Courting continues in Iowa as final push accelerates
Latest polling shows Sanders leads field
DES MOINES, Iowa — Democratic presidential hopefuls have been courting voters across this midwestern state for the past year with variations on the same pitch: Pick me to lead the party and beat Donald Trump.
Come Monday, Iowa Democrats participating in the nation’s first presidential nominating contest will decide whose plea has been most effective.
Their choices will shape a contest that’s as much about unseating President Trump as it is about forging an identity for a Democratic Party torn between its bold reimagining and a sensible path forward.
The results in Iowa won’t settle the nomination, but they will begin to clarify a race without a real front-runner and set the lineup for next month’s primaries in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania — battlegrounds that were key to Mr. Trump’s 2016 victory in the general election. By March, the field might have an unexpected new leader, or be down an early favorite. There’s also the potential for the candidates clustered at the top to continue jockeying for the nomination through spring, setting the stage for a messy delegate battle at the Democratic National Convention.
How important is Iowa given its size and small proportion of delegates? In 1972, it became the first state to vote in the Democratic presidential primary, and since 2000 all its Democratic winners have gone on to become their party’s nominee. Voters here relish the outsize attention from candidates and the
om candidates and the media for a year leading up to the caucuses, despite arguments from outsiders that it’s time for an overwhelmingly white and rural state to pass the torch to one that’s more diverse.
The latest Iowa polling shows Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders with an edge heading into Monday. He’s trailed by former Vice President Joe Biden, whose momentum appeared to peak at the outset of his candidacy. Rounding out the top are Pete Buttigieg, the former South Bend, Ind., mayor, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who are both counting on their performances in Iowa to carry them to strong finishes in other early voting states.
In a final pitch to some 250 caucusgoers in Marshalltown, a central Iowa city still reeling from a destructive tornado that ripped through town in 2018, Mr. Buttigieg sought to set himself apart from his biggest rivals, painting Mr. Sanders as too liberal and uncompromising and Mr. Biden as too status quo.
“Vice President Biden has been talking about the idea that we can’t afford to take a risk on somebody new. I believe history has shown us that we can’t afford to take a risk of falling back on the familiar and expecting the same Washington playbook to help us against this president,” he said.
“Senator Sanders ... has offered a politics that says it’s all or nothing, my way or the highway, at a moment when we finally have an American majority who actually believes we can and should look to the public sector to make sure everybody has insurance. They’re just not so sure about kicking people off their private plans.”
At one point, each of the current top four has rode an
Iowa surge, making the outcome Monday all the more uncertain.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, boosted by a New York Times endorsement shared with Ms. Warren, has been a steady moderate alongside Mr. Biden and Mr. Buttigieg, and is the candidate most likely to have a surprise breakthrough in Iowa. Businessman Andrew Yang and billionaire Tom Steyer are wild cards polling in the single digits.
There’s also former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who skipped Iowa and early voting states for delegate-rich Super Tuesday and March primary states, a strategy that might upend the carefully laid plans of other candidates banking on early wins to help clinch the nomination.
With moderates and progressives, men and women, lawmakers and businessmen, a millennial and septuagenarians all represented in the field, some caucusgoers are overwhelmed by the choices in front of them. They also feel pressured to choose the best candidate to unseat Mr. Trump, who flew into Des Moines on Thursday for a rally and used the stage to mock his potential opponents.
“We can’t do another four years,” said Jennifer Barloon, a 36-year-old accountant who said Mr. Trump has pushed her to caucus for the first time. She’s among the 11% of likely caucusgoers who are undecided, according to the last Des Moines Register Iowa Poll.
“I’m down to four, she’s down to three. We’ll make a decision on Monday night,” said John Tagliareni, 49, who along with his wife attended Mr. Buttigieg’s 550person rally this week in Ankeny, Iowa, a fast-growing Des Moines suburb, where the former mayor is locking down support from older, white Iowans.
Campaign curveball
The home stretch in Iowa was thrown out of whack by Mr. Trump’s impeachment trial, but the senators sidelined in Washington for the past two weeks are making up lost ground over the weekend. They won’t need to be back in Washington until Wednesday for a final vote on whether to convict Mr. Trump, who is expected to be acquitted by the GOP majority.
Last week the senators deployed surrogates to campaign in their absence. Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore stumped for Mr. Sanders along with the senator’s wife, Jane Sanders. Ms. Warren’s campaign held a rally Friday in Des Moines with 700 people that featured her husband, Bruce Mann, and her golden retriever, Bailey, who posed for photos. The event was headlined by three female House lawmakers, who highlighted the senator’s policy-driven plans and ability to unite diverse coalitions.
“I represent a Republican district, and I am all in for Elizabeth Warren,” said Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., who flipped a GOP district in Orange County in the 2018 midterms that placed the U.S. House in Democratic control. “I know a thing or two about winning in every pocket of your community and connecting with every kind of voter, and I know Elizabeth is the candidate who can do that. She can reach into every pocket of our community — rural, urban, white, brown, black, young, old, LGBTQ.”
Ms. Warren eventually landed in Iowa late Friday night and held an impromptu meet-and-greet at a bar in Des Moines’ trendy East Village. The rest of the candidates have fanned out across the state to make their closing appeal to voters. Mr. Biden planned community events in blue counties clustered in the eastern part of the state. Back on the trail, Mr. Sanders attended a town hall outside Des Moines with Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. Some candidates are making their cases to rural voters at schools and community centers. Others are going for bigger rally crowds at hotel ballrooms or intimate meetand-greets at coffee shops and breweries.
It’s down to the wire for the candidates to sway undecided caucusgoers.
“I’m at 85%,” said Shelby Ridley, 33, who attended the Friday night Warren rally and says she’s likely caucusing for the senator. “I haven’t paid a lot of attention until the last month because it’s overwhelming and there are too many choices.”