WOW! KAMALA LEADS IN IOWA!!

From The Daily Iowan:

The nationally recognized Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll found that Vice President Kamala Harris leads former President Donald Trump by three percentage points among likely voters in its final poll before the Nov. 5 election, within the poll’s margin of error, in a poll released Saturday evening. 

Harris is leading with 47 percent and Trump with 44, showing massive momentum for Harris in the deep-red state after her predecessor President Joe Biden was trailing Trump by 18 points in a June edition of the poll. A September edition of the poll found that Harris was trailing Trump by just four points. 

The poll results come just days before a high-stakes election where key battleground states are in a dead heat and nationally Harris leads by a small margin. 

Despite not campaigning in the state as the candidates and their surrogates focus exclusively on seven key battleground states, a Harris win in the state would be surprising considering Iowa’s swing to the right since 2016. 

Formerly considered a swing state because of its large independent voting block — which makes up about a third of the electorate — Harris’ surge is largely due to support from women in the state, with whom she has a 28-point lead over Trump. This large lead over Trump has grown since the September iteration of the poll found just a five-point lead among independent women. 

Independent voters were a large part of Trump’s strength in previous Iowa polls, but now seem to be breaking for Harris. The Iowa poll found that independent voters who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 now favor Harris 46 to 39 percent, a seven-point lead. However, Trump is favored among independent men by 10 points.

Harris also boasts a 19-point lead among older voters, the age demographic most likely to vote.

The poll, conducted by Ann Selzer the president of Selzer & Co., is famously accurate having predicted Trump’s wins in the state in 2016 and 2020, and Obama’s victory in the state in 2012 and 2008 all within a percentage point.

The poll surveyed 808 likely Iowa voters with a margin of error of 3.4 percent.

Iowa Democrats: Iowa is still a purple state 

Iowa Democrats say the new poll shows what they have been seeing while knocking on doors throughout the state and reaffirms their beliefs that the deep-red state can still be thought of as a swing state.

“These results, this poll, the results on election night, should show the rest of the country what we know, which is that Iowa is a place where races are in play and a purple state,” Iowa House Democrats leader Jennifer Konfrst said during a press conference Saturday night.

Iowa Democrats Chair Rita Hart said she is hopeful that good results for Democrats in November could bolster their efforts to get Iowa Democrats caucuses back to first-in-the-nation after they lost that status this last caucus cycle.

“Once this election is over, we’re going to be having this conversation, and The better we do here in November, the better case we can make,” Hart said. “And so that’s the bottom line, is that I hope this shows the rest of the country that Iowa is a good barometer for choosing good leadership and seeing the tenor of the country again.”

Iowa Democrats are also hopeful that even if Harris underperforms the Iowa Poll results it could mean wins for down-ballot races. They credited Iowa Democrats organizing efforts this election cycle for helping move the needle, and say it will help lead to down-ballot races overperforming the top of the ticket.

“This feels good, and it feels like it does level the playing field for us in a lot of these conversations with voters,” Konfrst said. “I do think that this has this poll — which equals momentum, which equals enthusiasm for volunteering and voting — is good for down-ballot races as well.”

Hart said that the poll results show momentum for Iowa Democrats but turnout could make the difference and encourage Iowans to vote.

“The fact that Vice President Harris now leads Donald Trump in the latest Des Moines Register poll is obviously very exciting for us, but I recognize that the folks here in Iowa are smart, and they know the difference between a poll and the results of an election,” Hart said. “We have three more days before this election, so remember, this is just a poll, and what really matters is that Iowans show up and make their voices heard.”

Women. Are. Going. To. Save. America.

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