2015

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright didn’t speak for long in West Des Moines today, but she got her point across: Hillary Clinton is the best person to be President of the United States. Albright attended three organizing events on behalf of Clinton in western and central Iowa, and she spoke from the heart when…

Democrats finally got their chance to showcase their five presidential candidates in front of the country on national TV last night, and one has to wonder after watching – why aren’t we doing this every week? In an incredibly clear contrast with the divisive and nasty circus that was the two prior Republican debates, the…

It was finally the big night for Democrats with the their first presidential debate on CNN. Team Starting Line attended three different debate watch parties in the metro to see first-hand how Iowa Democrats felt about the candidates’ performances. We hit up the Urbandale Democrats’ party, a student get-together at Drake University and a Martin…

Tonight’s long-awaited first Democratic debate could serve as a pivotal moment in the fight for the nomination, and no one has more on the line than Martin O’Malley. After agitating for months for more debate opportunities, the first one has finally arrived for the little-known former Maryland Governor, his big opportunity to be seen by…

Guest post from Taylor Van De Krol He brings excitement. He brings energy. He understands the importance of retail politics in the first in the nation caucuses. His detail-oriented, goal-driven, and actions-over-words mentality gives me confidence that he is the right choice. Our country needs a fresh face and a new vision. That’s why I’m…

Kate Gronstal sat at her parents’ house, devastated and crying, when her phone rang. Kate was in no condition to be taking calls, but her mother answered and quickly brought it over. “You need to take this,” Connie Gronstal insisted, and handed the phone to her daughter. On the line was Vice President Joe Biden,…

What do Iowans care about this presidential election? Is it gun control? Immigration reform? Job creation? Climate change policies? Over the past few weeks, I’ve been keeping track of what Iowans ask at presidential candidate events, and making note of the party affiliation of the crowd and whether or not that reflects the values of…

If the stresses of dealing with tightening polling numbers, Joe Biden’s potential run, the looming Benghazi hearings or the never-ending email server story was starting to get to Hillary Clinton, you wouldn’t know it from her demeanor on her trips through Eastern Iowa and Council Bluffs this week. At her four events, voters saw a…

Though the Republican presidential candidate front-runner of three months is still maintaining his lead in the polls and pulling in the biggest crowds of any GOP’er, his sparkle has diminished. He’s essentially run out of bombastic, ridiculous things to say, aside from the occasional Marco Rubio insult and poke at liberal media. Like any smart…

In the week that Vice President Joe Biden is rumored to be nearing a final decision on whether to run for President or not, the Iowa campaigns of his potential rivals announced more new key endorsers who have joined their campaigns. Both Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley’s teams rolled out names big and small on…