Discussing abortion, immigration enforcement, and education, about 200 combined Republicans and Democrats gathered in Sioux City venues for off-year county party caucuses on Monday evening.
The Republicans drew about 100 people in three city schools, for a typical Republican off-year caucus attendance, while the 100 Democrats who took part was more than usual, party officials recapped for Siouxland Public Media News.
“The turnout was better than I expected,” said Suzan Stewart, a Woodbury County Republican Central Committee official.
“What you had was a level of hard-core, not even hard-core, but committed Republicans, who went out of their way to show up last night. You know, these are the people who are going to vote Republican, almost without fail. They seemed very committed to the party and moving ahead.”
Both parties picked county central committee members, local delegates for the upcoming county conventions in March and discussed policy platforms, as they look ahead to the November general election with county, state and federal contests on the ballot.
Anti-abortion initiatives were a top issue for the Republicans who turned out. When it came to Democrats discussing platform issues, Woodbury County Democratic Party Chairman Ryan Akerberg said they don’t want to use public taxes for private schools and want to ramp down the overzealous immigration raids.
“People are really, really, really scared about the immigration situation,” Akerberg said.
“The reality is, people are scared for their neighbors. And these aren’t people who are illegal immigrants. These are people who are American citizens, who are afraid to go to doctor appointments, afraid to go to church, because they have brown skin.”
Akerberg said 10 attendees registered to become Democrats, including some who were former Republicans.
“We do have momentum on our side now,” he asserted.
On top of the 100 who turned out for the three city caucus spots, a few more Woodbury County Republicans took part in rural venues, Stewart noted.
There are more registered Republicans than Democrats in Iowa.
