David Erlacher hadn’t made up his mind about who he was going to caucus for when he showed up to a Cedar Rapids brewery to hear Ron DeSantis speak on Sunday afternoon. But inside his jacket pocket was a handwritten list of issues that mattered most to him.
At the top was the economy, followed by the southern border. He then listed a series of foreign policy conflicts, including the Houthi attacks in Yemen, the war in Israel, and the war between Ukraine and Russia.
“The world’s a dumpster fire right now,” Erlacher, a 76-year-old retiree who lives in Cedar Rapids, said. “We got to try and find some water to throw on it. I’m not sure how that’s gonna happen. I’m just glad there’s smarter people than myself out there to do it.”
Those three priorities – the economy, the border and international instability – echoed what many Iowa voters said were their top issues as they prepare to caucus in the US’s first nominating contest on Monday, with Donald Trump, Nikki Haley and DeSantis at the top. A November Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll found that 81% of likely caucus-goers listed the economy as a “very important issue” and 80% of caucus-goers listed “immigration and border security as “very important issues” in the same poll.
Concerns over the economy underscore a significant challenge for Joe Biden as he seeks a second term. Traditional metrics have shown that the US economy is strong, but nearly two-thirds of Americans are unhappy with it, according to a September Harris survey conducted by the Guardian.
Kevin Hochstedler, 65, who works in home construction in Iowa City, was one of several voters who said his top issues were “number one the economy, number two, southern border”. Hochstedler, who plans to caucus for Haley, said he had seen a huge slowdown in his industry. He blamed the federal reserve for raising interest rates too quickly.
“The economy is slowing, slowing, slowing, it’s like a giant sucking sound,” Hochstedler said at a Saturday event for Haley, whom he plans to support on Monday.
Hochstedler was one of several voters who said they were outraged by Biden’s handling of migrants at the US-Mexico border. He said he supported the state of Texas in an ongoing dispute with the Biden administration over policing the border. “If I were governor of Texas, I’d call in the national guard, block it all off and keep the people in Mexico.”
“The border, it’s a shame, it’s despicable,” said Carrie Fitzpatrick, 64, a home health worker in Cedar Rapids, said as she finished a beer at DeSantis’s brewery event (she plans to caucus for him on Monday). “If I was down south, I don’t know what I’d do.”
Both Haley and DeSantis spoke to those concerns during their final stretch of campaign events headed into the caucuses. “When I’m president we’re gonna clean house. Day one, we’ll declare the border to be a national emergency. We’re going to mobilize all resources, stop the invasion,” DeSantis said in Cedar Rapids.
“We’re $34tn in debt, we’re having to borrow money just to make our interest payments,” Haley said in Iowa City on Friday. “When it comes to the border, it truly is a dereliction of duty. I can’t believe we’re watching what’s happening in America right now.”
“I believe he will seal the border. And I think he will keep us out of wars and places we don’t need to be,” Scott Bates, a volunteer for the DeSantis campaign, said on Saturday in West Des Moines.
The former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, who registered the support of 1% of caucus-goers on the final final NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll held a town hall in Des Moines on Saturday evening and entertained questions on a range of issues including rebuilding trust in government, gun control and concerns about democracy.
Meanwhile, while Biden and Democrats are likely to make abortion a key issue in the generation election, it was lower on the list of priorities in Iowa.
“I would say a lot of the social policies are important, but I think that the economy and foreign policy trump those things,” Abbey Sindt, who is “fairly certain” she’s backing Haley, said in Ames on Sunday.
James Stone, 71, a retired technician from Cedar Rapids, said he would have preferred that the status quo that existed under Roe v Wade was still in effect. “I mean I feel for babies, but I think in all practicality it seems to have worked for a long time.” Stone said he initially supported Chris Christie, but now likely will caucus for DeSantis, who signed a six-week abortion ban into law as governor and has said he supports a 15-week abortion ban.
Amy Christen, 56, a special education teacher in Cedar Rapids backing DeSantis, said education was among one of her top concerns. “My biggest thing is education. I want kids to be educated and not indoctrinated. I’m tired of all the stuff they’re trying to push through. I want kids to be able to compete in the real world with like intelligence,” she said.
She added that she initially supported Donald Trump, because has since soured on him.
“My thought was OK, the economy was great, and maybe he could bring it back again. But then he hasn’t learned to keep his mouth shut when it should be. It would just be chaos again and I don’t want that.”
Joan E Greve contributed reporting from Ames and Chris Stein contributed reporting from West Des Moines.
