DES MOINES — Rep. Cindy Axne’s letter to Customs and Border Protection about African swine fever didn’t make national news. But it did prompt a “thank you” from a man with the Iowa Pork Association as Axne flipped pork burgers last week at the Iowa State Fair.

Attention to issues like that disease, which could threaten the country’s pork industry if it reached the U.S., is how first-term Democratic lawmakers like Axne are working to win reelection in 2020.

[Iowa culture shock: Moving to the Midwest to staff a presidential campaign]

Axne and fellow Iowa Democratic Rep. Abby Finkenauer are trying to stay laser-focused on local issues to prevail in districts President Donald Trump carried in 2016. Two of the 43 Democrats who flipped GOP-held seats in 2018, the pair made history as the first women to represent Iowa in the House. But they aren’t fixtures on cable news or in national headlines.

“I’m never going to be the person who’s going to make a headline over a Twitter post,” Finkenauer said in an interview at the fair. “But I’m going to be the person passing the bills and actually listening to my constituents and going back to Washington and making sure their voices are heard.”