Harris barnstorms Iowa to build momentum
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — “You make me a better candidate,” Sen. Kamala Harris told a cheering crowd toward the end of a long campaign day in this crucial, firsttovote state in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
She was halfway through a fiveday, “rivertoriver” bus tour of Iowa, where voters will gather in caucuses a little over five months from now. Consistently ranking in the top four of candidates in the polls, Harris has nonetheless struggled to move up in the field. A strong performance in the first presidential debate in June gave her a bump, but much of it dissipated after less of a standout showing in the second debate last month.
Her campaign is hoping that building up in Iowa will provide a lasting spark for the California Democrat. The tour, wrapping up Monday, is crossing the state from west to east — from the Missouri River to the Mississippi — in a bus customized with Harris’ name and “For the People” slogan.
To coincide with the tour, Harris introduced her first TV ad of the campaign in the state, a sixfigure buy for an
introductory spot that blends biography with campaign pitch. Shortly before Harris appeared at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, she was endorsed by Sue and Bob Dvorsky, a married couple who backed Iowa caucus winners Barack Obama in 2008 and Hillary Clinton in 2016. He is a former state senator, and she a former state party chairwoman.
On a steamy Saturday afternoon, Harris told several hundred people at a rally at a high school that her repeated visits to Iowa have helped her refine her policy positions. That includes her proposal to raise teacher pay across the country, a consistent applause line in the state. She says it came out of a conversation she had with locals during her first swing through Iowa in February — a full year before the 2020 caucuses.
“I like being here, I really do,” Harris told The Chronicle in an interview aboard her bus. “I love doing it the way we’re doing it this trip, because it’s about being on a bus. And so we’re going to places that don’t have airports, but have people.”
Iowa presents a unique test of candidates who come from bigger states like Harris, where advertising is key. Iowa voters expect to meet the candidates in person before voting for them, making retail politicking and ground organizing essential.
“I’ve been in contact with the field reps of all the candidates,” said Larry Peterson, a professor from Denison, Iowa. “We’re not going to support a candidate unless we can meet them face to face. And not just big mass rallies — we want to just talk to them face to face.”
Peterson and his wife, Eileen, also a 73yearold educator, were attending the state fair Saturday wearing their Harris Tshirts. They decided to back her after seeing her in Sioux City in June.
“We were really impressed by her stature and her message, and I walked away thinking, this is the one who could go toe to toe with Trump,” Larry Peterson said. “We want to get all of this dream established, the whole progressive agenda, but yet we don’t want to lose the whole middle ground, middle voters. And I’m thinking she maybe has a better chance of hanging on somewhat with middle voters.”
The final decision came, he said, when President Trump tweeted racist comments about sending four U.S. citizen congresswomen of color back to their home countries. “It just hit me: You know, let’s run a woman of color against Trump. Stick it right in his face.”
But plenty of voters remain undecided. After a Harris event about teacher pay in Fort Dodge on Friday, 60yearold Erin Rial, who serves on the local county Democratic committee, said she was impressed but not convinced. Rial is leaning toward Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, she says, but expects to see all the candidates more times before settling on her choice.
“I’m very intrigued by (Harris). I mean, she’s obviously a bright shining star,” Rial said. “I like her values when it comes to education. Honestly, what impressed me today most of all is I was hearing the teachers of my community sound like they’re in a silo (and) need some help.”
Harris was at ease as she greeted big crowds and individual voters throughout the visit, timed to coincide with a series of muststops for the candidates. After starting Thursday on the border with Nebraska, she met with the educators in Fort Dodge and then headed north to Clear Lake for a major Democratic dinner Friday night known as the Wing Ding. Saturday brought stops at the state fair, a gun safety forum, a mobile home park, a rally and a fundraiser.
Her ground game was in evidence at the Wing Ding, as a crew of volunteers in yellow Harris Tshirts greeted her bus as it pulled into the parking lot and dinnergoers cheered her on during a fiveminute speech. But the reception inside was louder for some of her competitors, including Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., who had the crowd on its feet from the beginning, and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who gave a rousing speech on preventing gun violence.
On Saturday, Harris delivered her 20 minutes on the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox, an informal requirement for politicians at the state fair. Then she flipped pork patties at the Iowa Pork Producers Association stand and sampled “pork chop on a stick,” which in fact has a meatcleaned bone for a handle.
“Oh, my God,” she said as bit into the chop she was holding with both hands, marveling at “the color, the texture” of the treat and asking the chef about the marinade.
She was guided through the fair by the Dvorskys, who said they think Harris has what it takes to win over Iowans.
“When you caucus or you primary vote, you do that with your heart and your gut,” Sue Dvorsky said. “Every time we see her, it just, she electrifies us. The historicity of this candidacy, of all the candidacies — that speaks to us.”