Conservative Iowa Voters Favor Trump

Conservative Iowa Voters Favor Trump

By Gloria Coleman

The election is still happening, with many people opting to vote with mail-in ballots because of COVID-19 and personal preferences.

Among viewers of NBC News in the early stages of the evening, when the electoral votes were Biden with 131 and Trump with 98, there was a lot of excitement. From the Trump supporters, there was a great deal of tension, while from the Biden supporters there was huge excitement but also tension. At 9:40 p.m. CT, Iowa itself was 57.7 percent to Biden while only 40.7 percent to Trump, according to The Associated Press’s live stream of the Presidential Results. Due to the recent projection of Trump taking Iowa, this was a surprise to some people.

Iowa has a big Trump-devoted base, but this is still not conclusive for who will be voted in by their electoral vote. The reason for this, according to the New York Times, is because to most of the voters there, “Mr. Biden is seen as someone who wants to govern; Mr. Trump is seen as someone who wants to perform.”

How it went

At 10:35 pm CT the Associated Press showed that Trump was ahead in Iowa. 50.3 percent of the state heading to him and 48 percent to Biden. This was a little expected, considering that Iowa is mostly a conservative state. In the 2016 election, Trump won the state with 51.1 percent over Hillary Clinton, who had a vote of 41.7 percent. Because of this, many people also think that Iowa is one of the states to vote for Trump again in this 2020 election.

The race for Iowa was called by The Associated Press at 5.43 AM ET, with 92 percent of the reported votes in. Trump won this state by 52.7 percent, followed by Biden trailing with a 45.4 percent vote. This was one of the major swing states, according to the New York Times. A swing state is one state that people need to keep close eye on and could sway the election itself. Obviously, it was not as important as Pennsylvania or Georgia, for which the results are still being awaited.

Iowa is generally purple, which means in 2 of the 4 elections, they vote Democrat, but in the other elections, they vote Republican. Florida and Ohio are also in this category based on the past four elections, the 2004-2016 presidential elections.

With Iowa already announced, the people wait on the vote-counting in the few swing states left. Then the new president will finally be announced, and the mayhem will continue.

Homeschooler in the Real World

Emma Folts, a sophomore at Wheaton College, shares her experience about her transition into college and how homeschool has both helped and hindered her.
How has your homeschool experience benefitted you, especially in your transition into college?
I think the one thing that homeschooling did that was really helpful as I entered college was that it taught me time management. As a homeschooler I had the same freedom as a college student has to put things off during the day and go see a friend instead. Since I had that experience, I knew the cost of that.
Also, personal responsibility and accountability with assignments. I feel like a lot of the other students had more expectations for gentler grading and that the professor would give them retakes or extensions, but that wasn’t something that ever happened to me in school. That learning curve wasn’t added because I never had it the other way. I think another thing was that because I was homeschooled, I was familiar with the format of teaching and then studying on my own.
Did you see any issues with your transition socially?
I think that homeschooling had two ramifications for me socially. One was helpful, one was hurtful.
It was really helpful because as a homeschooler, I had spent a lot of time realizing and developing who I was as a person and learning to recognize people who were being themselves, and those were the people I sought out as friends. Friendship as a homeschooler takes a lot more investment. I knew I was choosier with my friends which made me a lot less anxious and a lot more content.
The only real negative impact of the social bit was that I was really used to getting to choose the time I got to spend with people. As a homeschooler I spent a lot of time with people, but that time was controlled by me. As a college student, I found that you can’t really control the time you spend with people and alone time is not really available. Learning to deal with that was a lot harder than anticipated.
Any last comments on homeschool and how it has affected your college experience?
I think homeschooling is really helpful, however it does take a slightly increased amount of advocacy with your peers when you’re entering into college. I think a lot of people come in with certain assumptions about homeschool, especially students. You’re going to get a lot of, ‘oh my gosh, you don’t seem like a homeschooled person!’ [You can’t] take that too personally and explain your experience so that friends can understand it’s an important piece of you, though it might not look like the homeschooling that they’ve seen.
My encouragement to anyone who is a homeschooler transitioning into college is to realize the benefit that you have having been homeschooled, and to realize that the bit of advocacy and explaining that you need to do with your peers is totally normal and that it’s not a big deal. Once they understand your experience, it’s not something I’ve experienced being looked down on for.