COUNCIL BLUFFS — Republicans have added a net of 3,651 new voters to their rolls in the past month, according to the secretary of state, a number that will surely grow tonight as voters register at their caucus sites.
That gain is huge, 34 percent higher than the Democrats’ gain. Republicans now outnumber Democrats by 30,000 in the state where they trailed four years ago at caucus time.
Who are these new Republicans? Many are Donald Trump supporters come in from the cold. Jim, a local business owner, is caucusing for the first time, and registering as a Republican for the first time. He’s a Trump supporter, he tells me, “because I’m sick of all the b**ls**t.”
Bob and Brenda Krivanek of Council Bluffs caucused as Democrats 8 years ago, supporting Biden. This time around they’re undecided between Chris Christie and Trump for Bob and Christie and Rand Paul for Brenda. Eight years ago they were Joe Biden supporters, and they withheld their votes after he was ruled unviable in their precinct (he had below 15 percent). The Krivaneks were never Obama supporters, and they told me they would never consider backing Hillary Clinton.
Brian Jacobsen and his wife Ann Jacobsen voted for Obama in 2008 because, “We believed him,” he said. “Here we are eight years later and we’re tons worse off.” Jacobsen works in law enforcement, and he believes Obama has called “open season on police.”
Jacobsen’s hope-and-change-to-Trump trajectory is one I found across the state. Voters who believed in the promise of Obama, and were disappointed. They now turn to Trump who is similar (in that he promises overarching change) and totally different (in that he seems outside of politics instead of a master of politics).
But many party switchers are more traditional conservatives.
Ruth Herber in rural Emmetsburg doesn’t know whom she will back this year, but it will be a Republican. “We were Democrats for years and years,” she says over lunch at Pizza Ranch. But Democrats’ abortion extremism changed her mind.
Gabriela Magana is a Mexican immigrant caucusing as a Republican for the first time. In 2008 caucused for Democrats “mostly because most of my friends were.” She ended up not backing anyone after it was whittled down to Edwards, Hillary and Obama. Democrats’ abortion extremism drove her away. This time around, she’s leaning strongly towards Rubio, she told me Saturday in Sioux City.
Timothy P. Carney, The Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
