“A week is a long time in politics.” It’s a phrase both politicians and journalists like to use when they want to avoid giving a firm answer to a question, but still want to sound smart. But this year there really was a week that fit that description. On Saturday, July 20, President Joe Biden […]
Deidre Dejear
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‘I don’t know how much higher we can go’: Rita Hart on an energizing DNC and the party’s future in Iowa
The contrast between the 2020 Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee and this year’s convention in Chicago could not be greater. In Milwaukee, activities were kept to a minimum and social distancing between participants was the rule, due to the then-poorly controlled COVID-19 pandemic. This year, the floor of the United Center is packed, and the […]
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Hoping to harness enthusiasm for the new Harris campaign, Democrats plan ‘Iowans for Kamala’ Zoom call on Monday night
Over the course of the dozen days since President Joe Biden withdrew from 2024 presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, the Harris campaign has shown unprecedented momentum. During the first three weeks of July, fundraising for the then-Biden/Harris campaign cratered, but that changed after it became the Harris campaign, blowing past Donald Trump’s […]
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Election 2022: Johnson County remains a Democratic stronghold, as Republicans sweep to victories statewide
Johnson County remained a bright spot for Iowa Democrats on Tuesday, even as Republicans dominated Election Day statewide. Every Democrat in a statewide race carried the county by a large margin, even as they were defeated by Republicans. The only possible exception to that pattern is the Auditor of State race, which was still too […]
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Election 2022: Gov. Reynolds wins reelection; Iowa GOP bans KCRG from its victory party
Less than five minutes after the polls closed on Tuesday, the Associated Press declared Gov. Kim Reynolds had won reelection, defeating Democrat Deidre DeJear and Libertarian Rick Stewart. Within minutes, Reynolds herself had declared victory in a tweet. THANK YOU! pic.twitter.com/RzyKil67hT — Kim Reynolds (@KimReynoldsIA) November 9, 2022 As rapid as it was, the AP’s […]
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Democrats discuss obstacles ahead of ‘revolutionary’ midterm election
“We’ve been working hard. You’ve been working hard. All the candidates have been working really hard,” Mike Franken told the people gathered at the Iowa City Masonic Building for the Johnson County Democratic Party’s “Get Out the Vote” event on Friday night. “There’s more to do. But in the end, this is going to be […]
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Advocates, candidates gather to discuss cannabis legalization — ‘This is a winning issue’
Both the setting of the meeting, a hotel conference room in Des Moines on a Saturday morning, and the average age of attendees, over 50, were standard for Iowa politics. The subject matter, however, wasn’t. “This is probably the first public event since at least the 1970s in Iowa for anybody to have a serious […]
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New Iowa Poll finds Franken almost tied with Grassley, Reynolds still far ahead of DeJear
Over the weekend, the Des Moines Register published the results of a new Iowa Poll on the two big races in the Nov. 8 general election. The reported results show the Republican incumbents still lead their Democratic challengers, but in the case Iowa’s longest-serving senator, that lead continues to get smaller. Mike Franken is now […]
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Deidre DeJear, facing funding gaps and racist jabs in her quest to defeat Gov. Reynolds, says ‘Iowa is worth the work’
Deidre DeJear worked on her first campaign while she was still in high school. Her grandmother, Mattie Washington, was running for a seat on the Election Commission in Yazoo County, Mississippi, and a young Deidre Howard spent the summer of her sophomore year helping with the campaign. Washington already had a long history as a […]
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Have incumbents met their match? An overview of the statewide races on Iowans’ midterm ballots
It’s a truism of American politics that with rare exceptions, incumbents always have a big advantage in an election. And nowhere is that truism truer than Iowa. Chuck Grassley has been in the U.S. Senate longer than all but one of his colleagues — Democratic Patrick Leahy, who is retiring this year — and longer […]
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Biden issues pardon for simple possession of marijuana convictions; DeJear promises to ‘legalize cannabis in Iowa’ as governor
On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced “a pardon of all prior Federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana.” “There are thousands of people who have prior Federal convictions for marijuana possession, who may be denied employment, housing, or educational opportunities as a result,” the president said in his statement announcing the pardon. “My action will […]
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‘We can do better, because we’ve done better’: Deidre DeJear on Iowa’s future, LGBTQ rights, abortion access and legalizing cannabis
“I just want to get back to basics,” Deidre DeJear told the people gathered on the fifth floor patio of the Chauncey on Thursday evening, in response to a question about what her first three priorities would be if elected governor. The Democratic nominee named funding public education, guaranteeing the right to choose an abortion […]
