2019
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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…
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Kamala Harris: All In For Iowa In Caucus, General Election
In case you weren’t sure whether Kamala Harris was in Iowa this week, her gigantic bus, emblazoned with her name on the side that rolled through towns’ main streets was a helpful reminder. Harris is on a five-day tour of the lead-off caucus state, traversing the full length of Iowa from Sioux City to Burlington,…
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Food, Fun And Five Candidates At The Iowa State Fair
Former HUD Secretary Julian Castro brought his entire family to the Iowa State Fair, while former Congressman John Delaney flipped some burgers and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard grabbed a root beer. Meanwhile, Andrew Yang gnawed on a giant turkey leg and Marianne Williamson met voters at the Iowa Democratic Party’s booth. Here’s what their days at…
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Parade Of Candidates Try To Stand Out At Wing Ding
By now, Iowa acivists have seen in-person or heard on TV more than two dozen Democrats running for president. Whether they attended the Hall of Fame dinner in Cedar Rapids, the Iowa Democratic Wing Ding Friday night in Clear Lake or an intimate gathering at a coffee shop, voters are beginning to narrow down their…
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Klobuchar On Gun Violence: Cool Rhetoric, Fund Local Law Enforcement
In a week that many candidates had planned to talk agriculture plans in Iowa, the latest mass shootings over the past weekend quickly shifted the debate. At individual campaign events, multi-candidate gatherings, the State Fair and now a hastily-assembled forum in Des Moines, the Democratic contenders are pitching their plans to halt the violence. Senator…
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Castro: Trump’s Attack On Brother Is Attack On Transparency Laws
Julian Castro said Donald Trump’s attack on his brother, Joaquin Castro, amounts to an attack on campaign finance transparency laws. Joaquin Castro drew criticism from Republicans after he tweeted out the names of Trump donors following the El Paso terrorist attack, data that is publicly available. Castro made the comments to reporters while he was…
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Hitchhiking With The Candidates: Day 2, Gillibrand And Warren
While the State Fair kicked off in Des Moines yesterday, I continued my hitchhiking trek across Western Iowa with the presidential candidates. In case you missed my first story, I discovered this week that several of the candidates’ events line up just perfectly where you can catch a ride from each to the next stop…
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Why Everyone’s Armed: SCOTUS And The Second Amendment
After a string of mass shootings have rocked the United States, the debate over gun control and the Second Amendment is raging once again. The Second Amendment says: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”…
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Joe Biden Commands Crowd On Day 1 Of Iowa State Fair
Joe Biden said it best at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox: “I’ve been around a long time.” Biden, a former Vice President, U.S. senator and three-time presidential candidate, is no stranger to Iowa or its State Fair. Whether it was his status as a long-time politician, second fiddle to a popular president or his…
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Bullock Kicks Off State Fair Festivities With Electability Pitch
Iowans flocked to the Des Moines Register Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair for the first time this election cycle Thursday afternoon. While the soapbox is a popular place for Iowa Democrats to gather, they said it’s not necessarily the be-all and end-all for the 20-some field of candidates. “I’m not going to make a…
