Democrats target working-class voters in Iowa and Montana
6/1/202619 min
To win control of Congress, Democrats need to win rural and working-class voters in traditionally Republican strongholds. We discuss the party’s strategies in two states with primary elections on Tuesday, Iowa and Montana.
This episode: voting correspondent Miles Parks, political reporter Stephen Fowler, and rural affairs correspondent Kirk Siegler.
This podcast was produced by Casey Morell and Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye.
Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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Miles Parks· Host0:18
[upbeat music] Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Miles Parks. I cover voting.
Stephen Fowler· Panelist0:27
I'm Steven Fowler. I cover politics.
Miles Parks· Host0:29
And NPR's Kirk Siegler is also here with us. Hi, Kirk.
Kirk Siegler· Panelist0:32
Hello, guys.
Miles Parks· Host0:33
Thanks for being here. So today on the show, Democrats need to win back rural and working-class voters if they wanna have a shot at retaking Congress this November. So today, we're gonna talk about two states that have primaries tomorrow where they're trying to do that, Iowa and Montana. So let's start with Iowa, Steven, where you were just on a reporting trip, reporting from a congressional district there. Talk to me about the pitch that Democrats are making.
Stephen Fowler· Panelist0:56
Miles, it's kind of this two-pronged approach here. Uh, obviously, the national political environment is not great for Republicans. Uh, there's a lot of dissatisfaction with Trump administration policies, uh, that are especially salient in Iowa, talking about things like tariffs and the war in Iran that's led to high fertilizer prices for farmers. But, uh, really the strategy they're also doing is tying it to Republican control at the state and local level. Uh, I went to the Iowa 1st Congressional District