DAVENPORT, Iowa — Tens of thousands of Iowans will head to the caucuses Monday night to make the first major impact on the 2016 presidential election and what is motivating their votes will be as important as the final results.
In scores of interviews with voters in Eastern Iowa in the four days leading up to the caucuses, several themes emerged:
1. The Voters Are More Discouraged And Weary Than Angry
The rise of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump has led to much discussion of an angry, fearful American electorate, with some data supporting that.
But people interviewed here described their feelings in terms more like discouragement than anger. Those over age 60, both Democrats and Republicans, are worried that their children and grandchildren won’t have the same kind of life they did. In their words, this is not nostalgia, but an honest assessment of an America in which jobs are outsourced, careers fleeting and retirement pensions are increasingly non-existent.
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The voters under 50 were often experiencing this directly. Many had children who were struggling to find steady jobs or pay off college loans. Some were anxious about what they felt were excessive costs for things that they think all Americans should be entitled to, particularly affordable health care and college tuition.
“I’m middle class, I’m not struggling,” said Sue Clemens, a 65-year-old occupational therapist in Davenport who backed Clinton. “I pay my fair share, everybody ought to. I worry about my kids.”
She said she understood the appeal of Trump, noting, “There are a lot of rural areas in Iowa, there are so many people who just want a fair shake.”
Jonathan Neavor, a 32-year-old who lives in Davenport, said the idea of free college tuition, as Sanders proposes, has deep appeal to him, because he had stopped attending the University of Iowa because he and his family couldn’t afford it.
“I am still paying $100 a month for the year and half I was there,” said Neavor, who is backing Sanders.
He added, “I’m not a fan of late-stage capitalism. We should not be afraid of socialism, countries like Sweden are doing a lot better than us on a lot of things.”
Karene Nagel, a retired health care worker backing Sanders, said, “I have friends with two jobs looking for a third.”
At times, these worries seemed overstated. One Republican woman, who was attending a Trump rally in Clinton, Iowa, but said she was leaning towards Jeb Bush, described the struggles of her daughter and son-in-law to find jobs after the law school. She lamented paying for the couple’s housing and bar exam fees after they graduated and how they struggled to find legal jobs in Iowa.
After 10 minutes of listing the challenges, she concluded the story: her daughter and son-in-law had found jobs as lawyers in Washington, D.C. and were repaying their loans on time.
The angst of the voters here is telling, in that it is likely to be higher in other states. The jobless rate in Iowa is 3.4 percent, much lower than the 5.0 national average.
“I remember when this was a great country,” said 68-year-old Pat Toppins, who backed Trump. “Now, we don’t have any jobs. Our industrial base has been shipped out. Our health care industry is corrupt. Our children aren’t being educated. It’s almost as though this country has been abandoned.”
“We have fantastic technology, like Apple,” he said. “But all the jobs that build the technology are out of this country.”
2. Sanders And Trump Are Telling People What They Want To Hear
If you listen to their stump speeches in full, Sanders and Trump are often the gloomiest candidates running for president, at times ignoring the technological, racial and economic progress of the last 30 years.
But what voters here have digested are the headlines of those candidates’ speeches. Trump can make America great, they say, repeating his central talking point. Sanders can make childcare, health care and college essentially free, as he promises.
When pressed on how unrealistic these ideas are, Trump supporters refer to his business experience, arguing no traditional politician is as sharp as Trump. Sanders backers argue traditional Democrats like Clinton aren’t proposing ideas to make life better for the middle class, because they are too busy cozying up to the wealthy.
“Affordable child care would have revolutionized my life,” said 67-year-old Barbara Thompson of Davenport, who is backing Sanders.
She also noted that “I like getting the money out of politics,” another of Sanders’ goals that is very unlikely to happen.
“There’s so much corruption. Trump doesn’t need any of that, he doesn’t need the special interests,” said Chuck Michels, a 52-year-old carpenter supporting the real estate mogul.
3. College And Health Care Costs Are Big Issues
The Obama administration considers two of its biggest successes the Affordable Care Act and changes to college financial aid practices, such as increasing Pell Grants and streamlining the student loan process.
Voter after voter recited their struggles with high deductibles that left them wary of using their health insurance through Obamacare, and these were often Democrats who a minute earlier said President Obama had done an “exceptional” or “phenomenal” job as president.
“He quit going to the doctor after the first couple of visits. Everything was going to be out of pocket, so he couldn’t afford it,” said Clemens, referring to her son, who is 35.
Her son’s deductible is $6500 for his health insurance plan under the ACA, Clemens said.
Clemens said her son, who backed Obama in 2008, now “feels like Obama let him.”
“I told him this is not the bill that Obama wanted, it was what we could get done,” she said.
Clemens, who is backing Clinton, added, “I’m not entirely happy with Obamacare either.”
“If I got sick, I couldn’t afford to use it,” said 61-year-old Peggy Neavor, a supervisor at dry cleaner said of her health insurance, noting its high deductibles.
She backed Obama in 2008 and favored Sanders in this race.
4. The Trump Supporters Are Not All Working-Class People Or Those Wary of Immigration
Pat Toppins has bachelor and master’s degrees in philosophy, works in a white-collar job at a company that sells freight trucks and described how America is a “nation of immigrants.”
He is enthusiastically for Trump.









