Iowa Caucus

It’s Iowa Caucus season, which means all of the top political staffers in the country have begun their migration from D.C. and battleground campaigns out to the Hawkeye state. Presidential candidates have aggressively courted campaign operatives with Iowa ties for months, and most of the top talent has already been snatched up. Which Democratic contenders…

John Delaney has selected a well-known national political operative with deep Iowa ties to lead his campaign. John Davis, who had been advising Delaney in his presidential run, will now serve as national campaign manager, the campaign told Starting Line. The campaign has also hired AL Media of Chicago, a media firm that produced Stacey…

Guest post from State Representative Amy Nielsen of North Liberty on why she’s endorsing Cory Booker in the Iowa Caucus. This is the first state legislator endorsement in Iowa of the cycle. It’s been hard to watch the news over the last few years. It seems like every time the President speaks, it opens deeper…

Voters might find themselves Googling his name, or they may recognize him from a recent viral video of a blistering Senate floor speech against colleague Ted Cruz. Colorado’s Senator Michael Bennet dropped into Iowa this past weekend to meet with and listen to Iowa voters as he considers joining a crowded Democratic field. Stopping at…

As Amy Klobuchar worked her way through Iowa this week as an official 2020 candidate, she pitched a message of Midwest electability to local Democrats who saw their own state go red in 2016. “To do all this, we need to win,” Klobuchar told the Ankeny Democrats on Thursday after listing out her policy priorities.…

In every presidential campaign cycle, candidates in a crowded primary field are always looking for that “breakout moment.” The clever debate stage quip that gets replayed endlessly on cable news. The powerful speech at a major state party fundraiser that wows the crowd. But one method that may surpass the potential of all those this…

Guest post from Nan Whaley, the mayor of Dayton, Ohio and the co-chair of the Committee to Draft Sherrod Brown for President 2020. She visited Iowa last week. When my friend Sherrod Brown was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006, he joked that his new chamber was full of “99 people who wanted…

For those who have been involved in multiple caucus cycles, you know that the campaign process in Iowa often takes on its own unique character. Every cycle, there are a new group of key local players, issue groups, favorite hang-out spots, and campaign strategies that all make frequent appearances on the caucus campaign trail. We’re…

Does Cory Booker want to ban the eating of meat? No, of course not. And it’s such a preposterous suggestion, most people would roll their eyes and ignore it. But that didn’t keep a local Iowa TV station from running a story based on the fake controversy that generated from an online right-wing freakout over…

Iowa Democrats get their first taste of some multi-candidate caucus events during the next two weeks, served up with sides of soup and spaghetti. Three Democratic county parties will host at least two to three presidential candidates at their local fundraisers in Central and Southern Iowa. The Monroe County Democrats will hear from Amy Klobuchar,…