home] as much as it was two years ago,” said Rev. Harold Miller, who served as chair of the Grundy County Republican Party until recently.

In a series of phone interviews conducted by Huffington Post’s OffTheBus project, 37 of Iowa’s Republican county chairs were asked to name the issues most important to GOP caucus-goers this year.  Almost universally, immigration and social issues were mentioned.  Asked about the Iraq War, many county chairs downplayed its significance.

“The war has overshadowed the real things that need to be spoken about,” said Alice DeRycke, chair of the Iowa County Republicans in central Iowa.

“I think [the war] is probably the third or fourth item down the list of importance,” said Dave Stolb, GOP chair of rural Guthrie County in western Iowa.  “The immigration issue” is the most important in Iowa.  “Immigration is number one, with ‘social agenda’ … definitely high up there.”

These insights may help to explain why, despite one Republican polling firm’s data showing that more than 50% of Republican caucus-goers support withdrawal from Iraq within six months, the most successful Republican candidates in Iowa oppose any current plans for withdrawal.  (No sources we reached seemed to fit into the supposed majority of GOP caucus-goers who support withdrawal, and several did not believe that the poll was accurate.  But at the very least, the poll raises questions about how the war plays politically across the state.)

Vonnie Kinkaid, chair in Union County, attempted to add a bit of perspective to the discussion when asked about the poll data.  “Listen, no one here is pro-war.  There are much worse wars.  We lose more people to the war on alcohol, more to substance abuse than to the mission in Iraq,” she said. “There are worse problems at home, things we got to straighten out here.”

In terms of what those problems are, most county chairs were in general agreement: immigration and social issues trump the war and most other issues in the minds of GOP caucus-goers.  Several county chairs also helped to shed light on why this may be.

Irene Blom, chair of the Marion County Republicans in central Iowa, said that the biggest issues for Republicans in her area are abortion, gay marriage, and “the downfall of morals and religion.”  Blom, like a significant number of Iowa’s social conservatives, is of Dutch descent, and her family’s history has played a role in shaping her political views.

“My parents were born in the Netherlands,” she explained. “20 to 25 years ago, my [Dutch] relative came to visit and predicted that America should be careful, as it is going the same way as Holland.  You know what has happened there.”

Religion itself also appears to motivate caucus-goers, particularly when it comes to how their children are educated.  Cheryl Adams, Van Buren County GOP chair, identified “Prayer — the freedom of prayer in the public schools” and “the right to display the Ten Commandments in public places” as the most important issues in the minds of GOP caucus-goers in her area.

Mark Lundberg, county chair in Republican-rich Sioux County, noted that although his county’s public schools are excellent, parents send 25% of school-age children to private, Christian schools.  “The electorate here is strongly pro-family and anti-gay marriage,” he said.  “There is a strong Christian conservative influence here.”

But even more than moral issues, immigration was named by county chairs most often as the top issue on GOP caucus-goers’ minds.

“I think Iowans, and for that matter, people as a whole across the nation, are concerned about the illegal immigration problem that we face,” said Loras Schulte, Benton County Republican chair.

Connie Hoelscher, chair in Hamilton County, agreed: “We need to get the non-US citizens out of our country.”

In some cases, immigration was tied directly to local unemployment.  “They have taken jobs away from our people,” Hoelscher claimed.  In other cases, the reasons for prioritizing immigration were less clear.

Iowa’s recent hispanic immigrants, mostly from Mexico, tend to live in small pockets across the state near meatpacking plants, where they often work.  In those areas in particular, anti-immigrant sentiments can be high.

Decades ago, meatpacking plants paid some of the highest wages in rural Iowa, and their employees were unionized.  Rick Halvorsen, chair of the Warren County Republicans, gave his account of what has happened in the plants and their surrounding communities over the past two decades:

I’m not a union man, but the plants broke the unions and saddled the community with supporting the workers.  [The packing plants] wouldn’t pay a living wage [to workers doing] those really pretty awful difficult jobs.  So they went south of the border and now it’s 50% from Mexico and just 12-15 years ago these were all-white towns.  They have to hire Spanish-speaking teachers for the schools.  [The packing companies] broke the unions 20 years ago.  Those workers moved away.  We’re 50% Hispanic now.  Packing companies like Swift have been making huge profits, and they don’t pay the workers enough to live… The Mexicans have large families, the wives and kids coming up, but the plants won’t pay.  Low wages and large families means the taxpayers are supplementing the companies’ profits.  We pay for the health insurance and benefits for their workers.  We’ve had enough of that.

(Straight from the horse’s mouth, that’s about as clear a summary of immigration politics in Iowa as I’ve seen.)

But despite widespread consistency among county chairs about what issues matter to GOP voters, the presidential race in Iowa remains fragmented and volatile.  “A lot of people are on the fence, a lot of people [are] undecided,” said Trudy Caviness, chair in Wapello County, before she quickly rephrased.  “People are undecided on who to vote for, but not on the issues,” she concluded.