Decade. Its outpaced the state and the country. When you look at the population in the state of iowa over the course of the last decade or so, last eight years, you see where its darker green, that means there have been more people, but throughout the course of the state, for the most part, almost the entire state has seen an increase in population. Now, lets specifically look at the actual Des Moines Metro area. You see theres much darker areas here. 25 , 20 . 15 . What does that actually mean that theres been a surge in population. Lets pull this off and go back to 2016. When you look in the Des Moines Metro area, right in this area here, what are you looking at. Obviously you see the yellow. That was Ted Cruz who ended up winning narrowly, you see the red, donald trump, the darker red. Marco Rubio Kind of Finding A Path to a close third Place Finish that relied on suburban voters, the type of voters Nikki Haley has resonated with over the course of the last several