Caucuses attract the political tourists
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa caucus season has been attracting voters from across the United States who come here as a way of learning more about the candidates.
“We’re looking at candidates,” said Steve Kelman, a 66-year-old retiree from Overland Park, Kan.
“We call it political tourism,” he joked.
What seems to pull Kelman and other “political tourists” is the opportunity they don’t have in their home states to meet the candidates.
Kelman and his wife, Kathy, came to a low-key event being hosted by former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, even though they are Democrats.
“I have a great deal of respect for him,” Kelman said.
A few minutes later he was shaking hands with Weld and talking with Weld’s wife, Leslie Marshall.
Alex Gordon, a 50-year-old lawyer from Fairfax, Va., has been to four rallies and visited two campaign headquarters since arriving in Des Moines last Friday. He has posted videos of the rallies on Facebook that he says have been popular among his friends at home.
Although a Democrat,
Gordon was at the Weld event, he said, because “he has integrity.” He planned to bring Weld buttons and stickers home with him.
“I’ve got friends who are Republicans who are upset with Trump,” he explained.
George Cogan, a retired management consultant, came to Iowa with a group of 10 friends from San Francisco. They have put 400 miles on their rental car in the past four days, driving around Iowa in order to meet all the candidates.
“We have seen the healers and the more extreme progressives,” Cogan said. “We need to build a coalition that is closer to the center.”
Ted Rock, a retiree from Grayslake, Ill., says coming to Iowa is his way to learn about the candidates.
“In Illinois we get to see no candidates, it’s too big, it’s too Democratic and nobody comes,” he said.
Another group of caucus visitors may become the political tourists of the future. The Weld event saw two groups of high school students from Minneapolis and Los Angeles who had come to learn more about politics.