Iowa Caucus

Two Democratic presidential campaigns collided in the hallway of the Hilton Garden Inn in Iowa City Thursday night outside of the Women Leaders Rising: 2020 Issue Forum.  Amy Klobuchar had just finished telling the group of over 100 women that she is a union champion and a daughter of the Midwest, while Kirsten Gillibrand was…

Science-related issues may not be a topic voters automatically associate with their list of policy priorities, but according to a new poll, it’s a subject a majority of Iowans want politicians to address. A June poll conducted by Research!America and Science Data found 74% of the 802 Iowans surveyed believe “it is important for the…

Several days after a New Yorker story revisited Al Franken’s departure from the Senate, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand ripped into the Democratic Party at large in Iowa over its handling of sexual assault and harassment. Gillibrand told a group of women gathered for a week-long conference of female union members in Iowa City Thursday night she’s…

A guest post from Avery Fair, a 17-year-old activist from Dubuque. This upcoming 2020 presidential election will be different from past elections, with a vast number of Democratic candidates running for the nomination this year. For me personally, it will be the first election cycle I am able to participate in. I wanted to find…

A guest post from Bobbi Hancock, a longtime political activist from Council Bluffs. For 25 years, I was a registered Republican. I voted for the GOP candidate in five straight presidential elections. I caucused for Rick Santorum and worked tirelessly for Marco Rubio. Seven months ago, I switched my political affiliation to “No Party.” Two…

Supreme Court reform is a now-widespread idea among Democrats with a variety of proposed options. Expansion has been a popular proposal with a few 2020 candidates, but limiting the amount of time justices can serve on the Supreme Court is another route that’s often touted. As of early April, 11 of the candidates running for…

Rep. John Delaney jumped in on the RAGBRAI action today, taking off this morning from Indianola. After he concludes today’s ride, he’ll head to Indianapolis to speak at the National Urban League conference. Delaney is riding a rented Trek-bike today as he and his team make the ride. Because of time constraints, they won’t be…

It would have been easy for former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper to drive into Iowa’s largest bicycle ride, RAGBRAI. Tens of thousands of bikers were gathered in Indianola by late Tuesday afternoon, creating the perfect place for a presidential candidate to meet future caucus goers. Hickenlooper didn’t take the easy way out, though. Instead, he…

A guest piece from Jan Bauer, Iowa DNC Member and former 22-year Story County Democratic Chair Election cycle after cycle, Democrats fight the same battles with few results to show. Since I first became active in politics in the 1980s, many of the most progressive victories Democrats have achieved in Washington, D.C. – the Assault…

Watching eight hours of forums is a lot to process. Unless you’re going to sit down and watch all of them, like I did, it’s hard to get a feel for how the candidates truly feel about some of these issues. Even then, it can all get sort of jumbled into one big discussion. If…