Iowa Caucus

A sponsored guest piece from Marianne Williamson’s campaign. Presidential candidate and best-selling author Marianne Williamson will return to Iowa for five days of campaign events over the next two weeks. These will be her third and fourth visits to the state since declaring her candidacy. These next two trips will focus on the Central Iowa…

Senator Kamala Harris is making sure they get a jump start on organizing Iowa’s college students before they head off campus after spring semester ends. Her Iowa campaign is announcing today five “Camp Kamala” youth organizing training sessions, where students will learn about how to organize their communities, how the Iowa Caucus works, and what…

Back during Elaine Baxter’s childhood, party loyalty was a simple matter. “When I was growing up, it would be unthinkable if you worked in a factory and were a Republican,” Baxter explained to Starting Line last week. “The two didn’t go together.” Now 86, Baxter, who served as Iowa’s Secretary of State from 1987 to…

The first in a series of 2020 candidate book reviews from Iowans, led by IDP Vice Chair Andrea Phillips. I should have known when I decided to start the 2020 Book Club, where we read the books of the Democratic presidential candidates, there would be a lot of interest — Iowans take their politics and…

In what was one of the busiest caucus weeks yet, five presidential candidates fanned out over Iowa recently, mostly in the eastern half of the state, to woo potential caucus-goers. Starting Line was on the road for seven days straight, covering the visits of Beto O’Rourke, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, and Cory Booker. Whenever there’s…

Democratic candidates running for president are increasingly talking about the rights of transgender Americans while out on the campaign trail. Two contenders who traveled through Iowa this past week – Senators Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand – both had extended discussions at events in Davenport about their past support for the LGBTQ community and future…

Senator Bernie Sanders continues to build out his Iowa Caucus team, one that will likely end up as one of the largest of the 2020 field. The campaign tells Starting Line that they have hired Michael Fasullo to serve as their Iowa field director and Tony Anthony as the deputy caucus director. It’s a second…

A Public Policy Polling survey shows former Vice President Joe Biden with a nearly two-to-one lead over his nearest competitor, Senator Bernie Sanders, in a new poll of likely Iowa Caucus-goers. Biden, who is expected to soon enter the presidential race, starts with 29% support in the poll, compared to Sanders’ 15%, Senator Elizabeth Warren’s…

Senator Amy Klobuchar blasted the Trump Administration’s continued use of blending waivers for renewable fuels usage while in Iowa this weekend. Using it as an example of how Donald Trump’s presidency has hurt rural America, she linked the EPA’s decisions to the first decline in ethanol prices in many years. “For the first time, we’ve…

Who the hell is Beto O’Rourke? That’s what many Iowans – myself included – wondered as they squeezed their way into packed coffee shops last week to catch a glimpse of the newly-announced presidential contender. Was O’Rourke the breakout, generational star he was hyped up to be, or a flash-in-the-pan media sensation who benefited merely…