44 Comments

Not surprised at the granny vote. They lived through teenage terror of unexpected pregnancy before reliable birth control

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Iowans are good people. They won't be fooled again.

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I LOVE your reporting, partly because it's lovely commentary of the news, but also because y'all speak my language, using the all purpose word in my, and your, vocabulary. I'm so glad I found you and I'll definitely be following you (obnoxiously) closely on Tuesday.

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I’m a “senior” Iowa woman, veteran, retired doctor. We moved here back in the Blue days. It seemed to change when Iowa judges ruled in favor of gay marriage. There was a big movement to purge those judges and stop letting our state move forward. At least that is our interpretation of what happened. Tom Harkin, our Democratic Senator stepped down and Bruce Braley lost the election to Joni Ernst. We have a Republican governor, 2 Republican US senators, and Republican controlled state legislature. I was encouraged by our most recent local election results for mayor, city council, and sheriff. We have watched the school voucher and cuts in free school lunches and now a 6 week abortion ban. I think a lot of the people weren’t paying attention for a long time and let this crap happen. They are paying attention now thanks to the groundwork of our team. Thank them for the progress.

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I shared this with an eighty year old friend. This is her response -

That was a great read! Six or seven of us are gathering at a friends house on election night. The oldest in our group is 93. I might actually be the youngest at 80. Don’t piss off old women!!

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Margaret Mead: "There is no greater power in the world than the zest of a postmenopausal woman."

We old women:

1. Fought to end the Vietnam war

2. Fought to GET abortion rights in the first place

3. Remember damn well how things used to be when we were growing up

4. Have some extra time now, probably a little money, and a lot of passion, and more energy than men our age

5. Outnumber men in our age range

6. Are basically invisible in this male-centric culture because women are primarily only valued for their sexual value

SO: I've been saying it for a while. We are the NINJAS that they did NOT see coming, and we are ANGRY. We have fought for our rights all our lives. We have a lot of practice and we still have a lot of fight left in us.

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Many of us oldsters remember our history too. Remember WWII ? Nazis ? Ring a bell? They were great at lying to your face and sending you to the camp or...the oven. Roe v Wade's overturn is just the start if Fuhrer Trump gets in.

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Ann Selzer isn't playing here. She only polls Iowa because she knows the state like the back of her hand. Selzer spends money and time making certain her polls are sound snapshots. What is amazing is the movement she found of older white women and to some extent older white men. This is likely a phenomenon playing out across the midwest. Does not mean Harris will will Iowa, but maybe she will make a decent showing in Iowa, maybe even Missouri, where Kunce is looking to defeat Hawley (I lived in MO until this past summer, so Hawley's defeat is personal for me). I still think Hawley will unfortunately win. Still, I trust the trends Selzer uncovered.

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I'm waiting to see who Iowans send back to the house. That'll tell us a lot about how red Iowa is.

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Remember how Alito, in the Dobbs decision, wrote “women are not without electoral or political power"? Here we come!

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Iowa was one of the first states to legalize gay marriage. They were before Minnesota.

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That's right! A number of my friends went there to marry! From Wisconsin.

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You really ought to give Iowa a try.

(Provided you are contrary...)

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Excellent! I was born in Illinois but worked and played in Iowa. Unfortunately I’m now in Republican Texas. Hoping we can follow this lead!!

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I did not have Iowa on my Dobbs reaction election bingo card, but I am happy to add the state.

My prediction as an older Kansan female (and based on red state Kansas experience) Harris/Walz by 4 plus % in the blue wall states, plus Georgia, North Carolina, probably Arizona, and maybe Iowa. And Collin Allred removes the creep Rafael Cruz from our lives. I am beginning to think Texas and Florida may be in play in other ways. I particularly hope that Florida removes Sen. Scott/Skeletor from our lives as well. And Jon Tester squeaks out a win (as is his history) over a rich, carpetbagging, lying, white Republican frat boy.

This is the Dobbs reaction election. The only reason the polling is close is because they always ignore, undercount and generally don't care about the womens.

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If Iowa can be flipped, maybe Gilead Texas and Florida can be too. C’mon women, throw out those republican bastards who’s dragging us back to the 1900’s.

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Texas is not really that right wing; it’s just 30 years of republican mismanagement and the recent rise of extremism coupled with an earlier era of history that movies used to romanticize rather than show in brutal honesty have left behind a legacy of voter suppression that only an overwhelming repudiation at the ballot box will begin to reverse. And many are convinced it’s somehow fair or desirable to limit turnout, which might be a result or at least a goal of Shelby.

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Notwithstanding the common knowledge that the GOP fully knows it only wins when people don’t vote

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Your first mistake was thinking we’re just a bunch of old ladies.

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Yeah!! And what exactly is the matter with being over 65?

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Not one thing, girlfriend.

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