Latest / Pod Save America / Iowa Episode 3: Endorsements, surrogates and criticisms of Iowa

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Iowa Episode 3: Endorsements, surrogates and criticisms of Iowa · Pod Save America

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Language supposedly has all these rules. Most of us never
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: have to think about those rules, but the hidden hand
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: of language guides nearly every interaction we have with other people,
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  Speaker 1: people we communicate with. In Radio Lingo, the new podcast
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  Speaker 1: from Duolingo and Crooked Media, we explore how language shapes
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  Speaker 1: our world and how our world shapes language. I'm Amad El-Yagri.
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  Speaker 1: I'm an audio journalist and James Beard Award winning writer.
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• 0:55
  Speaker 2: I do have my own car, but I got snow
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: tires on it.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I think I'm all set.
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  Speaker 3: October in Iowa is cold. When I was there, it snowed,
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: it rained, my sneakers got soaked. I live in L.A.
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  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 3: I've gotten very soft and I was not ready. But
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  Speaker 3: caucus night in February will be way worse. So it
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: was no surprise that the staffers making calls at Cory
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: Booker's field office in Des Moines were getting grilled about
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: their snow gear.
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  Speaker 2: I got my ice scrapers.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm all prepared.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: It was October 30th, and in Iowa, people celebrate Halloween
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: a day early for reasons I don't understand. But the
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: office was packed with candy and people making calls. It
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: was called the Cory Booker phone bank. Team Booker loves
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: a bad pun. Here's Booker field organizer Mitch Smith.
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  Speaker 4: And it comes from the top.
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  Speaker 5: Yes.
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  Speaker 4: Cory loves the dad jokes. I think he said in
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: a public event the other day that his Halloween name
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: is Gory Booker. So, you know, we try to lean
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: into that. We try to campaign the way that we're
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: living our values.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: I'm Tommy Vitor, and this is episode three of a
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  Speaker 3: special Pod Save America series from Iowa. Today, we're going
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  Speaker 3: to talk about the most important part of the campaign,
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  Speaker 3: what it takes to get someone to commit to caucus
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  Speaker 3: for you. In field organizer speak, it's called getting a one.
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  Speaker 3: We'll hear about the links campaigns go to to get
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  Speaker 3: endorsements from key players in the state, including some that
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: might surprise you. We'll also check back in with the
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  Speaker 3: field organizers as they try to get Iowans to sign
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: up for their candidates. And we'll talk about all the
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: reasons why Iowa going first might be a terrible idea. Mitch,
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  Speaker 3: the guy who was just talking about the puns, organizes
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: in Polk County, which is basically Des Moines and some
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: of the fast-growing suburbs around it. We've been talking with
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: him over the last few episodes. His goal, and the
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: goal of pretty much every field organizer, is to get
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  Speaker 3: people to commit to his candidate. In the summer, that
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  Speaker 3: meant one-on-ones with Iowans, even very little Iowans.
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  Speaker 4: One that stands out is the woman who brought her
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: six-year-old daughter. It was right when most of the news
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: was around the children who were being put in cages
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  Speaker 4: at the border. And so she brought her daughter and said,
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  Speaker 4: my daughter's going to decide who I caucus for. So
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  Speaker 4: you're not just talking to me, you're talking to her too.
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  Speaker 4: And we both have questions for you. And so her
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  Speaker 4: daughter asked me about immigration. And we talked through how,
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: you know, Corey would take action on day one to
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: make sure that, you know, our immigration detention doesn't at
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  Speaker 4: all resemble what it resembles now. It kind of went
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: through the different steps. And I think that kind of
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: hit home for me that we're not just doing this
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: for ourselves. We're doing it for, you know, her kid
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  Speaker 4: was making the choice and, you know.
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  Speaker 3: Now you've got to hone your six-year-old pitch. You're a jack-of-all-trades.
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  Speaker 4: It was a different pitch. It was a slightly different pitch.
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  Speaker 4: I had to change the language a little bit.
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  Speaker 3: Gloria will give you snacks and naps at all times.
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  Speaker 4: She was smart for a six-year-old. That wouldn't have worked.
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  Speaker 3: Now that it's winter, Mitch's job is basically to organize
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: himself out of a job. That means you recruit enough
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: volunteers that they're the ones doing the phone banking and
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: the door knocking, and then Mitch is coordinating them. That's
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  Speaker 3: really the only way to scale up enough to get
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  Speaker 3: the commits you need to win the caucuses. I asked
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  Speaker 3: Mitch if he had done that yet.
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  Speaker 4: Ooh, that's a good question. I have in certain precincts, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: You mean as the precinct captains?
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  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely. I think it's just straight up harder with this
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  Speaker 4: many candidates in the race and with this many people
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  Speaker 4: who are at this point still very undecided. We have
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  Speaker 4: people who say, as soon as I've decided, I'm going
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  Speaker 4: to work really hard for whoever I decide for. Corey's
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: in my top two or top three, but I want
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  Speaker 4: to wait because I just don't know.
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  Speaker 6: I haven't made up my mind yet.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, it's Iowa.
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  Speaker 7: It's Iowa.
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  Speaker 2: It's Iowa.
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  Speaker 4: The number one thing that I hear when I knock
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  Speaker 4: on people's doors or talk to them on the phone
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  Speaker 4: is that they want to make sure we get someone
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  Speaker 4: new in the White House. And that is never said,
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  Speaker 4: you know, kind of calmly or passively. You know, sometimes
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  Speaker 4: there are, you know, swear words and epithets involved too.
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  Speaker 3: But if you got 10 Iowans in a room and
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  Speaker 3: said define electability, you'd get 10 answers. I just wonder
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  Speaker 3: how you deal with that.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, in a way, it's not really my job
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  Speaker 4: to deal with it. It's the caucus goer's job. People
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  Speaker 4: have a lot of different ideas, just like you said,
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  Speaker 4: of what makes someone electable. When I talk to people
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  Speaker 4: about why they like Corey, they say he's someone who
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  Speaker 4: people trust can beat Trump on a debate stage, but
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: come out of it with his dignity. And then they
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  Speaker 4: trust him to get some things done once he does
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  Speaker 4: beat Trump.
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  Speaker 3: FOs, as we talked about a bunch here, are on
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  Speaker 3: the front line making the case for their candidates. But
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  Speaker 3: it's not just up to them. It's also a job
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  Speaker 3: for surrogates. Those are the people, whether they're celebrities or
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: politicians or whatever, who do events for you, who do
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  Speaker 3: interviews for you, basically make your case. In 2008, our
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: surrogates included former elected officials, retired generals, Oprah, then San
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, and many, many others. But
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: our best surrogate of all was Michelle Obama. We called
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: her the closer. On actual Halloween this year, I went
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: to an event with Senator Amy Klobuchar at a restaurant
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: in Des Moines called Bubba. She was getting an endorsement
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  Speaker 3: from a woman named Roxanne Conlon. Roxanne was the U.S.
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  Speaker 3: attorney in Iowa, and she ran for governor in the Senate.
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  Speaker 3: These stand-ins really matter. And maybe, especially for a senator
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  Speaker 3: like Amy Klobuchar, who might be a little busy in January.
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  Speaker 5: And especially if we're in an impeachment trial, I'm going
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: to need enthusiastic endorsers like Roxanne.
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  Speaker 3: To be in my stead.
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  Speaker 8: And be going around the state.
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  Speaker 3: Competition for surrogates and endorsements in Iowa is fierce. The
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: Des Moines Register actually does a 50 Most Wanted Democrats
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  Speaker 3: feature in the paper. And on that list is Rob Sand.
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  Speaker 3: He's the state auditor. We met Rob last episode. He
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  Speaker 3: was explaining how caucusing works. Rob got into politics back
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  Speaker 3: in high school when he was campaigning for a skate
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  Speaker 3: park in his hometown of Decorah, Iowa. As a prosecutor
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  Speaker 3: in the Iowa Attorney General's office, Rob investigated and prosecuted
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: this huge multi-state lottery scam. There was actually a really
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: cool New York Times Magazine article about it. You should
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: read it. It is literally unbelievable. Rob was one of
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  Speaker 3: the few Democrats to win statewide in 2018. And because
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  Speaker 3: he pulled that off, a lot of presidential candidates want
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  Speaker 3: his support.
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  Speaker 2: I can only speak to this cycle, I guess, because
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  Speaker 2: nobody really cared before. No one's ever reached out before.
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  Speaker 2: But mostly it's cold calls. We have a chat. Say, hey, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: would be delighted to meet with you. Come on over
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  Speaker 2: to my house. Let's have a cup of coffee. I'll
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  Speaker 2: tell you what I think is good advice. Take it
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  Speaker 2: or leave it and go from there.
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  Speaker 3: How would you figure out how to make a decision
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  Speaker 3: that big?
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  Speaker 2: I'm a pretty holistic person. I would prefer to endorse
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  Speaker 2: someone that I do really feel a connection to. I
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  Speaker 2: would also prefer to endorse someone that I think is
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  Speaker 2: where we need to be on the issues. If I
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: was going to actually get in for somebody, I would
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  Speaker 2: mean it.
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  Speaker 7: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And if I mean it, I'm going to go work
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  Speaker 2: at it.
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  Speaker 4: Right.
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  Speaker 5: Right.
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  Speaker 3: Do you think it'll be anything like your job catching chickens?
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  Speaker 2: I have not thought of that analogy. Allow me to reflect.
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  Speaker 3: Can you tell us about your job catching chickens for
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: a second?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Um, first job, I was like 14. Now, now technically
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  Speaker 2: speaking for those who are a little ag savvy, they
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: were capons.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: Those are unfortunate male chickens.
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  Speaker 7: Okay.
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  Speaker 5: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: Um, and it, it makes them plumper and heavier, uh,
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  Speaker 2: better eating. And so we'd, we'd get in truck at
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  Speaker 2: the capon factory. There's a couple blocks from downtown Decorah.
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  Speaker 2: We'd drive out. This is usually leaving at five or
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  Speaker 2: six at night. They drive these trucks into this giant
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: chicken barn, huge, just flat dirt floor, chickens all over
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  Speaker 2: the place, running around. They turn off all the lights
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  Speaker 2: and it's your job to get down, put your gloves on,
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  Speaker 2: and then basically walk up behind the chickens with the
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  Speaker 2: lights off because they can't see that well. Grab them
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  Speaker 2: by the legs and then grab another one and then
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  Speaker 2: lift them up to the guys that are on the truck.
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  Speaker 5: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: And you're just doing that for hours and hours and hours.
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  Speaker 2: Now a chicken, Tommy, when you catch it, only has
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: one line of defense left and that is to essentially
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: piss and shit all over. So you end up going home.
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  Speaker 2: Just covered in chicken waste.
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: Oof.
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  Speaker 2: But it was good work because, number one, because it
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: was real work, right? All work has meaning. You could
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: look at that truck full of chickens at the end
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: of the day and be like, there, we did that.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: And I like the idea of the manual labor. You
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: can actually see the results every day of what you've done.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: I was getting paid five bucks an hour, which is
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: totally sweet when you're 14 and in a small town
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: in Iowa. And it also made my next job at
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: McDonald's seem so plush.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: But, I mean, maybe... Maybe catching chickens in the dark
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: and hoping they don't shit on you is a good
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  Speaker 3: metaphor for trying to get support in the Iowa caucuses.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, you're groping around. You don't really know where
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: the support's going to come from. But, you know, once
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: you get a one, once you get that supporter card signed,
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: you're gold.
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  Speaker 2: And at the end of the day, you just have
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: to keep going until the work is done.
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  Speaker 4: Right, right.
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  Speaker 2: There is no rest in the Iowa caucuses, just as
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: there is no rest in catching chickens.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: Dieter DeGere is another young star in Iowa. She ran
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: for Secretary of State in 2018, and she came very,
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: very close to beating the Republican incumbent. So like Rob,
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: she is a coveted get.
• 10:22
  Speaker 8: I didn't come out of my 2018 race in November
• 10:25
  Speaker 8: thinking I was getting ready to hop on and support
• 10:28
  Speaker 8: a presidential. In all honesty, I wanted to give myself
• 10:30
  Speaker 8: a year to get back involved. And I was telling
• 10:34
  Speaker 8: a friend that at lunch one day, that I'm just
• 10:37
  Speaker 8: going to sit on the sideline. And I literally saw
• 10:39
  Speaker 8: myself saying, I'm going to sit on the sideline and
• 10:42
  Speaker 8: immediately became disgusted because I had told people for over
• 10:45
  Speaker 8: two years to get off the sideline and to get
• 10:48
  Speaker 8: involved and to not give in to any of the
• 10:51
  Speaker 8: fear-mongering that was going on in our country. And so
• 10:54
  Speaker 8: in that moment, I made a decision to jump in.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: She signed up with the Kamala Harris campaign in January.
• 11:00
  Speaker 8: She's going around with a 3 a.m. agenda right now,
• 11:02
  Speaker 8: the things that wake people up at night. And she's
• 11:04
  Speaker 8: taking those challenges and not just talking about them, but
• 11:08
  Speaker 8: creating authentic plans. that can address those issues and move
• 11:13
  Speaker 8: us in the right direction.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: Did she ever call you at 3 a.m. just to, like, talk?
• 11:18
  Speaker 8: You know she doesn't call me at 3 a.m., and
• 11:20
  Speaker 8: I must say, if she did, I probably wouldn't hear
• 11:23
  Speaker 8: the phone.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: Sometimes in Iowa, the best surrogates aren't elected officials or politicians.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: In fact, a few of them can't even vote yet.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: Tom Vilsack was the governor of Iowa for two terms.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: Then he served as Barack Obama's secretary of agriculture. He
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: was a coveted endorsement in his own right But he
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: told me what might be one of my favorite Iowa
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: endorsement stories ever.
• 11:46
  Speaker 6: I was with President Obama in his first trip back
• 11:49
  Speaker 6: to Iowa after his election. We were going to Newton
• 11:52
  Speaker 6: to take a look at a windmill blade factory. He
• 11:56
  Speaker 6: was in Marine One. We were helicoptering from the Des
• 11:59
  Speaker 6: Moines airport to Newton. And he was looking out the
• 12:03
  Speaker 6: cornfields and he just sort of said out loud, 89 days,
• 12:06
  Speaker 6: 89 days. And he looked at me, he says, I
• 12:10
  Speaker 6: campaigned in Iowa 89 days. And Gibbs was with him
• 12:15
  Speaker 6: as the press secretary. And he said, tell Tom about
• 12:18
  Speaker 6: the cell phone. President Obama started chuckling. He said, at
• 12:21
  Speaker 6: the end of one of those long days, and Tommy,
• 12:23
  Speaker 6: you know what they're like.
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.
• 12:24
  Speaker 6: Eight or nine town hall meeting, people's living rooms, high schools, gymnasiums, whatever.
• 12:31
  Speaker 6: You're exhausted as a candidate. You get in the car
• 12:33
  Speaker 6: and a young staffer handed him a series of telephone numbers.
• 12:38
  Speaker 6: And he looked at the young staffer and he said, well,
• 12:40
  Speaker 6: what are these? They're telephone calls, sir, you have to make.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: Who are they?
• 12:44
  Speaker 6: Are they labor leaders? Are they county chair people? Or
• 12:47
  Speaker 6: are they donors? Who am I calling here? The young
• 12:50
  Speaker 6: staffer said, well, they're high school students, sir. And he said,
• 12:55
  Speaker 6: high school students? And this young staffer said, oh, sir,
• 12:57
  Speaker 6: these people are just absolutely key. They're absolutely crucial to victory.
• 13:01
  Speaker 6: So being the dedicated candidate he was, he dialed the
• 13:05
  Speaker 6: first number. And it was a young woman who answered
• 13:07
  Speaker 6: the phone, and I don't remember what her name was,
• 13:09
  Speaker 6: but just for the sake of this, I'll say it
• 13:11
  Speaker 6: was Barbara. So the phone rings, Barbara answers it, and
• 13:16
  Speaker 6: then Senator Obama says, Barbara, this is Barack Obama. I
• 13:20
  Speaker 6: wondered if I could just spend a few minutes talking
• 13:22
  Speaker 6: to you about the caucus. And this young lady says, well, Barack,
• 13:27
  Speaker 6: doesn't call him Senator, just says, well, Barack, I'm in
• 13:30
  Speaker 6: a yearbook meeting, and if you want to call me
• 13:31
  Speaker 6: back in about 20 minutes, I'll be happy to visit
• 13:33
  Speaker 6: with you.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: So I love this story for a couple of reasons. First,
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: it's a great illustration of the many ways Iowa can
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: knock you down a peg or two. And I think
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: that's important for these candidates. You might be speaking in
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: huge rallies or on national TV, but part of your
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: job is to prove that you will put in all
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: the work necessary to win the general election. So if
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: a 17-year-old sends you to voicemail, you deal with it.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: But I also love it because it speaks to something
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: that I've seen a lot this cycle in Iowa. We
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: hear a lot about conflict between generations, right? Like half
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: of us are tweeting OK Boomer at people we don't know.
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: Others are criticizing millennials for allegedly spending their money on
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: avocado toasts, whatever bullshit. But in Iowa, you have these
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: FOs who are mostly in their 20s having earnest conversations.
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: serious in-depth conversations with potential caucus goers, folks who are
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: often in their 60s and 70s. And, you know, obviously
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: the field organizers are organizing students too and other young people,
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: but we kept seeing them sitting down with people much
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: older than they are and being taken really seriously. These
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: older people are listening to the organizers. Their words carry weight.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: Olivia Ellis is the Warren field organizer we've hung out
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: with over the past couple episodes. And I talked with
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: her about this intergenerational phenomenon in the cavernous hallway after
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: an event with Elizabeth Warren. We've noticed in a bunch
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: of places how cool it is that FOs are generally
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: fairly young, right? You're pitching often older people, but they actually.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Seem to listen.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: Do you ever think it's weird that you're telling some
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: 65-year-old person who to vote for?
• 15:08
  Speaker 9: Yeah, I get that. I think they want to feel
• 15:12
  Speaker 9: that hope, though. And they look at us and we're
• 15:15
  Speaker 9: a tangible representation of where our country can go. And
• 15:19
  Speaker 9: I think it's refreshing for them in some senses. I mean,
• 15:23
  Speaker 9: they look at me and I am barely off of
• 15:27
  Speaker 9: school and I miss my mom. And they just want
• 15:31
  Speaker 9: to take care of you. And one of my volunteers
• 15:34
  Speaker 9: brought me Advil the other day to the campus. And
• 15:37
  Speaker 9: so you really get to know each other and they And,
• 15:40
  Speaker 9: you know, yes, wanting a caucus for Elizabeth, but also
• 15:43
  Speaker 9: not wanting to disappoint me, which is nice.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: Brianne Fonan-Steele sees this dynamic all the time. She's the
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: chief politics reporter at the Des Moines Register, and she
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: let us hang out with her at her office one morning.
• 15:55
  Speaker 7: I think in Iowa, at least, there's a culture of
• 15:57
  Speaker 7: having conversations about politics where it's not... strange. I make
• 16:02
  Speaker 7: a joke, and it's funny because it's mostly true, that
• 16:05
  Speaker 7: Iowa's the only place where you can talk to a
• 16:07
  Speaker 7: voter and they'll ask to go off the record, just
• 16:09
  Speaker 7: like a normal human at a campaign event, because they
• 16:12
  Speaker 7: have so many of these types of interactions. So I
• 16:15
  Speaker 7: think there's some kind of normalization of the process where
• 16:18
  Speaker 7: it's not unusual to hear from a 19, 20-year-old kid
• 16:21
  Speaker 7: and to understand that they're deeply engaged in this process
• 16:25
  Speaker 7: and to respect that They have moved away from their
• 16:28
  Speaker 7: home and invested their time and their money and their
• 16:30
  Speaker 7: energy into what this is. I think any activist, anyone
• 16:34
  Speaker 7: who's involved at politics and sees these organizers in action
• 16:38
  Speaker 7: knows how much they've invested of their time and their
• 16:41
  Speaker 7: energy and their heart into this process. And I think
• 16:43
  Speaker 7: you have to respect that even if it's not your candidate,
• 16:45
  Speaker 7: even if it's not your party.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: That thing Brianne just said about talking to people not
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: from your party, that's a big deal. It's important to
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: know that while caucuses are divided by party, you can
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: choose which party you caucus for on caucus night. So,
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: for example, somebody who voted for Trump in 2016 can
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: show up at their local Democratic caucus on February 3rd, 2020,
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: change their party registration, and participate. So field organizers across
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: Iowa are working hard to recapture some of those people
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: who might have voted for Obama twice, but then voted
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: for Trump.
• 17:18
  Speaker 6: You know, I think there are a number of people
• 17:20
  Speaker 6: who are very passionate about President Trump who will be
• 17:22
  Speaker 6: with him until the last dog dies.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: Here's Secretary Tom Vilsack again.
• 17:28
  Speaker 6: But I also think that there are an equal number
• 17:30
  Speaker 6: of folks who are deeply concerned and are fearful of
• 17:34
  Speaker 6: what another four years could mean. And then there are
• 17:36
  Speaker 6: the folks in the middle that are uncomfortable with just
• 17:40
  Speaker 6: the direction. But I think there's a larger number than usual.
• 17:44
  Speaker 6: of people who say we've got to win this election
• 17:47
  Speaker 6: and I'm making my choice based on who I think
• 17:51
  Speaker 6: can make the case to that wavering voter.
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: I asked Secretary Vilsack the question that kind of prompted
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: this whole show, which is, is Iowa the best place
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: to make the first choice, especially since it is so
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: much less racially diverse than the country as a whole
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: and then the Democratic Party as a whole?
• 18:08
  Speaker 6: Well, let me challenge the premise of the question.
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 18:12
  Speaker 6: I can't make the case that we are as diverse
• 18:14
  Speaker 6: as most of the other states in the country.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: We're not.
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: But we are disproportionately rural. And that is a segment
• 18:23
  Speaker 6: of America's population that often gets disregarded within the Democratic
• 18:29
  Speaker 6: Party and often gets taken for granted by the other side.
• 18:33
  Speaker 6: And I think that needs to be part of electing
• 18:36
  Speaker 6: a president because 15% of America's population lives in rural areas. places,
• 18:43
  Speaker 6: that's roughly the equivalent of the African-American population, roughly equivalent
• 18:47
  Speaker 6: to the Hispanic and Latino population. So it seems to
• 18:51
  Speaker 6: me that it makes sense to have in the mix
• 18:55
  Speaker 6: a state that has a significant representation of that group
• 19:00
  Speaker 6: of Americans.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: Last question for you about Iowa as hopefully a purple state.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, I just remember being really struck when I
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: woke up after election day 2016 and I saw that
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: Donald Trump had won all of those eastern Iowa river
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: counties that President Obama had won, that previous Democrats had
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: done well in. I'm curious why you think all those
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: counties might have gone to Trump and whether you think
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: the state may or may not be poised to change
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: back to a blue state or whether it's Republican for
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: a while.
• 19:32
  Speaker 6: Well, look, I think at the end of 2016, what
• 19:35
  Speaker 6: people were deeply concerned about was the inability of government
• 19:40
  Speaker 6: to do anything. to get anything done. I think people
• 19:44
  Speaker 6: were looking for someone that they believed could cut through
• 19:48
  Speaker 6: all of that, and so they were willing to give
• 19:51
  Speaker 6: Donald Trump a chance. When you run for reelection, you
• 19:55
  Speaker 6: don't get.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: The benefit of that.
• 19:56
  Speaker 6: His approval rating in Iowa is well below what his
• 20:00
  Speaker 6: electoral margin was. And I think if we have a
• 20:04
  Speaker 6: candidate who has a certain level of boldness to attack
• 20:10
  Speaker 6: big problems, but who also conveys a sense of steadiness,
• 20:15
  Speaker 6: I think Iowans along all of those river communities, as
• 20:19
  Speaker 6: well as the internal part of the state, will give
• 20:21
  Speaker 6: that candidate a very close look. I think if we
• 20:25
  Speaker 6: have that kind of candidate, I think we can win Iowa.
• 20:27
  Speaker 6: I think we can win Wisconsin. I think we can
• 20:29
  Speaker 6: win Michigan. I think we can win Pennsylvania.
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: I really, really hope he's right. When I spoke with
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: Secretary Vilsack in late summer, he wasn't ready to say
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: who he'd back in the caucuses. Right before Thanksgiving, though,
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: he and his wife announced their support for Joe Biden.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: When we come back, and apologies in advance to all
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: those rural voters that Vilsack was just championing, all the
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: arguments against Iowa going first. We're back. I'm Tommy Vitor,
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: and this is episode three of our special series on
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: the Iowa caucuses. And here is where we go negative
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: on the state of Iowa. I have talked about all
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: the reasons I loved living in Iowa and working there
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: for Barack Obama and think the process can be great.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: But there are a lot of valid criticisms of Iowa's
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: role in the process and of caucuses generally that we
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: should talk about. Here's presidential candidate Julian Castro on MSNBC
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: talking about one of the biggest criticisms you'll hear about Iowa.
• 21:34
  Speaker 10: I actually believe that we do need to change the
• 21:38
  Speaker 10: order of the states, because I don't believe that we're
• 21:42
  Speaker 10: the same country we were in 1972. Our country has
• 21:45
  Speaker 10: changed a lot in those 50 years. The Democratic Party
• 21:48
  Speaker 10: has changed a lot. What I really appreciate about Iowans
• 21:51
  Speaker 10: and the folks in New Hampshire is that they take
• 21:54
  Speaker 10: this process very seriously.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: They vet the candidates.
• 21:57
  Speaker 10: They show up at town halls.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: They give people a good hearing.
• 22:01
  Speaker 10: At the same time, demographically, it's not reflective of the
• 22:05
  Speaker 10: United States as a whole, certainly not reflective of the
• 22:08
  Speaker 10: Democratic Party. And I believe that other states should have
• 22:11
  Speaker 10: their chance.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: According to the 2018 census, Iowa is 90 percent white.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: The U.S. as a whole is about three quarters white.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: Castro's larger point is that the Democratic Party depends heavily
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: on African-American voters, especially African-American women. But the states that
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: make the first choices, Iowa and New Hampshire, don't have
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: a lot of African-American residents. Just 4% of Iowans are
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: Black compared to 13% of the country. This is true
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: for Latinx people, too. 6% of Iowans are Hispanic or
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: Latino compared to about 18% of the rest of the country.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: The fact that Castro is willing to say this publicly
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: is new and, frankly, it's brave politically. It's not like
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: the racial makeup of Iowa is a secret to the
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: other people running, but most of them don't want to
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: knock the state because, obviously, they want to win it.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: Charlie Pierce, on the other hand, is more than happy
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: to talk shit about Iowa. He's the lead political reporter
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: at Esquire magazine. He's covered politics since the early 70s,
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: and we ran into each other at the Iowa State
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: Fair back in August.
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: I think caucuses are, you know, one of the worst.
• 23:12
  Speaker 11: Ideas anyone ever came up with.
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: Why?
• 23:15
  Speaker 8: Because they're not democratic, they're gamed.
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: When you have a state like this where the demographics
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: are so skewed, they don't really tell you anything. I've
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: seen better organized riots.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: So one big critique are the demographics of the state.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: But there are a lot of criticisms of caucuses themselves.
• 23:32
  Speaker 11: Sure. I've heard every one. Maybe some of you haven't
• 23:35
  Speaker 11: heard of.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: Richard Bender helped set up the system in Iowa.
• 23:38
  Speaker 11: I've been talking to people about this literally since 1970.
• 23:42
  Speaker 11: So I've heard everything. Some of them are not wrong,
• 23:46
  Speaker 11: you know. There are basically two concerns that are somewhat related.
• 23:51
  Speaker 11: One is it takes a long time. You have to
• 23:54
  Speaker 11: go for quite a while.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: You have to show up to your caucus location by
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: 7 p.m. But because of the realigning and the stuff
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: we talked about last time, you might end up being
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: there for a couple of hours. This year, if your
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: candidate has enough support to cross that 15 percent viability
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: threshold on the first round, you can actually just sign
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: a card and leave. And that's new. And the idea
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: is just to help people get out of there faster. Okay,
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: next problem.
• 24:18
  Speaker 11: The big problem is there's one particular time on one
• 24:22
  Speaker 11: particular day. That's a problem because some people can't make it.
• 24:28
  Speaker 11: They may work, they may be out of town, they
• 24:31
  Speaker 11: may have a new baby, you know.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: Or you might have a disability, which can make it
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: hard to get to the caucuses, or hard to participate
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: once you get there. Jane Hudson is the director of
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: Disability Rights Iowa, and we caught up with her at
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: the state fair.
• 24:46
  Speaker 8: It is very exciting.
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: It's a very unique Iowa thing to have your neighbors
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: around you in a high school gym. But you go in,
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: it's very crowded. People who have disabilities can't stand for
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: two hours or three hours.
• 25:04
  Speaker 8: There's just a lot of issues.
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: People with autism or PTSD, it's a very loud, stimulating environment.
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: There's no place to go for a quiet room to
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: get away for a while.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: Remember, there's nearly 1,700 caucus locations, and those locations weren't
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: designed for this purpose. So there's not always enough chairs.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: Not all caucuses have microphones, so it can be hard
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: to hear. Basically, you end up standing around a loud
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: room for a long time, and that's not easy for
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: a lot of people. This cycle, the Iowa Democratic Party
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: tried to launch something called a virtual caucus. The idea
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: was to let people call in and participate by phone.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: But that ended up getting axed because the DNC was
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: worried it would be vulnerable to hackers. What is on
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: the table is something called a satellite caucus. Here's Troy Price,
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: chair of the Iowa Democratic Party.
• 25:50
  Speaker 12: So satellite caucus is basically just creating more caucus sites.
• 25:53
  Speaker 12: And so it's an application based process.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: So if there's a big hospital. And a bunch of
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: doctors and nurses work there and they can't leave for
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: obvious reasons. They could apply and say, we'd like to
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: have a caucus location in our break room. Yeah, that's right.
• 26:06
  Speaker 12: We had four sites last cycle. We had three at
• 26:10
  Speaker 12: state-run institutions that were capturing the state employees that worked
• 26:14
  Speaker 12: at those places. And we had one at a nursing
• 26:16
  Speaker 12: home in Iowa City. That one had over 100 people
• 26:18
  Speaker 12: at it. So we know that it works. We know
• 26:20
  Speaker 12: that this can expand participation. And so We're trying to
• 26:23
  Speaker 12: find that right balance of not cannibalizing precinct caucus participation,
• 26:29
  Speaker 12: but making sure that we can get those folks who
• 26:31
  Speaker 12: can't otherwise get there.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: One last knock on the caucuses that you hear a lot.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: When a lot of people show up, the caucus locations
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: get hot and crowded, and it could just be a
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: miserable experience, which I think it actually was for a
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: lot of people in 2016. In 2020, the party is
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: expecting turnout to be even higher. And even though people
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: can now leave after their candidate is deemed viable... The
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: party is preparing for huge crowds.
• 26:55
  Speaker 12: We're talking to the campaigns about what they're seeing out there.
• 26:58
  Speaker 12: I mean, just given the energy that's out there right now,
• 27:00
  Speaker 12: given the number of candidates that are organizing right now,
• 27:04
  Speaker 12: we do think this will be our highest caucus turnout ever.
• 27:06
  Speaker 12: And so, you know, it would not surprise me if
• 27:09
  Speaker 12: we got into the high 200,000s, but we're going to
• 27:12
  Speaker 12: prepare for it.
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: The party and the campaigns aren't just preparing for a
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: big turnout. They are counting on it to beat Donald
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: Trump in the general election. Here's Olivia Ellis, Elizabeth Warren's
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: field organizer.
• 27:21
  Speaker 9: If we're really going to do this, if we're going
• 27:24
  Speaker 9: to beat Donald Trump, like, we need to have unprecedented
• 27:28
  Speaker 9: numbers and turnout. And the only way people are going
• 27:30
  Speaker 9: to turn out is if they really believe in the candidate, right?
• 27:33
  Speaker 9: And so we've been asking people on the doors, like,
• 27:35
  Speaker 9: what do you value? Like, what do you want out
• 27:39
  Speaker 9: of a president?
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: When I started talking to people for this series back
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: in the summer, the field felt too big and unwieldy, and,
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: you know, everybody I talked to assumed it would have
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: narrowed significantly by now. But Somehow, here it is in
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: December and we are adding candidates as fast as we
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: are losing them. Next time, we hang with those candidates.
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: We'll go to an Elizabeth Warren event. A Bernie rally.
• 28:08
  Speaker 6: All right, in a few minutes, we're going to get
• 28:10
  Speaker 6: warm because we're going to take a little walk.
• 28:12
  Speaker 11: We're going to take a walk for justice.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: A Pete Buttigieg jam session.
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: When Pete takes the lead. Take the lead.
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: And a Cory Booker ukulele tribute. Seriously.
• 28:32
  Speaker 5: There's no need to build that wall. The poles are wrong.
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: In time they'll change.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: We'll go to one of the biggest nights of the
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: campaign season in Iowa and see who's got the muscle
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: to turn their folks out. Because as the caucus gets closer,
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: the campaigning is going to be very intense. And we'll
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: talk through all the other ways we could pick our nominee.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: See you back in Iowa next week. I'm Tommy Vitor.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: This series is produced by Kat Aaron. Production help from
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: Justine Daum and Agarenish Ashagre. Joel Lovell is our editor.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: Music and mixing by Hannes Brand. The audio of Secretary
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: Julian Castro talking about racial demographics in Iowa is courtesy
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: of MSNBC. The executive producers at Pineapple Street Studios are
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: Jenna Weiss-Berman and Max Linsky. Thanks to Elena Schwartz and
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: Nancy Rosenbaum. A special thank you to Tanya Sominator, Sarah Wick,
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: Michael Martinez, Kyle Seglin, Brian Semel, Nikki Fancy, and Jordan
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: Silver from the Crooked Media.
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: Team.