Candy Crowley Tells ISU Crowd, Election Came Down to Who Voters Could Connect With

Candy Crowley, CNN's chief political correspondent and the first woman to moderate a presidential debate in 20 years, told a crowd of 500 in Ames Tuesday that the presidential election campaigns focused on who voters could best connect with.

GOP Candidate Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” remarks and Bain Capital ads centering on corporate buyouts and layoffs hurt Romney in the end, Crowley said, according to the Ames Tribune.

“It was ‘OK, who do you like, who understands you best, who are you most comfortable with?’” she said, “and when those are the questions, it tends to favor the incumbent,” Crowley said, according to the Ames Tribune.

Crowley's lecture in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union at Iowa State University was part of the 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics.

Crowley also said that elections are usually won in the suburbs but President Barack Obama picked up a number of votes from cities.

“Romney won the suburbs, and that’s where elections are won. ... The reason it wasn’t enough is because Obama received more votes in the cities than usual, around 69 percent, and minorities and young people turned out in far higher numbers,” Crowley said, according to the Iowa State Daily.

Crowley who covered GOP Candidate Mitt Romney on election night said the Republican Party has to change with the times.

“There are those now arguing that the Republican Party was too conservative,” Crowley said according to the Daily article. “There are those that think that the candidate wasn’t conservative enough. I think there is going to be a real blood bath inside the Republican Party. The problem, I think, is that there is no party leader.”