DAVENPORT — Like many Democrats, Don Shipley was shocked when Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton.

Not nearly as surprising to Shipley, a 75-year-old retired truck driver and Vietnam veteran from Davenport, was that Trump, a Republican, won Iowa in 2016 after the state in the previous two elections went for Barack Obama.

If Democrats are to win back the areas they lost, particularly in Eastern Iowa, Shipley has a suggestion. “Look over the farmer, the working man and the elderly,” he said. “This is the working man’s area.”

Iowa’s Mississippi River counties were ground zero for a significant shift in the 2016 presidential election. Of the 10 Iowa counties on the river, nine went for Trump after having voted twice for Democratic President Barack Obama. Even the lone Democratic holdout, Scott County, went for Clinton over Trump by just 1 point. All told, Iowa had 31 so-called Obama-Trump counties — the most of any state in the nation.

How those counties vote in 2020 — whether they remain Republican, or swing back to Democratic — could play a role in the outcome of the November 2020 election.

Based on discussions with Iowans throughout the state’s Mississippi River counties, the jury remains out as to where ground zero for those 2016 swing counties will land in 2020.

Some feel the region is trending politically toward Republicans. Others feel Democrats can win back those counties with the right candidate and message. Others remain befuddled, leaving open the possibility that November 2020 could deliver another shock to Democrats, similar to the one Shipley felt after the last election.

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“I was more than surprised,” Shipley said. “I darn near almost drowned myself.”

Temporary swing or permanent shift?

There were 206 Obama-Trump counties in 34 states in 2016. Iowa’s 31 Obama-Trump counties were more than any other state; Wisconsin was next with 23.

The largest concentration of Obama-Trump counties was along the Mississippi River in Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. Iowa’s 10 Obama-Trump counties along the Mississippi were joined on the river’s eastern banks by five Wisconsin counties and six in Illinois.

Some of the political pendulum swings would have destroyed a grandfather clock. Jackson County, the starkest example, swung by 36 points — Obama beat Mitt Romney there by 17 points in 2012, and Trump beat Clinton there by 19 points in 2016.

Eastern Iowa voters clearly have displayed a willingness to latch onto a presidential candidate regardless of political affiliation. The question is whether 2016 signaled the beginning of a permanent shift toward a more conservative lean, if those voters remain in President Donald Trump’s corner, or if 2020 will be yet another change election in the region.

Jennifer Smith, a former local Republican Party chairwoman and current state party central committee member from Dubuque County, said her sense is that those voters who swung to Trump in 2016 are ready to give the president another four years.

A 17-point swing gave Republicans a presidential victory there for the first time since 1956 — the reelection of Dwight Eisenhower.

“What I’ve been hearing is those who voted for Trump, the vast majority, are still very in favor of him. And those that switched are not regretting it,” Smith said. “I’m also hearing an increase in people who didn’t necessarily support him, but are interested in supporting him this round.”

To the north, Allamakee County swung by 29 points in 2016, and Lori Egan fears it’s not going to swing back.

“I don’t know that that pendulum is going to swing back. I just really don’t,” said Egan, a co-chair of the Allamakee County Democrats. “I really don’t get a sense from people that they are dissatisfied with the way things are going.”

Other Democrats have not lost hope for their cause. They believe the right candidate — roughly two dozen Democrats have been barnstorming Iowa in hopes of earning the right to face off against Trump next year — can win back those voters who left the party or stayed home in 2016.

“It all depends on who the candidate is,” said Jim Mellick, a lawyer from Waukon in Allamakee County, and a Democratic voter. “If it’s the right candidate, (swing voters) will definitely go back. There’s a lot of people here really fed up with Trump.”

Shipley said Democrats have a chance to win back working-class Iowans. He said the Democratic candidate should focus on jobs and the economy, but also on staple issues like health care and veterans affairs. Shipley said Democrats can convince working-class voters that Trump has not delivered on his 2016 campaign promises.

“Everything Trump said he’s going to do for the working man, he hasn’t done,” Shipley said.

Some in the area feel conflicted about Trump’s presidency. Tony Arguello, a self-described independent voter from Scott County, praised Trump’s handling of the economy and his diplomatic efforts with North Korea, but was critical of other aspects of Trump’s administration.

Arguello said he “can’t agree with the way immigrants are being treated” and thinks Trump has “done everything he can do not to get reelected.”

WHAT KIND OF Democratic nominee?

Democrats agree they must nominate the candidate who is best-equipped to defeat Trump. Where they differ is not only who that candidate is, but what type of candidate he or she should be. Should Democrats nominate a moderate or centrist? Or should they nominate a more progressive or liberal candidate?

Republicans, on the other hand, were in far more agreement when it came to which Democrat they feel has the best shot at beating Trump: Joe Biden.

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“I think Joe Biden might be the biggest problem for (Trump), or the most challenging for him,” said Smith, of Dubuque County.

Smith said Biden is well-known because of his decades in politics, and she thinks voters would find Biden likable, which she thinks would present a challenge to Trump, who she acknowledged “is very polarizing and upsets people.”

Still, Smith believes Trump would beat Biden.

One thing Democrats agree on is that their candidate needs to well-organized. They said their party’s candidate must be active in states like Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. An enduring criticism of Clinton’s campaign is that she did not spend sufficient time campaigning in those states, particularly Wisconsin and Michigan.

“People didn’t like being taken for granted,” said Jim West, a 72-year-old retired maintenance worker from Clinton. “If you have a vast grass roots program that reaches out to teachers, plumbers, welders and others, you feel like you’re part of a bigger program that’s going somewhere.”

Joleen Jansen, a business owner, county energy district program manager and two-time county supervisor candidate in Clayton County, said a presidential campaign with the right kind of grass roots organization can win back rural Iowa simply by being present and in touch with voters there.

Another Obama-Trump river county, Clayton County swung 29 points to Republicans in 2016.

Jansen said the Obama campaigns offered a prime example of that kind of organization and voter contact, and credited this cycle’s campaigns of Elizabeth Warren and John Delaney as two examples that have made similar efforts.

“A well-organized candidate (can say to rural voters), ‘You are somebody. We recognize you. Clayton County is important, and I am here and here’s my office. ... I see you as a human and I see you as relevant to my recipe for success,’” Jansen said.

A SWING DISTRICT IN BOTH DIRECTIONS

Patti Ruff is among the befuddled about 2020. Ruff is a Democratic former legislator from McGregor who represented Clayton County for two terms before being defeated in 2016.

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Speaking more broadly about Iowa’s 1st Congressional District — which contains the four northernmost swing river counties, plus others with huge 2016 swings, like Worth (37 points), Mitchell (27) and Howard (42) along the Minnesota border — Ruff was unable to explain the region’s political swings.

The 20-county 1st District went for both Obama and Trump. And in the 2018 midterm, Democratic state legislator Abby Finkenauer was able to unseat two-term Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Rod Blum.

“I can’t explain how you can go from Obama to Trump and yet select Abby Finkenauer,” Ruff said. “It just seems out of whack.”