Analysis: Why Is Iowa a Purple State?

What factors make Iowa in play for both Republicans and Democrats?

Iowa, “the Hawkeye State,” is famous for its role as the gatekeeper in American presidential elections, both during the primaries and the general election. A strong showing in its caucuses—which are the first to be held each election season—can propel a candidate to the head of the pack, while a lackluster one can spell an end for Oval Office ambitions. More importantly for this piece, however, Iowa also has the honor of being on the ever-debated list of “swing states,” or states that are up for electoral grabs for both political parties.

It is just about certain that come 2020 Democratic hopefuls will spend much of their time in this state, as every candidate has done in the past. What’s uncertain for many, though, is why exactly Iowa is considered a swing state in the first place. Unlike cut-and-dry electoral situations like deep blue California and dark red Idaho, Iowa is much more complicated.

Iowa’s status as a swing state is actually relatively recent; Iowa has only been seen as “in play” since the late 1980’s, having voted Republican in the vast majority of elections since it gained its statehood in 1846. From 1988 through 2016, Democrats have won six out of eight total presidential contests. This means that in order to provide a satisfactory explanation towards Iowa’s “purple” standing, we have to explore the state’s past in detail.

Iowa began as a territory, with growth fueled primarily by American Westward expansion. Unlike many of its fellow Midwestern territories and states, however, Iowa harbored less resentment towards immigrants and advertised itself across the globe as the premier destination for foreigners to start a new life. One such campaign was “Iowa: The Home for Immigrants,” which was translated into a litany of languages. This effort was extremely successful, and Iowa ballooned from a territory with about 40,000 citizens in 1840 to nearly 2,000,000 in 1890; more than 320,000 of those people were foreign-born, and that doesn’t include the hundreds of thousands that had come in decades prior and became naturalized.