met with voters in Dubuque and promised to improve the economy for all Americans, not just, as she put it, those with money in the stock market.

Meanwhile, former congressman Beto O’Rourke of Texas — who kicked off his candidacy in March with a tour of Obama-Trump counties along the Mississippi River — held a town hall in Clinton County, which Obama won with 60 percent of the vote in 2012 and Trump won with 48 percent of the vote in 2016, a year when voter turnout declined. In 2018, voters picked Democrats for the top two races on the ballot.

Former vice president Joe Biden has planned four town halls in the eastern part of the state for Tuesday and Wednesday, including two in Obama-Trump counties. Biden has mostlyin the Democratic primaries. But Democratic leaders in eastern Iowa caution that candidates should not forget the general election as they search for votes in the caucuses and primaries.

Kelcey Brackett, the Muscatine County Democratic Party chairman, noted that his county, like much of Iowa, has a high number of independent voters who refuse to align with a party, consider many politicians to be corrupt and would rather have an elected leader who is blunt and honest than politically correct. Obama won Muscatine County in 2012 with 57 percent of the vote, and Trump won in 2016 with 49 percent. Turnout was similar both years. In November, voters here picked the incumbent Democratic congressman, David Loebsack, and the Republican governor, Kim Reynolds.

Many of the Obama-Trump voters who Brackett knows