SEN. BENNET LOOKS FOR LIFT IN IOWA
State fair marks next phase of nominating process
Presidential hopeful needs to meet the polling and fundraising threshold to earn a spot in the fall debates.
F ORT DODG E , IOWA » Michael Bennet crusaded through smalltown Iowa on his 100th day as a presidential candidate warning the few dozen people who would listen that America’s democracy is in grave danger.
“For the 10 years I’ve been in the Senate — it feels more like 150 years,” he said, earning a polite laugh from the crowd at a downtown coffee shop in this northern Iowa town of 25,000. “Our exercise of self-government has been immobilized by a cast of characters. They call themselves the Freedom Caucus. They have used every single trick in the book to prevent us from getting anything done.”
The mostly gray-haired and bespectacled audience nodded along Saturday morning. And yet, as they listened to Colorado’s senior U.S. senator detail his health care plan and rail against the deficit, there was a question about Bennet’s own future in the race to unseat President Donald Trump.
Bennet is one of two dozen candidates in the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. And the western statesman, dressed in his campaign uniform of dark blue jeans and a light blue button-down shirt, is far behind his peers in the sort of metrics that measure the strength of a campaign.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg raised nearly $25 million during the last fundraising quarter, Bennet raised a little less than $3 million. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has more than 50 paid staffers in Iowa, Bennet has a baker’s dozen. And while U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris zipped through Iowa on a tour bus, Bennet navigated the corn-lined highways in a Suburban — a minivan, Bennet’s preferred mode of transportation, was unavailable.
Bennet is not delusional about his status in the race as a longshot. And his ability to help shape the national debate Democrats are forging through the nominating process — a role he cherishes — may be limited if he doesn’t meet the polling and fundraising threshold set by the national party to earn a spot in the fall debates.
“We have to make every single minute count because I got in later than everybody else in this race,” he said, referring to his fight with prostate cancer that ended after successful surgery, in an interview after his last campaign stop of the day. “I gotta … I gotta … I just have to continue to work as hard as I can.”
And so, Bennet — and nearly every other Democratic candidate — stumped through Iowa this past weekend as the state fair kicked off the unofficial start of the fall campaign season and the six-month countdown to the state’s caucuses, where a strong finish for a candidate like Bennet is necessary if he has any hopes of clinching the nomination.
An “open” race
Longtime Iowa caucus-goers, political observers and buoyant candidates like to say that the race is still wide open. They’re not wrong. But how open is another question.
To understand the various campaigns’ political muscle and enthusiasm for candidates, the annual Wing Ding dinner in northern Iowa is instructive.
Before the doors of the Surf Ballroom opened Friday evening to host one of the largest gatherings of Democrats leading up to the first-in-the-nation caucus next February, campaign workers and volunteers lined the street to exchange rallying chants, dance and pass out swag.
Bennet’s six Iowa staffers were among the first to arrive in the early morning to stake out ground outside the ballroom. But by the afternoon they were drowned out by the dozens of Warren staffers and volunteers who highlighted the street in mint green T-shirts that read, “I’m a Warren Democrat.” The Buttigieg team danced to Britney Spears and ABBA hits. Former U.S. Rep. John Delaney’s
«FROM 2A tour bus circled the block.
Finding support for Bennet among the Democrats waiting in line to enter the ballroom was difficult. Of the dozen voters who spoke to The Denver Post, only one said Bennet was among her top three candidates. None of the candidates she’s supporting are among the “top tier.”
“He’s pretty upfront and realistic,” said Laurie Diemer, a Cedar Falls resident. “He’s the real deal.”
Inside, Bennet, like most candidates who spoke, received applause after his five minutes on stage were up. But the crowd gave Buttigieg a standing ovation just for walking on stage.
Fewer than 24 hours later and more than 100 miles away from the Surf Ballroom, two former Iowa state lawmakers slid into a booth at a popular coffee shop in the college town of Ames where Bennet had just addressed a crowd. They discussed the state of the caucus, which they acknowledged has become more focused on celebrity since the campaigns of Barack Obama and Trump.
They were split on whether Bennet had enough time to jump to the front of the line.
Ralph Rosenberg was optimistic: “There’s no template.” Charles Bruner wasn’t: “It’s become such a big show.”
The messenger, the message
Before Bennet arrived at Bloomers, the coffee shop on Fort Dodge’s Central Avenue, Skip Christensen, 81, told his friends that Bennet was the best messenger for the party.
“I like Bennet’s delivery,” he said. “I like other people’s message more. He’s not as liberal as I am. But he’s very acceptable. I think he’s more forceful and can take on Trump.”
Bennet has positioned himself as a moderate answer to the likes of Warren and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who are running on the promise of providing health care coverage to all Americans by expanding Medicare. Bennet favors a public option, which would allow individuals to purchase health insurance from the federal government.
No other issue divides the Democratic Party like health care. And that worries Bennet. At each stop, he wonders out loud, why Democrats would gamble the 2020 election with an issue as fraught.
Bennet went to Washington just as Republicans began to weaponize the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. As he sees it, Sanders’ Medicare for All proposal will be a repeat disaster for Democrats.
“I am trying to make sure that people understand what that choice of following Bernie over the cliff looks like on Medicare for All,” he said.
Barbara Wagner, a 65-year-old Fort Dodge native who spent time in Denver’s suburbs, quizzed Bennet on his health care plan. She’s on Medicare Advantage; how would his plan affect her?
You wouldn’t need to bother with my plan; everything would stay the same for you, Bennet said.
After the event, Wagner said she liked Bennet. He reminded her of “JFK.” Still, she was unsettled.
“He tells me not to worry,” Wagner said. “But I don’t know. I have to take care of myself.”
Do you need help?
On the campaign trail, Bennet is known to begin answering audience questions like this: “Let me give you a quick history lesson.”
The answer that follows could be about the nation’s founding, climate change or immigration. No matter the topic, Bennet comes with context.
At his last stop in Knoxville, Iowa, he launched into a sixminute explanation, complete with hand gestures meant to represent line charts, on how the nation borrowed more than $12 trillion from China to pay for tax cuts and a war in the Middle East. Along the way, he has a few choice words for Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Bennet likens the Kentucky senator to a drunken sailor.
“Republicans say they care, but they don’t care,” he said. “And our kids are going to have to pay for it.”
This is where Bennet thrives: a town hall in a meeting room adjacent to a brewery. And yet the most effective place to increase his national profile, donor base and poll numbers is the national debate stage.
On TV, his time is limited to a minute, give or take. While it’s not the medium for a history lesson, Bennet has proved he can make the most of it. According to his campaign, Bennet garnered more new donors during the 24 hours after the second debate than any other day since he launched his campaign.
“Do you need help getting into the third debate?” asked Phyllis Weaks, 80.
“I do! Thank you!” Bennet said. “I wasn’t paid to say that,” Weaks told the room. “I’m serious; I’d like you to be part of the debate.”
Bennet smiled and looked at Weaks, who sat in the front row: “I’d like to be part of the debate too.”