Aug. 16--Ron
Rosmann crossed the gravel stretch of Ironwood Road that cuts through his
family farm's 700 acres and knelt in a turnip field with Sen. Elizabeth Warren,
explaining to the Democratic presidential contender how he grows a variety of
organic crops without the use of pesticides.
After talking about
conservation and the need to fight "Big Ag," the 69-year-old western
Iowa farmer sat down with his family and Warren on strategically placed bales
of hay to discuss her new agriculture plan as cameras recorded every moment
from the other side of a weathered wooden fence.
As a Warren aide
ended the talk, Rosmann said he liked the farm plan but brought up one last
"difficult issue" that "really bothers" him -- that her
proposals to provide "Medicare for All" and cancel student debt might
go too far and have gotten her labeled as a socialist.
"I know how
that goes over in rural areas. With health care and all that, socialism early
in my lifetime was associated with communism, and we grew up with all that kind
of thinking," Rosmann told Warren. "Rural people have long
memories."
While Warren
dismissed such talk as "name calling" and said she would rise above
it by detailing her plans to voters, Rosmann's question cut to the heart of a
dilemma facing Democrats as they seek to unseat Republican President Donald
Trump in 2020.
The progressive
plans many of the 23 candidates have embraced to provide universal health care,
make college free and decriminalize illegal immigration have helped them
attract enough support to stay on the debate stage and raise money.
But those same
stances could make it harder to win over Democratic caucus voters in Iowa,
where a strong finish in the Feb. 3 first-in-the-nation nominating contest is
crucial for candidates to make a deep run in the party's primary process. And
for some Iowa Democrats, the most important factor is a candidate's chance of
beating Trump, including the ability to win back enough voters to capture swing
states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Four days in the
Hawkeye State
The 2020 Democrats
flooded Iowa to make their case to voters. Our photographer was there to
document their travels through the state.
Four years ago,
Iowa Democrats narrowly chose the more moderate Clinton, who won with 49.9
percent of the vote to 49.6 percent for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Many of
the state's rural and small-town Democrats are split on the best approach this
time. Some favor a moderate like former Vice President Joe Biden, who they
believe can win over swing voters, while others back Warren or Sanders, who
offer transformational plans they think will improve economic stagnation and
population loss in rural areas.
"What you're
seeing here is a good microcosm of an argument going on in the Democratic Party
all over the country," said David Yepsen, who spent more than 30 years as
a political reporter and columnist for the Des Moines Register and now hosts
the "Iowa Press" TV show. "They've got to find candidates who
can do better in rural areas. Now, do you do that with a moderate message or a
more progressive message? That's still to be determined, and Iowa is a good
place for that type of testing ground."
A recent Monmouth
University poll in Iowa reinforces the divide, with Biden maintaining a steady
lead, with 28% of the vote. The survey, however, also showed Warren gaining
significant ground with 19%, a 12-point increase over the same poll in April.
California Sen. Kamala Harris followed with 11%, Sanders was at 9% and South
Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 8%. The error margin was 4.9 percentage points.
The candidates
recently flooded the Hawkeye State for the Iowa State Fair and the Iowa
Democratic Wing Ding dinner, fanning out in their tour buses, RVs and even a
minivan to deliver their campaign messages to voters in small towns.
Seated in a small
booth in the back of the historic Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Bruce Biederman
watched a stream of 21 presidential candidates take the Wing Ding stage in
front of a giant American flag to give fiery five-minute speeches before an
influential crowd of 1,200 Democrats. The 71-year-old grain bin seller and
former farmer said he's narrowed his short list down to Sanders, Warren and New
Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.
Biederman, who wore
an Iowa Farmers Union trucker hat, said Democrats need big ideas to jump-start
the country's rural areas and backs "Medicare for All," eliminating
student debt, free college and raising the minimum wage. He insisted Democrats
could pursue bold ideas and beat Trump at the same time -- especially if they
effectively argue that the very wealthiest Americans will be the ones paying
for most of it.
"People try to
put stereotypes on these ideas, like Bernie Sanders is a socialist so that
equates to communist. No, it doesn't," said Biederman, who lives on the
outskirts of Osage, a town of about 3,000 in northern Iowa. "It's not the
giveaway they talk about, it's not the big tax bill for regular people they try
to make it out to be with these catchphrases of free college, free medical.
It's not free, it's fair."
'Modify that song'
As the early
front-runner, Biden has focused much of his political fire on Trump, arguing
the president is a divisive racist xenophobe. After springing onto the Des
Moines Register soapbox stage at the state fair, Biden hit his oft-used line
that he's running for president to "restore the soul of America."
Biden briefly
steered away from Trump to argue that the estimated $30 trillion cost of the
single-payer "Medicare for All" plan to cover all Americans and
eliminate private insurance was unrealistic. The former vice president
maintained that the approach, supported by Sanders, Warren and others, was too
costly and instead lauded his proposal to keep private insurance and build on
Obamacare by creating a public option that would allow anyone to sign up for
government-run health care.
"It costs a
lot of money, $740 billion over 10 years, but guess what? It doesn't cost $30
trillion that the other plans cost that will raise middle-class taxes,"
Biden said. "Bernie is honest enough to tell you that. Folks, we can cover
everybody and do it in a way that lets them choose what they want."
Democratic Iowa
Attorney General Tom Miller, who has held the office for all but four years
since 1979, said Biden and other moderate candidates are taking the right
approach on health care and other issues, such as calling for expanded Pell
Grants instead of making college tuition free. Those plans are more realistic
and will draw more support from Iowa and other Midwestern voters, predicted
Miller, who has endorsed Montana Gov. Steve Bullock in the presidential race.
"'Medicare for
All,' that would be potentially disastrous for the general election in terms of
taking private insurance away from people, and we'd be shifting an enormous
cost from employers to taxpayers," said Miller, as he munched on popcorn
and tailgated with Bullock in a parking lot outside of the Surf Ballroom.
"That won't play in Iowa. That won't play anywhere."
Retired teacher Ted
Crawford said he is tentatively supporting Biden, but left the Wing Ding impressed
with Buttigieg and Booker, both of whom gave rousing speeches at the dinner
that drew loud standing ovations. He noted that all three candidates have
offered pragmatic approaches that build toward health care coverage for
everyone.
"Tuition free,
how do we pay for that? Wiping out student loan debts, I'm concerned about how
we'd do that," said Crawford, 69, who lives in Mason City. "'Medicare
for All' is a concern of mine. I'm not sure people will really go for that. I
think they need to modify that song."
Buttigieg has done
just that, running on what he calls "Medicare for All Who Want It," a
plan similar to Biden's in that it would add a public option to existing
private insurance. The South Bend mayor also favors an expansion of Pell grants
and making college debt-free for low- and middle-class students.
In his state fair
speech on Tuesday, Buttigieg played up his Midwestern roots, noting he
"comes from the middle of the country" and can speak "in plain
English." Iowa had more counties to flip from Obama to Trump than any
other state in the nation, and Buttigieg visited several of them on a three-day
tour.
Keith Brooks is one
of those voters who cast a ballot for Trump after backing Obama.
"I was in the
box and I was going to vote for Hillary, and I said, 'Damn it, we need to do
something different. Let's give this guy a chance. He's a businessman. He's a
billionaire. Let's see what he can do,' and I voted for Trump," said
Brooks, 57, a project manager who lives in Oskaloosa. "It didn't take long
to realize I made a mistake."
Brooks said that
marked the only time he voted for a Republican. This time around, he's
undecided but said he's excited about Buttigieg's campaign and he came away
from Warren's state fair speech energized about her mantra for "big structural
change." Brooks said he likes Biden, but he's "already played the
game."
"I like a good
underdog," he said. "I'm looking for something new."
Like Buttigieg,
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar also has emphasized her Midwestern roots as an
advantage in taking on Trump in states the president won last time. She is
pushing to improve Obamacare instead of replacing it, to increase student aid
instead of making college free and to create an economic agenda that doesn't
"leave the Midwest behind."
During an interview
in the backseat of a minivan that took her on a 20-county swing through Iowa,
Klobuchar called it the "understatement of the year" that the first
two televised debates failed to focus on issues "important to rural
America." She said the party needs to do more to speak to issues that
affect this key voting demographic in the Midwest to avoid the impression
Democrats have become the party of the coasts.
Inside a veterans
hall in the northern Iowa town of Waverly, Klobuchar highlighted her ability to
win in Republican counties as she addressed a packed banquet room where Trump's
official presidential portrait hung prominently on the wall.
"The No. 1
thing we need to do is we need to win," Klobuchar said as the crowd
cheered, noting she's repeatedly won GOP counties and districts in Minnesota, a
state Trump narrowly lost. "I have won in the reddest of districts. I have
not done it by selling out on our values, I have done it by going to towns like
this and meeting people where they are, listening to them and then going to do
their work."
Jerry Miller liked
what he heard, saying Klobuchar topped his list of candidates, just ahead of
Biden. He said both can unite a deeply divided country and said Klobuchar has
demonstrated an ability to work with Senate Republicans to pass legislation.
"Some of the
candidates are too far left for me. You've got to think it through. Amy's
policies make sense," said Miller, 63, a Methodist pastor in Grundy
Center, a central Iowa town of 2,700. "She'll take a path that doesn't derail
the whole train on the way. To me, that's the attraction."
Jim Anastasi is
backing Booker for similar reasons. The 69-year-old family therapist from Clear
Lake came away impressed with the senator's stirring Wing Ding speech centered
on addressing gun violence and urging Americans to move beyond Trump and
"overcome his darkness with our light."
"Every time
I've heard him speak, he's a unifying person. He's a moderate person,"
Anastasi said of Booker, who registered just 1% in the recent Iowa poll but is
counting on a strong operation in the state to boost his support. "I am
supportive of 'Medicare for All' -- eventually. I am for free college --
eventually. I think we can work toward those things, but it's a process. We
can't rush into it."
'Not so radical'
Sanders regularly
rejects such warnings on the campaign trail, including during a recent stop
near Orient, a farming town of about 400 located 60 miles southwest of Des
Moines.
In front of about
75 people packed into the picturesque white gathering barn at the Henry Wallace
Country Life Center, Sanders insisted his "Medicare for All" plan
easily could be phased in over four years, noting that President Lyndon Johnson
managed to launch Medicare in a single year with far less technology in 1965.
The setting was an
appropriate one for Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist. Wallace is
an icon of liberal Iowa Democrats, serving as vice president, agriculture
secretary and commerce secretary under Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1948, Wallace
helped establish the Progressive Party and ran for president. Sanders called
him "one of the giants of the mid-20th century."
During a lengthy
town hall meeting, Sanders drew a contrast between how his policies for a $15
minimum wage, free public colleges, canceling student debt and "Medicare
for All" were portrayed four years ago and today.
"Many of the
ideas I talked about then seemed very, very radical and extreme. Well, it
turned out that they were not so radical or extreme to the people of
Iowa," Sanders said, referencing his strong showing in the state. "We
brought those ideas to Iowa, and you told the world that the ideas were not
radical ideas, were not un-American ideas, but were exactly what we need for
this country."
With a John Deere
hat in his hands, Daryl Nelson listened attentively and later said he was
"very, very impressed."
The 66-year-old
farmer who lives outside of Greenfield, a nearby town of about 1,900, said he
was torn on whether to back Sanders or Clinton during the 2016 caucuses. Nelson
said he and wife Jan arrived at the caucus undecided, but ultimately went for
Clinton because most of the people they knew there were backing her.
Still, he couldn't
help but notice how many new caucusgoers had been drawn in by Sanders. Clinton
won his caucus and the state, but Nelson said he now regrets his vote, noting
that Sanders lost by a third of a percentage point.
This year, he said
he's considering Sanders, Warren, Biden and Booker, and his top issues are
health care and the farm economy. Nelson said he has "a lot of respect for
Biden" and the job he did with Obama, but said the issues Sanders and
Warren are pushing make sense and aren't as taboo in rural areas as some make
them seem.
"'Medicare for
All' is getting to be almost more of a mainstream idea in the past four years,
and I like it," Nelson said. "I personally just qualified for
Medicare, and it cut our health insurance costs in half. We're pretty healthy,
but those high deductibles were getting really burdensome."
For some voters,
the more they see the candidates talk about such ideas, the more willing they
are to consider them.
21 candidates, a
fundraiser and a giant flag
The 2020 Democrats
coverged on Clear Lake, Iowa, for a fundraiser and five minutes each to make
their pitch. Check out our images from the event.
Among them is
Justin Jordan, a 38-year-old farmer who was at a Harris agriculture event at
the Coyote Run Farm outside of Lacona, a central Iowa town of 300. That's where
the California senator pulled up in a black tour bus with "KAMALA"
plastered on the side in giant yellow, purple and red letters.
A production team
communicated via earpieces and radios, and carefully orchestrated the event,
including a failed attempt to get Angel, one of the farm's dogs, to run down
the drive to meet Harris at the bus. The dog lay in the shade instead.
Harris spent most
of the time listening about various policies on how farmers could be
incentivized to participate in sustainable farming practices that could reduce
the amount of carbon in the air and fight climate change.
Stagecraft aside,
Jordan said he came away liking Harris, who backs a limited public option on
health care, and favors free community college and reducing student debt. The
fifth-generation farmer who tends to 410 acres on a nearby farm said he
couldn't bring himself to vote for Trump or Clinton after twice voting for
Obama. He said he's worried about climate change, ag policy and, most
importantly, fair policies for the middle class.
Jordan also said
he's concerned about the country running a massive deficit and adding to it
with Trump's tax cuts, but he said that isn't reason enough to dismiss ideas
being pushed by Harris and other Democrats to dramatically cut the cost of
going to college and to make health care far more affordable.
"If there is a
workable plan to implement some of these programs these candidates are
proposing -- and they can pay for it -- I'm all for it," he said.
Sen. Warren tried
to make that case inside the ballroom at the Wing Ding, where she focused on
how her plans would improve life in "rural America."
It resonated with
Mary Lovstad, who owns a wedding venue on a farm in Forest City that has been
in her family for 146 years. Lovstad said she's sympathetic to why some think
Warren's plans may be too far to the left or costly, but the struggles of the
younger generations have her more open-minded, especially when it comes to the
cost of college.
"I think there
is an undercurrent of young people who are doing two and three jobs and are
saddled with college debt, who can't buy a house, can't have a family, can't
get married until they're in their 30s or 40s," said Lovstad, 64, who
counts Warren as her top choice but also is keeping an eye on Harris.
"They're struggling a lot."
Warren said making
the case directly to rural voters is how she'll overcome stereotypes about
socialism and government giveaways. For example, Warren said that in rural
areas, having burdensome college debt erased could stem the all-too-familiar
exodus of younger generations moving from small towns to larger cities to earn
more money.
"When they
hear the actual policies, folks say, 'Oh yeah. I'm in favor of that. Why
wouldn't I be?' I think this is really about the truth wins out," Warren
told reporters at the farm in Harlan. "You get out and talk about what you
really fight for, what you really stand for."
That's precisely
what had Cynthia Morgan packed into a sweaty crowd at the sweltering state fair
last weekend, excited to hear Warren speak.
The self-described
lifelong Republican couldn't bring herself to vote for Clinton or Trump, so she
left that part of her ballot blank. She calls Trump "too fake of a
man" and said she's likely to vote for a Democrat for the first time.
Morgan, 65, works
in a surgery center in Clarinda, a town of about 5,000 in southwestern Iowa.
That experience has her concerned with the skyrocketing costs of health care
and the country's high drug prices.
Having two children
who attended large universities also has her worried about student loan debt,
which she called "huge to me."
She likes
Klobuchar, but so far, Warren tops her list.
"Voting for
Elizabeth would be a very big leap for me, and I'm almost embarrassed to say
this, but I am so disenchanted with our Republican Party," Morgan said.
"I'm riding the other side of the fence, and this is so not me. But like
my husband says, 'Maybe, Cindy, it's time.'"
Twitter
@BillRuthhart
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