Sunday, January 31, 2016

An Iowa Primer

Wall Street Journal:

The red are the rural religious conservative areas.  A little bit about a county I've featured a few times here, Sioux County, where farmland sold for $20,000 an acre a few years back:
Sioux County, where evangelical Christians are a higher percentage of the population than anywhere else in the state, is also Iowa’s most Republican. No Democratic presidential candidate has won more than 20% of the popular vote in a general election since Michael Dukakis in 1988. Mr. Cruz will need to run up big margins here if he hopes to topple Mr. Trump.
The Journal notes that the red counties are more religious, with fewer college graduates and lower incomes.  Oddly, that is considered an area of strength for Princeton and Harvard Law graduate Ted Cruz, the candidate married to a Goldman Sachs investment manager.  Sure, Ted's dad is a preacher, but there isn't much rural about old Ted.  Strikingly, Trump also does well with these folks.  I just don't get it.

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