Braley is only down six, yet trails with rural voters by 43% in what is a state with a sizable rural population. No matter how great Ernst supposedly is (she really isn't great), she's not going to win rural voters by that much. There is still plenty of room for Braley to win, it's not like he's going to only get 15% of rural voters, I don't think Democrats do that poorly among rural voters even in next door Nebraska.
I'm sure the MoE on a small subgroup like rural voters is pretty large. Anyone can pick a strange result in a crosstab subgroup in a poll to try to discredit it. Therefore, every poll is suspect if you don't want to believe it. Of course, that doesn't change the fact that this poll was conducted by what traditionally has been the gold standard of Iowa pollsters, which 538 rated an A+.
That being said, why should rural voters back the guy who denigrated Senator Grassley for being a farmer? Braley doesn't seem to be in touch with rural issues or voters.
