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As the race toward the caucuses nears its end, everyone wants to know where Iowans will align on Monday night. One decision you hear many undecided caucus-goers mulling over is the choice between Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg. Although their policy stances...
As the race toward the caucuses nears its end, everyone wants to know where Iowans will align on Monday night. One decision you hear many undecided caucus-goers mulling over is the choice between Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg. Although their policy stances...
As the race toward the caucuses nears its end, everyone wants to know where Iowans will align on Monday night. One decision you hear many undecided caucus-goers mulling over is the choice between Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg. Although their policy stances...
When asked, every Democratic presidential candidate says the courts are important and, if elected, they plan to appoint judges who respect the Constitution and Supreme Court precedent. However, none of the candidates mention specific names they would consider, only...
The clock is ticking down on the end of 2019, though here in the Starting Line office, we're mostly just concerned with who's covering what candidate this weekend. I thought it would be nice to take a moment to look back at the very exciting, transformative year we've...
Guest op-ed from Bonnie Louise Brown, a member of the Iowa Democratic Party State Central Committee Right now in this country and in our home state of Iowa, we have a crisis. Hate crimes are on the rise. We have concentration camps on our southern border and Americans...
Guest op-ed from Chris Schwartz, a member of the Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors Conversion therapy is a dangerous form of psychological abuse with the intent of “changing” someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The American Medical Association,...
In half an hour, the caucus was over and the room had picked a nominee. After pitches from representatives of three candidates, students at Grinnell College settled into their spots along the wall with only a handful to be won over. They moved from station to station...
In the coming months, the Supreme Court will decide important questions that touch millions of Americans’ lives, and many people aren’t confident it will be for the better. But the concern goes beyond individuals. According to Gallup polling, as of 2019, only 38% of...
Affordable housing has an unofficial figurehead as the national crisis makes its debut as a major issue on the presidential campaign trail this cycle. Julián Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio, Texas, served as the Housing and Urban Development Secretary for the...
The Steak Fry is underway. Your Starting Line team was spread out across the candidates' rally sites. Here's what was happening early on today. Buttigieg’s Camp Sprawls At The Steak Fry Pete Buttigieg’s supporters were visible upon entering the Steak Fry gates. “Mayor...
Another round of flooding has hit Western Iowa just as residents started to recover from spring and summer high waters. Current flooding has impacted areas north of Council Bluffs on the west side of Interstate 29 — with some flood potential on the east side as well....
Another top-tier Democratic hopeful has released a detailed plan addressing the nation’s shortage of affordable homes as housing advocates push for even more coverage on the topic on debate stage. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders rolled out an affordable housing strategy...
Dozens of women and children packed Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst's office in Des Moines for several hours over the last two days to protest squalid conditions at immigration detention centers along the U.S.-Mexico border. The group arrived Tuesday at the Federal Building...
Iowa Rep. Steve King carried on a lengthy conversation Friday about illegal immigration at the nation's southern border, warning his constituents about the dangers of young men coming into the country. Citing data King said he received three years ago, he told the...
The Twitter-verse has not taken kindly to Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst's rallying cry that socialists soon will take over Iowa and the United States if they're not stopped by Republican voters. Fear of the "radical left" was a central theme of her 2020 campaign kick-off...
Sean Bagniewski was elected as one of the youngest chairs in the history of the Polk County Democratic Party in March of 2017. As his first term comes to a close, he authored this series of four articles for Iowa Starting Line on what has worked well in Iowa’s largest...
I think I was in third grade in my rural Iowa classroom in 1962 or 1963 when my teacher Mrs. Schneckloth gave our class an assignment that probably changed my life forever. She asked us to find a magazine with a photo, or an image of an historical event, paste it to...
As everyone who lives in the U.S. plus many folks abroad also know, this country is going through a trying time. Some believe we are in great shape, the economy is good (for some–not all), and according to the President we are rearranging our relationships with our...
It appears that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un got exactly what his father and grandfather never could. President Trump elevated Kim, North Korea’s ruthless dictator, to a position on the world stage equivalent to the President of the United States. Posing in front...
Guest post from Dylan Funk I keep hearing the two major camps in the Democratic Party, the Clinton supporters and the Sanders supporters, say that the opposing camp needs to apologize to the other. The question I have is, “apologize for what?” From my point of view,...
Iowa Democrats gathered at four district conventions around the state on Saturday to select national delegates from the Iowa Caucus. The results mirrored what happened back on caucus night, with Hillary Clinton maintaining her one-delegate lead from the Congressional...
Time to throw out the old campaign playbooks for 2016. With Donald Trump the likely nominee for the Republicans, and Hillary Clinton for the Democrats, we're entering the most unpredictable election year in a very long time. As such, campaigns in Iowa need to be very...
With the South Carolina primary complete, the first four primary and caucus states are finally done for Democrats. Now eyes turn to the Super Tuesday states, but a collection of contests a few days later on March 5th could mark a Bernie Sanders comeback or solidify...
Guest post from Addisu Demissie I landed at the Des Moines airport as a 22-year-old on May 31st, 2003 completely unaware of what I was getting myself into. A month or so earlier, I had been offered a job as a Field Organizer for John Kerry in the Iowa caucuses. I...
Martin O'Malley was the first presidential candidate back in Iowa following the Christmas holiday season, speaking to a crowd of a little over 100 people at the Des Moines Social Club last night. He was at an event hosted by STAR PAC, an organization that focuses on...
Last night a crowd of hundreds in South Carolina stood and cheered for a leading American politician calling for the banning of an entire religious group from entering the United States. It will likely stand (for at least a week) as the low point of the 2016 election...
The 2015 Jefferson Jackson Dinner is now officially in the books, after a full day of rallies, sign wars, pre-concerts and speeches from Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley. The entire affair was a hell of a lot of fun, even if it didn't measure up to...
When Miyoko Hikiji's friends first suggested to her that she run for office, she was hesitant. Am I really qualified for this? Would I be prepared? Those were the questions that went through her mind before she realized how silly the doubts were. "I've done a lot of...
