Author: Pat Rynard

It’s going to be hard to ever top the past four days of politicking at the Iowa State Fair. About 20 presidential candidates in all roamed the fairgrounds from Thursday to Sunday, jumping into the media spectacle that is Iowa Caucus campaigning. Only Pete Buttigieg and Seth Moulton’s trips to the Fair remain. Starting Line was on hand for all the festivities. Here’s our top ten political moments from the 2019 Iowa State Fair so far: The Massive Crowds The most striking political visual over the first four days of the State Fair didn’t come from the candidates tossing fastballs […]

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 […]

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, hitting up the Iowa State Fair today. Her tour guides for the fair will be her newest endorsers — Sue and Bob Dvorsky, a former state party chair and former state senator, respectively. During her travels, Harris is being met at major events with a […]

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 Amy Klobuchar brought it up at the start of her speeches at major events this week, and spoke briefly with Starting Line in Spirit Lake about it. “I feel like it’s Groundhog Day, it just keeps getting more and more sad, and these weapons get […]

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 of someone else. After getting dropped off by Amy Klobuchar’s team in Storm Lake late Wednesday night, my Thursday started early (well, as early as I could force myself out of bed) to finish up some writing before Kirsten Gillibrand rolled into town. I had […]

It’s the first week of the Iowa State Fair, which means every single presidential candidate is flocking to Iowa. Even if you live outside Des Moines or Clear Lake, you may have chances to see four or five candidates around your hometown over just a few-day span. Which got me thinking. Could you literally just catch a ride with different candidates, jumping on and off their RVs, vans and busses at various stops and join up with the next one coming through town? Turns out, the answer is yes. So, from Wednesday to Friday, I’m hitchhiking with the campaigns across […]