Author: Pat Rynard

Senator Kamala Harris is running for president, but an event of hers in Des Moines yesterday was focused on other candidates – women running or thinking of running for local offices. She spoke with a group of about 125 women at an Emerge Iowa house party, where she acknowledged the many barriers women run into when considering a run. “It’s not your turn, it’s not your time, no one like you has done this before, it will be too hard and difficult to do,” Harris said of what they’ll often hear. Don’t let that discourage you, Harris urged. “I like […]

Above photo via Joe Crimmings. Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke is well-known for his energetic, non-stop campaigning style, and that was certainly on display during his ambitious Polk County schedule on Saturday. He held six house parties, spread out across the Des Moines metro, an interesting strategy that brought out more than just the usual Democratic activist crowd. About 800 in all attended the six events. Starting Line spent a full 12 hours with O’Rourke this Saturday as he hopped from stop to stop. Sometimes, seeing a candidate that often can get rather monotonous, as you hear much of the same […]

I conducted a fun little experiment yesterday. After noticing many people expressing frustration on political Twitter that Elizabeth Warren wasn’t getting enough media coverage for her policy ideas, I wondered, are those same people sharing her policy proposals themselves? So, I searched on Twitter for “Elizabeth Warren policy” and scrolled through the results for those complaining about the lack of coverage. They often framed it in terms of other candidates, especially Beto O’Rourke and Pete Buttigieg, receiving attention while Warren was doing policy roll-outs. Then I looked through those individual Twitter users’ previous tweets to see if they had ever, […]

While Tom Steyer announced back in January that he would not make a presidential run in 2020, a poll going around Iowa raises new questions on whether he might be reconsidering that option. A Starting Line reader received a polling call yesterday afternoon in which various messages on a possible Steyer candidacy were tested. Steyer has spent the past several campaign cycles leading his NextGen Climate organization and, more recently, his Need To Impeach effort. He had built out extensive political operations in Iowa with those two groups, although many of the staff involved in those efforts have since signed […]