(Radio Iowa) — Iowa is again among the small group of battleground states that may decide this year’s presidential election. David Schultz is the author of “Presidential Swing States: Why Only Ten Matter” — and he puts Iowa is that group. “It has been a state where both Republicans and Democrats have been competitive and actually over the last 40 years, Republican presidential nominees and Democratic presidential nominees have actually won the state,” Schultz says.

Over the past 40 years. Republican candidates won four presidential elections — in 1980, ’84, 2004 and 2016 — and Democrats won the other six presidential races here — in 1988, ’92, ’96, 2000, 2008 and 2012. Schultz says Iowa has a classic mixture of characteristics that make it a swing state in presidential elections. “Iowa, like the other swing states, has a high percentage of voters who declare themselves to be independent.

Also Iowa, like many of the swing states, is really sort of two states — the eastern part of the state being more Democratic and the western being more Republican and also one more,” Schultz says. “It has both a high percentage of college educated people and still a high percentage of white working class.”

David Kochel, who managed Mitt Romney’s Iowa campaign in 2012, says Donald Trump’s nine-point margin of victory in Iowa four years ago was a bit of an outlier. “And it was all baed on a deep-seeded antipathy to Hillary Clinton,” Kochel says. “Other than, of course, Chuck Grassley’s races and a few of Governor Branstad’s, we’ve had competitive elections at almost every level.”

Romney’s running mate held an Election Eve rally at the Des Moines airport back in 2012. And, on the same night, President Obama rallied with thousands in downtown Des Moines. Brad Anderson was state director of President Obama’s 2012 Iowa campaign. “As Iowa becomes more and more of a battleground state, which all of the polls suggest that it is, it is smart on both campaigns parts to schedule a visit here in the closing days of the campaign,” Anderson says.

Vice President Pence will headline a rally at the Des Moines Airport Thursday afternoon and, on Friday, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is scheduled to campaign in the state. Drake University political science professor Dennis Goldford says in-person appearances are a boost because ads have diminishing returns at this point in the campaign. “Face-to-face, even in a pandemic era, is a welcome change. That’s why the president does so much of it,” Goldford says. “But even for Vice President Biden to come to Iowa, he’s showing the flag.”

Twenty years ago, George W. Bush beat Al Gore in Iowa by fewer than five-thousand votes. In 2004, Bush won the state by 10-thousand. Both margins of victory were less than one percent. Recent polls have shown the 2020 presidential race in Iowa may be just as close.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:30 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Record numbers of people are being treated in Iowa hospitals for the coronavirus as the illness spreads across the state. The number of people hospitalized with the virus increased to 561 on Monday, and a 14-county area of southeast Iowa reported record hospital admissions, patients in hospitals and patients in intensive care units. Iowa had 677 new confirmed cases Monday and two additional deaths for a total of 1,636. Weekend numbers continued last week’s high new case numbers and deaths. The state posted more than 3,000 new confirmed cases Saturday and Sunday and 17 additional deaths.

OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) — The coronavirus is getting worse in states that President Donald Trump needs the most. The upper Midwest is bearing much of the brunt of new infections surging across the U.S. That includes Wisconsin, where Trump is fighting to catch Democrat Joe Biden in a state Trump narrowly won in 2016. Also seeing a surge is Iowa, where Trump is now in a toss-up race with Biden after carrying the state by 9.4 percentage points four years ago. Both states are in the top 10 of those with the fastest-growing number of cases per capita over the past two weeks.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Many residents in Nebraska and Iowa were breaking out the shovels and snow blowers following a significant snowfall — including some record snow — over the weekend. The National Weather Service says Norfolk in northeastern Nebraska set a record for snowfall Sunday with 4 inches. That topped the previous Oct. 25 record of 2.7 inches set in 1997. In Sioux City, Iowa, about 3 inches of snow fell, breaking the previous record for the day of 0.7 inches more than a century ago in 1918. The service says higher totals were seen in other communities Sunday, including 8 inches recorded in Valentine, Bassett and Anselmo in northern Nebraska. Ocheyendan in northern Iowa saw more than 6 inches

OCALA, Fla. (AP) — Officials say Ocala Police Chief Greg Graham died in a single-engine plane crash in north Florida. Marion County Sheriff’s officials say Graham was the only person in the plane when it crashed Sunday morning. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash. Ocala Mayor Kent Guinn says Graham had recently received his pilot’s license. Graham had been in the Ocala police department for many years. He left in 2008 to become chief in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He returned to Ocala to head the agency when the police chief resigned in late December 2011.

(Omaha, NE) – President Trump will deliver remarks at a Make America Great Again Victory Rally in Omaha, NE., Tuesday night. The event takes place at Epply Airfield beginning at 7:30-p.m. Doors open at 4:30-p.m. There is a limit of two tickets per person.

For more information or to register, see the Trump campaign’s official website.

(A-P) Democrat Joe Biden plans to campaign in Iowa on Friday, making his first trip as the party’s presidential nominee just four days before the election to a state President Donald Trump carried easily in 2016. Biden aides confirmed that the former vice president was expected to hold a morning campaign event Friday in central Iowa, though it was not clear exactly where he planned to campaign.

Biden is campaigning this week in Pennsylvania and Florida, key swing states Trump won in 2016. Biden is also planning to campaign Tuesday in Georgia, where no Democrat has won since 1992.  It would be an ironic homecoming for Biden in Iowa. He was last in the state on Feb. 2, the eve of a unceremonious fourth-place finish in Iowa’s leadoff Democratic nominating caucuses. Biden staged a dramatic comeback beginning Feb. 29 by winning the South Carolina primary.

Polls have shown the race to be very close in Iowa, where Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 9.4 percentage points, and winning in more than 30 counties carried in 2012 by Democrat Barack Obama.

Atlantic, IA — Officials with the Cass County Health System, Monday, said “Effective immediately, Cass County Health System is suspending Phase III Cardiac Rehabilitation services until further notice due to high transmission and hospitalization rates of COVID-19 in the county. Phase II will remain open at this time.”