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‘Good Not to Be In Washington’: Senators Return to Iowa for Burst of Campaigning

Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar hit the 2020 campaign trail on Saturday during a break in the impeachment trial.

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont looks on as he is introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York during a campaign event on Saturday in Marshalltown, Iowa.Credit...Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa — Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar dashed back to Iowa for a frenzied burst of campaigning on Saturday after a week in which they were confined to Washington for the impeachment trial of President Trump.

Their appearances took place amid signs of growing strength in Mr. Sanders’s candidacy, particularly a New York Times/Siena College poll of likely caucusgoers released Saturday that showed him leading the field in Iowa. Given the fears of some Democrats that he could be portrayed as too far to the left to defeat Mr. Trump, his show of strength is likely to alarm some of his detractors as much as it pleases his own supporters coming so close to the Feb. 3 caucuses.

Pete Buttigieg’s campaign sent a fund-raising email on Saturday warning that “Bernie Sanders could be the nominee of our party,” followed by another email that cast doubt on Mr. Sanders’s ability to beat Mr. Trump. And former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in a tweet took an implicit jab at Mr. Sanders over his campaign’s promotion of an endorsement from Joe Rogan, the popular podcast host who has been criticized for comments he has made on race and about transgender people.

Mr. Sanders, sounding a bit congested, made it to Iowa in time to attend a rally in Marshalltown with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and the filmmaker Michael Moore.

He made no mention of his poll showing, but he didn’t have to.

“We’re taking on the establishment, and the establishment is getting a little bit nervous,” he told a modest but enthusiastic crowd.

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Why the Iowa Caucuses Are So Important

Protests in the 1960s, a mimeograph machine and a long-shot candidate all contributed to Iowa’s unlikely role in the presidential election process.

This was Iowa caucus night back in the mid-1970s. And these are members of the national media covering the voting. It was so unusual to see national media in Iowa back then that people actually paid to watch them. “The Democratic Party charged $15 a head for people to watch the media watch the people.” See, in previous years, Iowa’s caucuses just hadn’t attracted national attention. “There are 3,000 frozen media members in downtown Des Moines …” Just over a decade later, Iowa is the place to be. “… It’s Iowa caucus night. Let’s party.” [shouting] The caucuses are now a key part of the presidential election cycle. “Bush, 57.” They’re the first chance to see what kind of support candidates have among voters. So how did we get here, from caucuses that only Iowans seem to care about to the national spectacle we see today? Turns out, a lot of it was accidental. For most of Iowa’s history, its caucuses were dominated by political insiders. There was little room for input from rank-and-file members. An historian writing in the 1940s put it like this: “The larger number of party voters were deprived of a voice.” But the old ways start coming to an end in 1968. The country’s in turmoil, and so is the Democratic Party, mostly over the Vietnam War and civil rights. Basically, the party establishment wants to handle things one way, and many rank-and-file members have other ideas. All this comes to a head as the Democrats hold their national convention. Protesters gather outside. So do police. Inside, the mood is also tense. All this division leads the Democratic Party to rethink the nomination rules to include the voices of all party members in the process. This is how we come to the moment when Iowa becomes key to electing a president, basically by accident. First up, how Iowa became first to hold a presidential contest. It starts with new rules to give everyday members more of a say. So by 1972, winning Iowa now involves four stages. Iowans choose their top candidates, first at the precinct level. These are the caucuses at the heart of this story. But technically, there’s further voting at the county, congressional district and state levels. The new rules make things a lot more inclusive, but this creates new delays. Committees need to be formed, and everyone needs to have up-to-date party materials. The problem is, the state party only has an old mimeograph machine to make copies of all this. It’s really slow. So because of an old machine and a bunch of new logistics, the party decides it needs at least a month between each step to do it all. The national convention is set for early July, so you’d think that the state-level convention would happen about a month before, in June. Except, the party can’t find a venue that’s available to hold everyone. That little detail helps push everything earlier in a chain reaction. See what’s going on here? The precinct caucuses now have to happen early in the year. The party chooses a date that makes Iowa’s the first presidential contest. The New Hampshire primary has been the first kickoff contest since the 1950s, but Iowa Democrats aren’t necessarily looking for national attention. They just think it’ll be fun to be first. Still, attention is what they get. The story begins with George McGovern. “People didn’t know much about the Iowa caucuses. As a matter of fact, there wasn’t a great deal of interest in them.” He’s the long-shot candidate. He’s been at the bottom of national polls. “He often walked the campaign trail alone, little known by the voters.” Most people think this guy, Edmund Muskie, is going to be the big winner in Iowa. “That challenge is great, but we can meet it.” Then comes caucus night. As the people vote, state party officials gather at their headquarters. Richard Bender is one of them. “And we had about 10 or 12 press people show up. These press people included one guy, Johnny Apple.” Johnny Apple, a 37-year-old political correspondent for The New York Times. Iowa’s Democrats aren’t ready to publicize the results right away. They hadn’t expected much demand. According to Bender, only Johnny Apple asked for them that night. “I happen to be fascinated with such things, so I made it my business, beforehand, to understand it.” Bender sets up a phone tree to gather results from across the state. He adds them up himself with a calculator. And the next day, Apple’s article helps swing the national spotlight onto the caucuses. He’s got quite the story to tell. Muskie’s won, but just barely. Not the runaway win people were expecting. And McGovern comes in a strong second. No one expected that, either. The reformed caucus rules helped a long-shot candidate rise to the top. And because this is happening so early in the election now, and because Apple’s article gives the results national coverage, something else happens. “That got picked up by some of the national news shows.” “The Democratic front-runner has been damaged in Iowa.” “And wow, all of a sudden, we were being paid attention to.” McGovern eventually wins the Democratic nomination. “I accept your nomination with a full and grateful heart.” He loses the presidential election, but some haven’t forgotten what those early caucuses did for McGovern, including Georgia’s former governor, Jimmy Carter. Three years later … “There was a major headline on the editorial page of the Atlanta Constitution that said, ‘Jimmy Carter’s running for what?’ [laughter] And the ‘What’ was about this big. [applause] I’m running for president.” … Carter heads to Iowa before any other Democratic candidate. He’s got no national profile. “He didn’t have hordes of press following him around. It was a very lonely campaign.” Washington pundits call his candidacy laughable. “I remember when we couldn’t find a microphone.” “Jimmy Who?” becomes a catchphrase. Carter’s own campaign film plays it up. “Jimmy who?” “I don’t know who he is.” But as long as Iowans come to know him and like him, Carter bets that the media will start paying attention, just like with McGovern four years earlier. Carter campaigns as locally as possible. One day, he learns that he’s been invited on a local TV show. “And I said, that is great. I can’t believe it. I said, ‘What are we going to do?’ He said, ‘Do you have any favorite recipes?’ And I said, ‘What do you mean, recipes?’ He said, ‘Well, this is a cooking show.’ Well, they put a white apron on me and a chef’s hat. That was my only access to TV when I first began to campaign in Iowa.” His opponents are in Iowa, too, but they spend far less time there. Carter wins. “Surprisingly top of the class after his win in a somewhat obscure race in Iowa against the others.” “You can’t tell until we go to the other 49 states, but it’s encouraging for us.” A year later … “I, Jimmy Carter, do solemnly swear —” … he becomes the 39th president. Now we need to head to 1980 because we haven’t talked about the Republicans yet. Here’s the state’s Republican chairman that year. He’s asked why Iowa’s caucuses have become so important. “I think because Jimmy Carter got his start in Iowa in 1976.” The Republicans in Iowa are keen to copy the Democrat’s success, and one candidate in particular gets inspired by Carter’s underdog win: George H.W. Bush. He’s running against Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and others, and he’s near the bottom of the pack. “Your name isn’t really a household word, but Ronald Reagan can —” But Bush goes big in Iowa. He gets a surprise win. It’s a far cry from just months before. “I was an asterisk in those days. And my feelings got hurt. And now, I’m no longer an asterisk.” Bush is now the third underdog to get a boost from the caucuses. The next morning on CBS, he distills the essence of this new Iowa effect. “We will have forward, ‘Big Mo’ on our side, as they say in athletics.” “ ‘Big Mo?’ ” “Yeah. Mo — momentum.” Bush loses to Reagan, but becomes vice president. And the desire to capture the “Big Mo” from Iowa has only grown, thanks in large part to Iowa’s embrace of being first, and the media storm that descends every four years. That’s despite the fact that most candidates who win … “This is a job interview.” … don’t become president. Plus, many point out that the state’s overwhelmingly white population doesn’t reflect the country’s diversity. “I actually think that we can find places that represent that balance of urban and rural better.” But the race to get the “Big Mo” out of Iowa persists because it’s the first chance to upend expectations, and put political fates in the voters’ hands.

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Protests in the 1960s, a mimeograph machine and a long-shot candidate all contributed to Iowa’s unlikely role in the presidential election process.CreditCredit...Associated Press

But he did take a swipe at the impeachment trial for scrambling his campaign plans.

“As you well know, we have had to radically change our schedule in the last week — kind of toss it into the garbage can and begin anew,” he said. “But we are going to be back here in Iowa in the next week every moment that we possibly can.”

Mr. Sanders plans to hold events across the northwestern part of Iowa on Sunday before the trial resumes on Monday.

Before he settled into his familiar talking points, Mr. Sanders also issued something of a warning, suggesting he was aware of the renewed attacks from rivals as he continued to display strength in Iowa and other early voting states.

“In the last week of a campaign, a lot of stuff is going to be thrown around — that’s what happens in campaigns,” he said. “But I would hope that this state, New Hampshire and the country does not lose focus on what are the most important issues.”

The day also brought good news for Ms. Warren, who returned to Iowa for the first time since the impeachment trial began in earnest with a town-hall-style event at a middle school in Muscatine. “Good not to be in Washington,” she told reporters.

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Senator Elizabeth Warren held a town-hall-style meeting on Saturday in Muscatine, Iowa.Credit...Jordan Gale for The New York Times

She was working her way through her selfie picture line when the news broke that she had received the coveted endorsement of The Des Moines Register. In other endorsements Saturday, The New Hampshire Union Leader backed Ms. Klobuchar, and The Sioux City Journal in Iowa gave its support to Mr. Biden.

Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, who has struggled to gain traction in the primary race and has also been tethered to Washington because of the impeachment trial, traveled to New Hampshire on Saturday and planned to campaign there through the weekend.

Two other leading contenders, Mr. Biden and Mr. Buttigieg, were not stuck in Washington this past week. Mr. Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., arrived in Iowa for the beginning of a 10-day sprint across the state before the caucuses. His first stop was a town-hall-style event before about 300 people inside of an old opera house in Fort Dodge.

Mr. Buttigieg began his remarks by reminding the audience that, after 13 months of candidate events, they were in “the final days” of the race in which he has outlasted a handful of adversaries who began the race better-known and better financed than the mayor of South Bend.

After a town-hall-style event in Storm Lake, he was asked about his campaign’s reference to Mr. Sanders in one of the fund-raising emails as “a risk we can’t take.”

“I believe that we should be very mindful that one of the worst risks we can take at a time like this is to recycle the same Washington-style political warfare that brought us to this point,” he said. “If we believe it’s important to win, then the best thing we can do is put forward a candidate who offers something new, something different and something that will break us through the dynamics that have gotten us into this era that’s just got to change.”

Mr. Biden flew to Iowa after beginning his day with an event in Salem, N.H. Speaking in an elementary school gym, Mr. Biden alluded to the impeachment trial that is playing out in Washington and reminded the crowd that he had come under relentless attack from Mr. Trump.

“My guess if you go back and turn your TV on today, you’re going to find the name ‘Biden’ mentioned many, many, many times,” Mr. Biden said. “I wonder why he doesn’t want to run against me.”

Mr. Biden also received a boost on Saturday when he picked up the endorsement of Representative Cindy Axne of Iowa, a freshman Democrat who unseated a Republican incumbent.

“He is who I believe is the one sure bet to beat Donald Trump,” Ms. Axne said in an interview.

Ms. Axne hails from the kind of swing district that was key to the party’s takeover of the House in the 2018 midterm elections, and will be crucial to its continued control of the chamber.

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Representative Cindy Axne, left, a freshman Democrat from Iowa, said of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., “He is who I believe is the one sure bet to beat Donald Trump.”Credit...Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times

Ms. Axne appeared with Mr. Biden on Saturday night at an event in her district in Ankeny, a suburb of Des Moines.

“It’s not just that Joe’s been there, and he’s been in the Situation Room,” she told the crowd in Ankeny. “We also need somebody who’s running on a message of hope, a message of unification of this country.”

Mr. Biden has now been endorsed by two of Iowa’s three Democrats in Congress. Representative Abby Finkenauer, another freshman who flipped a Republican-held seat in 2018, endorsed him in early January. The state’s other House Democrat, Representative Dave Loebsack, has endorsed Mr. Buttigieg.

Ms. Axne’s district includes Iowa’s most populous city, Des Moines, and covers the southwestern corner of the state. President Barack Obama won the district in 2012, but Mr. Trump carried it in 2016. Two years later, in the midterm elections, Ms. Axne unseated a two-term Republican, David Young.

Ms. Axne said she believed that Mr. Biden would drive turnout in districts like hers, and emphasized the importance of protecting the Democratic majority in the House.

She also nodded to what she suggested was Mr. Biden’s broad appeal. “I truly believe that there are Iowans that would have some difficulty with some of the positions by other people running in this party,” she said.

Sydney Ember reported from Marshalltown, and Thomas Kaplan from Salem, N.H. Shane Goldmacher contributed reporting from Muscatine, Iowa; Reid J. Epstein from Fort Dodge, Iowa; and Maggie Astor from Ankeny, Iowa.

Sydney Ember is a political reporter based in New York. She was previously a business reporter covering print and digital media. More about Sydney Ember

Thomas Kaplan is a political reporter based in Washington. He previously covered Congress, the 2016 presidential campaign and New York state government. More about Thomas Kaplan

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline: In Break From Impeachment Duties, 2020 Candidates Return to Campaigning. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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