‘We’re going to beat them again’: The Trumps are making their presence known in Iowa – Caucus updates
The political questions answered tonight
With caucus night upon us, there are some questions that caucusgoers across the state — and voters throughout the country — will see answered when the night is over.
The big question will obviously be momentum coming out of Monday night and heading into next week’s New Hampshire primary. Campaigns, pundits and even voters look at Iowa’s results to see who has a chance of continuing to the New Hampshire primary or who should call it quits.
Although the Iowa results won’t predict what happens in New Hampshire, it will be looked on as a guide.
Another question that will be answered is whether one of the big four candidates — former Vice President Joe Biden, former mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren — will win. All four candidates at some point have led the Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll over the past several months. In addition, those four candidates have been within the top five nationally over the past couple of months.
Voters will also be looking to see whether Sen. Amy Klobuchar makes a run at the top tier. Klobuchar has seen a small bump in polling since a strong debate performance in December. And we’ll see Monday night whether that momentum continues. If she does well, it could lead to a bump in New Hampshire.
But several campaigns might declare themselves the winner, which the Associated Press will determine by state delegate equivalents. The Iowa Democratic Party will for the first time release raw numbers from the first grouping, as well as the final vote total after realignment.
– Rebecca Morin
The Trumps are making their presence known in Iowa
There’s bustle outside of the Democratic caucuses today, too. President Donald Trump’s eldest son was speaking in West Des Moines when a male protester interrupted to say that the president’s policies and rhetoric have led to more Jewish deaths than those of any past president.
Security pulled the man out of the conference room as Donald Trump Jr. shouted back about misinformation spread by Democrats and members of the national media. His surrogates rose in applause as he yelled into the microphone.
At the press conference in West Des Moines, members of Trump’s family also attacked Democrats as out of touch. Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend, Trump Victory Finance Committee National Chair Kimberly Guilfoyle, both described Democratic presidential candidates as “socialists” and “communists.”
“We’re going to beat them again,” said the president’s other son, Eric Trump. “We’re going to beat them so much harder this time.”
Trump’s children also took shots at some specific candidates. Donald Trump Jr. referred to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as “mini Mike.” (Bloomberg’s height was trending on Google as 5 feet, 8 inches.)
Donald Trump Jr. also recalled campaigning for his father at Pizza Ranches in Iowa before the 2016 caucuses. He said he drew only about 15 people in the early events, a crowd size he compared to that of what former Vice President Joe Biden has drawn.
“That is a fight I would pay a lot of money to see,” he said of a potential Biden-Trump match-up in the general election.
Among the Republican heavyweights in Iowa Monday: Trump’s daughter-in-law and campaign adviser Lara Trump; Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross; Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos; U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows; U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise; and U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz
– Tyler Jett, Des Moines Register
Group gathers to demand union rights
An hour before the 4:30 p.m. caucus at the Drake University Fieldhouse began in Des Moines, the building was already awash in activity.
Demonstrators from the Fight for 15 movement gathered outside the building on the corner of Forest Avenue and 27th Street to demand a $15-an-hour minimum wage and union rights.
“We chose the caucus site tonight because we want our voices to be heard and we know this is where it’s gonna happen,” said 33-year-old organizer and Popeyes employee Delores Davis.
Fight for 15 has not endorsed a candidate for president in 2020. Several Democratic contenders have marched with workers from the movement.
Davis said she plans to caucus later tonight, but she hasn’t decided which candidate she’ll support.
“I want somebody that’s going to stand with us on the union,” she said.
To the tune of muffled chants from outside, student-athletes in the Fieldhouse practiced discus and softball on an astro-turf field. Drake softball players Kristen Arias, 19, and Emily Valtman, 18, finished a game of catch about 30 minutes before the event began.
Valtman is from Newton, but said she’s not sure if she will caucus tonight, as she was planning to attend a study hall instead.
— Katie Akin, Des Moines Register
Iowans caucus around the world
Hours before the caucuses got underway in the United States, Iowans were taking part all over the world.
Des Moines native Colyn Burbank hosted a mixture of Iowans, observers and press, at his apartment in Glasgow for one of the three International caucus events aimed at helping Democrats pick someone who can beat President Donald Trump in 2020.
On a blustery and rainy Monday, 20 Iowans showed up at Burbanks’ residence in Scotland’s capital to express their preference for who should be the Democrats’ next standard-bearer. Despite a Friday NBC/WSJ national poll that showed Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden statistically tied, the former vice president did not receive a single vote.
Sanders garnered the most support, with 9 Iowans backing him to receive the nomination, followed by 6 for Elizabeth Warren and 3 for Pete Buttigieg. One voter chose not to express a second preference after her candidate did not receive enough backing to make it to a second round. Another was unable to vote because she turned up late.
“Not to put too fine a point on it but it feels like the future is at stake with this election,” said Lucy Schiller, 31, who is teaching American literature and creative writing at a college in Germany and traveled to Glasgow for the caucus. She previously taught at the University of Iowa, in Des Moines. “This is the last off-ramp we have before climate disaster.”
Schiller, who backs Sanders, said the Vermont Senator’s policies were the most appropriate to meet this challenge.
Burbank, who is studying for a master’s degree in social care in Glasgow, lives in the apartment with his wife and young daughter along with another Iowan couple, and their cat, Lewis. The couples had decorated their home with pictures of famous Iowans such as the actor John Wayne, American late-night television host Johnny Carson and Grant Wood’s iconic 1930 painting “American Gothic,” which shows a farmer holding a pitchfork next to a stern-faced woman.
They also put on an Iowan-type spread of corn chips, homemade chocolate cookies, pretzels and what they claimed was an Iowan staple called “puppy chow”: a twisted midwestern masterpiece consisting of Chex cereal, peanut butter, chocolate and powdered sugar. Lewis, the cat, darted in and out of the room amid heated political discussion.
Monday’s very first Iowa caucus took place without a hitch in a city that has spent long periods under Persian and Russian rule. Tbilisi, in Georgia, is an ex-Soviet republic and the heart of the Caucasus region, an area that straddles eastern Europe and Western Asia. Tbilisi was also the first of the so-called Iowa satellite caucuses to see action Monday, as voters there chose their preferred Democratic candidates for the 2020 race for the White House. No matter that only three Iowans showed up.
“The Tbilisi caucus was conducted successfully, over a traditional Iowan meal of pizza and ranch dressing – accompanied by a Georgian wine,” its organizer Joshua Kucera tweeted, about 8 hours ahead of when many of the caucuses in Iowa are due to kick off. Alongside his comments, Kucera posted a picture of Iowa’s vertical red, white and blue tricolor flag with a bald eagle in its middle.
The caucuses – internal party meetings, essentially – don’t guarantee a candidate’s nomination but can provide momentum ahead of primaries this summer. Kucera said that the results from the Tbilisi event would be reported after the rest of the Iowa caucuses take place.
At stake Monday in Iowa are 41 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Iowa’s Democratic Party has permitted this year 87 satellite caucuses, three of them international. In addition to Tbilisi, caucuses will also be held in a graduate student’s apartment in Glasgow, Scotland, and in Paris, France, where the mayor of France’s capital has agreed to let an American overseas college student host an Iowa caucus event.
All of the satellite caucus sites are being treated as one big county, so the out-of-state and international results won’t be known until all of the non-precinct locations report their results.
– Kim Hjelmgaard
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The media has taken over Iowa
Not only have presidential campaigns taken over Iowa, so has the media.
Hundreds of reporters from across the country, and even internationally, have descended on the state for the first-in-the-nation caucuses.
In downtown Des Moines, the NBC network has taken over a local coffee shop, Java Joe’s Coffee House. Several large trucks for the network crowded the street outside the shop. A sign that says “MSNBC at Java Joes” is displayed right when you walk in.
MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” was hosted live from there, and MSNBC anchor Katy Tur also went live at 2 p.m.
Dell Radcliffe, 68, said she went down to Java Joe’s to “see what was going on” after missing “Morning Joe” in the morning. But when Radcliffe, who is from Des Moines, walked in, she found out that Tur — whom Radcliffe said she didn’t know — was going to go live in the afternoon and decided to stick around.
“I started plugging my meter,” Radcliffe said. Radcliffe said she is still undecided with who she is going to caucus for but is leaning to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but her husband, Mike Delaney, is going to caucus for Joe Biden.
Diane Miles, who is also from Des Moines, was sitting at Java Joe’s with a volunteer for Biden that she is hosting for the caucuses. The volunteer, John Douglass, is a retired Air Force general who is going around different states volunteering for Biden’s campaign.
– Rebecca Morin
First Iowans caucus overseas and in the state
OTTUMWA, Ia. — The Iowa caucuses have officially begun, with Democrats in southeastern Iowa declaring their preferences and kicking off a day that will help determine the fates of the seven presidential hopefuls who have staked everything on this state.
The Ottumwa satellite precinct caucus — which kicked off at noon at the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 230 union hall — was the first of roughly 1,700 caucus locations in Iowa to meet Monday.
At those locations across Iowa, the country and the world, Democrats will get the first take on what voters think about the field of presidential contenders. Before the vast majority of the country gets to weigh in, Iowans will already have made their mark.
Though nearly all of Iowa’s precincts will convene their caucuses at 7 p.m. CDT, local Democrats petitioned the Iowa Democratic Party to host this so-called satellite location earlier in the day. It’s designed to accommodate those who work the second shift at the local pork processing plant and during the evenings at other service industry jobs when the caucuses are traditionally held.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont won the precinct’s first alignment, with 14 of the precinct’s 15 people. One person caucused for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Warren’s supporter said she did not wish to caucus for Sanders on the second alignment. The Iowa Democratic Party will award delegates from the satellite caucus locations based on their final turnout later in the evening. The ultimate winner of Iowa’s caucuses will be based on those delegate numbers.
– Brianne Pfannenstiel, Des Moines Register
Monday’s first caucus was overseas
Monday’s very first Iowa caucus took place without a hitch in a city that has spent long periods under Persian and Russian rule. Tbilisi, in Georgia, is an ex-Soviet republic and the heart of the Caucasus region, an area that straddles eastern Europe and Western Asia. Tbilisi was also the first of the so-called Iowa satellite caucuses to see action Monday, as voters there chose their preferred Democratic candidates for the 2020 race for the White House. No matter that only three Iowans showed up.
“The Tbilisi caucus was conducted successfully, over a traditional Iowan meal of pizza and ranch dressing – accompanied by a Georgian wine,” its organizer Joshua Kucera tweeted, about 8 hours ahead of when many of the caucuses in Iowa are due to kick off. Alongside his comments, Kucera posted a picture of Iowa’s vertical red, white and blue tricolor flag with a bald eagle in its middle.
The caucuses – internal party meetings, essentially – don’t guarantee a candidate’s nomination but can provide momentum ahead of primaries this summer. Kucera said that the results from the Tbilisi event would be reported after the rest of the Iowa caucuses take place. At stake Monday in Iowa are 41 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. This year, Iowa’s Democratic Party has permitted 87 satellite caucuses, three of them international. In addition to Tbilisi, caucuses will also be held in a graduate student’s apartment in Glasgow, Scotland, and in Paris, France, where the mayor of France’s capital has agreed to let an American overseas college student host an Iowa caucus event.
All of the satellite caucus sites are being treated as one big county, so the out-of-state and international results won’t be known until all of the non-precinct locations report their results.
More:Iowa’s caucusgoers have a new place to vote: Overseas
– Kim Hjelmgaard
For Iowans, the day has finally arrived
DES MOINES — The Iowa caucuses are finally here.
After a campaign season that literally started in 2017, Iowa Democrats and Republicans will head to caucus sites tonight and make their choice for who they want to be president. The USA TODAY Network will have more than 60 staff members spread across Iowa to bring you the latest, most up-to-date information from caucus sites.
In a field that once included more than 20 candidates, 11 remain. Many of them — including former Vice President Joe Biden, former mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, billionaire activist Tom Steyer and entrepreneur Andrew Yang — have been blanketing the state for weeks, making their case that they are best positioned to beat President Donald Trump in November.
Iowa Caucus Results:Follow live Iowa caucus results here on Monday night.
More:What is a delegate equivalent? Or a viability threshold? The Iowa caucuses, explained.
The early part of the campaign season saw the debate over Medicare for All dominate the conversation around candidates and illustrate the range of beliefs on health care in the Democratic Party. But the past month has seen escalated tension with Iran and the impeachment trial of Trump bring other issues into the conversation. At times, several candidates have traded jabs over experience, past comments, and where they think the Democratic Party should go.
Polling has shown a tight race, with Biden, Buttigieg, Sanders and Warren all at times leading Iowa polling. In recent weeks, Sanders has taken the lead in RealClearPolitics’ rolling average of Iowa polls.
The Republican caucuses are not expected to bring any surprises: Trump remains popular with his base in Iowa, and his challengers have failed to gain traction.
Others Democrats, including Sen. Michael Bennet, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, and former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, are focusing their efforts in New Hampshire, where the primary is Feb. 10. Billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has skipped the early voting states all together.
– Annah Aschbrenner
Check back for live updates as we follow the candidates on the ground in Iowa and caucusgoers around the world.
