When Des Moines resident Hunter Suckle thinks about the 2024 election, the word ‘trepidation’ comes to mind.
Des Moines — Most Americans are already feeling apprehensive about a 2024 rematch between President Joe Biden and GOP front-runner Donald Trump. Iowans are no different.
Despite Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus status in the GOP nominating calendar, many Republican-leaning Des Moines residents shopping for groceries Saturday afternoon said they’re unenthusiastic about their electoral options this cycle. None of them said they are committed to caucusing Monday evening.
Larry Sime says the unimpressive list of candidates and Des Moines’ subzero forecast may keep him home on caucus night. But if he does end up braving the cold, he definitely won’t be rallying around the 45th president: “Anybody but Trump. I’d vote for a monkey before him,” he told National Review in a Des Moines Hy-Vee.
Another potential Iowa caucus participant Paul Boss cites similar concerns with the polarizing 77-year-old former president and likely 2024 nominee, whose approval rating, like Biden’s, clocked in at around 40 percent in a new Gallup survey released this week. If Trump locks up the GOP nomination, he’ll continue to divide his time between court rooms and the campaign trail as he battles 91 charges across four criminal indictments.
And it’s not just his legal troubles that turn some Republicans away. “He thinks he’s bigger and better than everybody,” Boss said. He likes Florida governor Ron DeSantis, whose Iowa-based campaign is polling below 20 percent among Republicans here, but says the weather may keep him home since he’d have to travel by bus.
Democrats feel just as apprehensive about 2024. Laurie Keller of Des Moines says she and her daughter feel completely “burned out” with respect to politics. She’s completely unimpressed by Biden, 81, whose approval rating hasn’t recovered since his administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. She says she can’t name a single Democrat who is running against him in the presidential primary.
“His age is worrisome to me and whoever he would run with,” Keller told National Review as she shopped for groceries Saturday afternoon. “Kamala wasn’t super impressive over the last few years either so I’m just not impressed by anything politically, and I don’t know that I’ll go to the caucus. I might not even vote.”
Iowa has trended much redder in recent cycles, prompting the Democratic National Committee to strip the state of its first-in-the-nation status in the party’s presidential calendar this cycle. Former President Barack Obama’s 2012 victory here now feels like a distant memory.
Beyond Iowa, some recent head-to-head surveys suggest Biden is underperforming Trump in key battleground states roughly a year out from Election Day — polling the president dismisses out of hand. “You’re reading the wrong polls,” Biden told reporters last month.
Biden’s campaign has sought to distract from his own dismal approval rating by characterizing the 2024 election as a referendum on Trump and democracy. That strategy may already be falling flat with some voters.
When Hunter Sunkle thinks about the 2024 election, the word “trepidation” comes to mind. “Seems very muddled the past two elections, both of them got claims of election interference, election fraud if that happens again it would very unhealthy for the country,” he says. He typically votes for Democrats but tells National Review the party “keeps kicking out everyone I really like,” citing former congresswoman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard as his ideal 2024 candidate. He says it’s still “kind of early” but will probably vote for the Republican presidential nominee in November.