AARP Hearing Center
Iowa voters Jennifer Patel (left), Jan McElhiney (middle), and Mardean Wilcox (right).
AARP
It's a hot and sticky summer in Iowa, still a good 15 months before the presidential election and six months before the state's Democratic caucuses on Feb. 4, 2020. But because this is Iowa, the first state in the nation to nominate candidates for the general election, most presidential wannabes are already deep into courting these heartland voters — many of whom take their special role very seriously.
"I'm trying to see all of the candidates,” says Jennifer Patel, 58, a mental health support specialist from Iowa City, while waiting for the start of a candidate forum in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday. Featuring Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Maryland Rep. John Delaney and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, it's one of the five forums AARP and the Des Moines Register are sponsoring across Iowa this week where Democratic hopefuls are answering questions about health care costs, Social Security's future and other issues for audiences of AARP members.
Patel, who says she already has seen seven of the candidates at various events in the past few months, explains that it's important to her to see each one in person, without the “filter” of the media. Other Iowans expressed a similar sentiment — suggesting, almost, that they needed to look candidates in the eye to take their measure.
"Every Iowan I know takes this job seriously,” says Ro Foege, 80, a retired social worker and a former Iowa state representative in Cedar Rapids, referring to the job of vetting the candidates. “They want to see them up close and personal and to know, ‘Is this the kind of person who can bring decency and competency to the presidency?’ “
Iowa, which has been holding presidential caucuses since 1848, has been going first since 1972, and both major parties have agreed to keep it that way ever since, says Leo Landis, curator at the State Historical Museum of Iowa in Des Moines, a block from the grand golden-domed Iowa Statehouse. Landis offers a peek into the museum's massive storeroom, where rows of metal storage drawers are full of carefully sorted historic campaign paraphernalia, including an 1860 listing of the Republican ticket topped by Abraham Lincoln and a 1972 “Iowa Wants McGovern” bumper sticker. Wearing white gloves to protect the relics he touches, he shows off a “I'm Hog Wild and ‘Pig Crazy’ about Tom Harkin for President” campaign button from 1992.
AARP
The Republican party in Iowa uses paper ballots, while the Democratic party caucuses, meaning that registered voters attend in person and cluster around the precinct captains or caucus chairs who support their chosen candidates. Each candidate needs to have at least 15 percent of the vote; if they don't, the other captains can try to lure those supporters toward a different candidate.
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