Iowa

[Cubby]

I remember someone on these boards said that Iowa has a lot of Unionized Farmers, which is a rare thing but would explain the state's leftward tendencies.

Does anyone know why Sioux County, Iowa is always extremely Republican in presidential elections? On the maps it always stands out from its surrounding area, which is also GOP territory but not as strongly. It has voted 70%+ GOP in every election since 1952! Senator PBrunsell? There must be something about Sioux County that sets it apart.

[Cubby]

Sioux County is extremely Dutch

Okay but are they Amish or something? You're probably right because there was a county in Nebraska (Saline I think) that always voted Democrat, even in Republican landslides, and when I looked it up I found that it had a large Hungarian population. I guess different European ethnicities vote different ways in the midwest.

[Cubby]

Sioux County is extremely Dutch

Okay but are they Amish or something? You're probably right because there was a county in Nebraska (Saline I think) that always voted Democrat, even in Republican landslides, and when I looked it up I found that it had a large Hungarian population. I guess different European ethnicities vote different ways in the midwest.

I live kind of close to there. The answer is they are not Amish, but they mostly belong to ultra-conservative Calvinist sects. That place is kind of like another world. Pretty much all businesses closed on Sundays. Not a single bar or liquor store in the entire county. Much similar to the ultra-conservative parts of the Netherlands (yes, they exist) that vote for theocratic parties.

As for the original post, it's basically comes down to the eastern part of the state still being populist and voting on economics like Northeastern Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin, and that unlike the states to its west, the larger cities are still fairly liberal. They're certainly not Minneapolis or Madison (except Iowa City of course), but definately far to the left of Omaha, Wichita or Sioux Falls.

Thanks BRTD, I never would have been able to find out that info

I once had neighbors from Iowa. They were the first Lutherans I ever met.

[Cubby]

I'm Lutheran and so are about 40% of the people I know. I'm kind of suprised whenever people outside the Midwest think Lutherans are pretty rare, I keep forgetting that almost all of us in the US are here.

Another thing is that plenty of people outside the Midwest think all Lutherans are ultra-conservative, which is largely true outside of the Midwest, Scandinavia and parts of Germany, but it's definately not true of the majority.

They were the first Lutherans that I knew about, I might have known others. And, as a Catholic, most Protestant sects are not that different from one another. I just thought Lutherans were a mainstream branch of Protestantism.

By the way I felt the same way growing up, I used to think we were a majority Catholic country, because there are so many around here. And I knew a lot of Jewish kids, I went to two Bar Mitzvahs.