Early Scenes From The Busiest Political Fair Day Ever

Innocent Iowans who merely wanted to attend their State Fair to eat some corndogs and drink lemonade in peace had to constantly dodge presidential candidates and their enormous press entourages today. Nine Democratic candidates in all are making their way around the fair, grabbing fried food, giving speeches and shaking hands.

Team Starting Line is on hand. Here’s some of the fun scenes from the first half of the day. So far, we’ve chased around Jay Inslee, Kamala Harris, Tim Ryan and Amy Klobuchar.

Tim Ryan And Family Search For Fair Food

Some candidates just do quick hits at the Iowa State Fair, doing their Des Moines Register Political Soapbox speech, maybe flip some burgers and then leave. Tim Ryan brought his family along for a full day, telling reporters that they were searching for the deep fried oreos for a snack.

The Ryans ran into Harris as she was coming off the soapbox stage. Harris picked up his son, Brady, for about a minute as the two spoke.

“Good luck, but not too much luck!” Ryan joked to Harris as she head in to speak with the press corp.

Tim Ryan runs into Kamala Harris on her way to press gaggle. She holds his son for a minute. “Good luck, but not too much luck!” Ryan tells Harris #IACaucus pic.twitter.com/dQdBYk6WXQ

— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) August 10, 2019

When it was his turn in front of the press, Ryan took a wide array of questions, including one from a young girl who asked about education. He told her that he would invest in more arts education programs, have schools do community gardens and serve healthier food.

The Kamala Harris Scrum

Be careful around the high-polling candidates, you might get trampled over. Actually, the scrum around Harris was so intense at time that one reporter fell into the senator after getting pushed from behind.

Other than that, though, Harris had the quintessential Iowa State Fair experience, led around by her new endorsers, Sue and Bob Dvorsky.

After her Soapbox speech and press gaggle, Harris made her way to the WHO-TV’s Cast Your Kernel poll, where Harris has been polling in a solid fourth place. She recognized the meteorologist who was manning the booth from the TV this morning.

And Harris took her turn at the Pork Producers tent to flip some chicken and burgers.

“I think I could also flip Republicans,” she quipped.

Amy Klobuchar Interview Schedule

Between their food stops and hand-shaking with voters, a lot of candidates pack in as many interviews with state and national press as they can. Klobuchar sat down for one-on-ones with David Axelrod and Greta Van Susteren before her speech. She has some other walk-arounds this afternoon we’re following.

Jay Inslee’s Climate Signature

Inslee spent about half of his speech on the soapbox talking about his key issue of climate change. Afterwards, he headed over to the big wind turbine blade that’s making its debut at the State Fair this year. People can sign their names on it.

The Washington governor picked up some early morning ice cream on his way in today.

by Pat Rynard
Posted 8/10/19