Dateline: Nov 7

As the midterm elections loom in the US, Dateline reporter Amos Roberts discovers many of the working class voters who put Donald Trump in the White House are now having second thoughts.

Voters in this district backed Barack Obama twice, but swung heavily to Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential election.

Jerry, a swing voter and retiree who worked in the manufacturing industry, tells Dateline, “We liked what he said. I liked the change – but I didn’t think it would be that drastic in the way it’d come. He is doing exactly what he said. But the way he is going about it, treating people like dirt, I don’t like the way it’s happening”.

As an antidote to Trump’s populism, Democrats are pinning their hopes on candidates who are down-to-earth and more in touch with local needs.

Twenty-nine-year old Democrat candidate Abby Finkenauer could become the youngest woman to enter Congress, and for her, politics is personal. “They said the state house would be too tough for a young lady. A ‘girl’ still paying off her student loans wasn’t tough enough to beat a millionaire [her opponent] for Congress. Well I say, ‘”Watch me’”. Abby is challenging incumbent Republican Congressman Rod Blum, self-made millionaire, in Iowa’s first district. Early polls indicate that she has a good chance of winning.

The Democrats need to flip 23 seats to take control of the House of Representatives, and if that happens they’ll have the power to block Trump’s agenda.

Dateline goes beyond the party politics to talk to the Midwest voters who will determine the outcome of this election.

Voters like Jeff Schmitt, a fourth generation farmer, who stands to lose millions because of the trade war between the US and China. Despite the personal cost, Jeff remains a staunch Republican and Trump supporter. “I voted for Donald Trump mainly because I didn’t see him as a politician. He’s a businessman. If you are going to run a country, everything kind of comes back to business. I think in the long-term, we will be better off. We just have to be able to weather the storm as they say”.

Mayor of Monticello and a former Republican Brian Wolken and his hard-core Republican father Richard Wolken reflect how America’s political divide is affecting families along generational lines.

“It wasn’t really until I took a gap year after college and travelled that my views really started to sway towards the Democratic Party,” Brian tells Dateline. “He [Donald Trump] is my president. I respect him but he’s just a loose cannon. He’s got the country divided. Trump is way too extreme. I think we definitely need to get him in check”.

But it’s not just disillusioned Trump voters like Brian and Jerry who could sway the results in the mid-terms; young voters from the state’s many colleges could also hold the key. Iowa has one of the highest percentages of college educated voters.

Next Gen America is an organisation running the largest youth voter turnout operation in the country. Katie Brennan, their regional organising director reveals, “Young people are the largest voting block in the US. Unfortunately, they vote at half the rate of other age groups. Getting people to realise that we do actually have the power, and we do need to be engaged and involved is incredibly important”.

How will they decide to vote at the midterms on 6 November?

Tuesday, 6 November at 9.30pm on SBS.