As the conservative party sweeps the United Kingdom election, voters look toward Iowa for their Presidential nominees.
The United Kingdom has been a staunch ally of the United States for a long time. Fighting together for over a century, tensions between the countries have been near non existent. However, since the election of Donald Trump, leaders of both of the primary parties in the UK have had their qualms with the president. Following the previous prime minister’s resignation, the election had been long awaited by the UK.
While the incumbent conservative party was favored in the election, it served a crushing defeat to the liberal Labour Party. This demoralizing defeat has implications farther than just the United Kingdom.
This election was dubbed the Brexit election, due to the looking situation of the status of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. However, the election’s implications may stretch across continents.
The Labour party’s candidate, Jeremy Corbyn, led the party to its worst performance in over 80 years. Many attribute this to him being “too left” for the people. Many of Corbyn’s ideas are firmly rooted in leftist beliefs, and the people of the UK took strongly against it.
As the US election approaches steadily, one can only wonder if a similar result may occur here as well. The Democratic party has yet to decide on their presidential nominee, but the threat of losing due to picking a more left leaning candidate is not far fetched. Senior John Mendelin is passionate about politics in the US and has kept up with politics in the UK as well. “With the number of Democratic candidates across the field, the American left must rally behind a single candidate,” he said.
This election could influence Iowa voters as well. Due to the status of Iowa being the first state to caucus, Iowa Democrats have a choice to make between centrist and left candidates. In the past, Iowa’s decision has been a good measure of a candidate’s chance to win their presidential bid. “The Liberal Democrats are evidence that center-left politics are truly at fault when considering the poor performance of the Labour party during the UK general election,” said Mendelin.
Senior Kiran Marla is going to vote in the upcoming presidential election. “Having a candidate be too far in one direction could cause them to lose support from those towards the center of the political spectrum,” said Marla.
Conservatives are also heavily impacted by this result. President Trump and the elected prime minister of the UK, Boris Johnson, have been friends and share many similarities in their beliefs and ideals. While the situation in the UK was different due to Brexit, the US has many issues including their own immigration policies with which conservatives could rally behind. The election in the UK impacts the US heavily and could swing the way Iowa votes.
