Iowa Caucus

Setting up for the largest Iowa Democratic event to date was not unlike preparing for a theater production. There’s a backstage, a wing, green rooms, changing rooms and, of course, the big stage where 14 presidential candidates will stand before an audience of more than 13,000. “It took 63 people and 24 hours to get…

It was just over one year ago that Sen. Cory Booker made his first major pre-2020 appearance in Iowa, as the keynote speaker for the Iowa Democratic Party’s fall dinner in 2018. His passionate, nearly hour-long speech on the day of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation put him as an early leading contender in Iowa activists’ minds…

Guest column from Sue Dvorsky, former Iowa Democratic Party chair. Thirty million people in this country don’t have access to health care. And the rest of us? Too many Americans have such inadequate plans they can barely afford to take their kids or parents to see a doctor. I remember the hope we felt electing…

We’re headed into another major Iowa Caucus moment as the Democratic field gets ready for Friday’s Liberty & Justice Dinner in Des Moines. With over 12,000 people attending, it’s expected to be the largest Democratic Party gathering in the country before next summer’s national convention. The Iowa Democratic Party’s annual fall dinner, once known as…

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 before ultimately choosing a corner or a patch…

Sen. Bernie Sanders still commands the youth vote in Iowa, according to today’s Youth Caucus Straw Poll results as of late afternoon. Sanders nearly doubled the next-closest Democratic contender in the Iowa Secretary of State’s annual survey of high school students, garnering 24.7% to former Vice President Joe Biden’s 12.3%. Andrew Yang came in third…

Guest column from Dr. Jill Biden on Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Cancer has been a dark thread throughout my life. Both my parents died of it, and in 2015, Joe and I lost Beau to glioblastoma. Cancer is a brutal disease; it shatters our hearts and steals our joy. But what Joe and I have…

Presidents of two major international labor organizations are praising Vice President Joe Biden’s new plan to protect unions. The plan takes a number of steps to protect workers’ rights by holding CEOs responsible for interfering with organizing efforts, ensuring employers who engage in union-busting do not receive federal dollars and going after any employer that…

During his latest trip to Iowa, Beto O’Rourke emphasized how the federal government should redirect its focus to the needs of individual Americans. On the trip, the former Texas congressman pointed out failings like the country’s lack of gun control and the unchecked spread of the opioid epidemic. He also noted the through line between…

Guest piece from five Montanans who moved to Iowa to organize for Governor Steve Bullock — Bullock for President Iowa Organizers Rio Aagaard-Shively, Alice Boyer, Shelby Fisher, Korbin Bragstad, and Harry Child. Montana has been a home that’s given more than we could have asked: the small communities that nurtured us, the quality public schools…