Iowa

Subterms

    More stories

    • 138 Shares159 Views

      in US Politics

      ‘America First 2.0’: Vivek Ramaswamy pitches to be Republicans’ next Trump

      by

      Vivek Ramaswamy was at the Iowa state fair, a must-visit destination for any presidential candidate, when he decided to rap.Wearing a red cap and a baggy white polo shirt, the millennial founder of a biotech company launched into a spirited rendition of Eminem’s Lose Yourself, as the governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds, edged further and further towards the edge of their shared stage.“The whole crowd goes so loud, when he opens his mouth,” Ramaswamy rapped. The largely white crowd watched on politely.“But the words won’t come out. He’s choking, how, everybody’s joking now but the clock’s run out time’s up, over, blaow!”It was not a scene one usually associated with a Republican presidential candidate – especially a rightwing, deeply conservative one. But then again, the era of Donald Trump has upended almost all norms in US politics.Getting his words out has rarely been a problem for Ramaswamy, who is the youngest candidate running for the Republican nomination. The 38-year-old son of Indian immigrants has given scores of interviews since he entered the race, and has spent more time wooing people in the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire than any other candidate.It’s working too. In some recent polls, Ramaswamy has now started to appear second only to the dominant frontrunner of Trump himself.Before demonstrating his musical abilities, Ramaswamy had sat down with Reynolds for a “fair-side chat”, where he said as president he would fire 75% of federal employees and abolish a raft of government agencies including the FBI, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – which handled much of the US response to the Covid-19 pandemic – and the Department of Education.As president he would “revive our national identity”, Ramaswamy said. For good measure, he declared “the climate change agenda” a “hoax”.Hours after his appearance with Reynolds, Ramaswamy repeated much of the same things at the Des Moines Register newspaper’s “political soapbox”.Onlookers seemed enthused by Ramaswamy’s combination of extreme rightwing populism and youthful energy – and by his ready willingness to engage with them directly.“I like what he has to bring to us. He is on the same lines of where I’m at where there’s no reason to hide behind computers; actually speak to people and have open debates and talk real to people instead of being fake the way most of the world is now,” said John Meyers, a service director at a car dealership.Meyers, 54, agreed with Ramaswamy on climate change, adding: “I believe it is a hoax. I don’t believe it’s happening in the way everybody feels it is.”For someone who turned 38 in early August, Ramaswamy certainly has some extreme ideas: beyond just his head-in-the-sand approach to the cataclysmic environmental change happening on our planet.He rails against “the cult of radical gender ideology” – a term which he seems to use to qualify his opposition to trans rights. Ramaswamy wants to ban “addictive social media” for under-16s, while under his leadership the federal workers whom he has not fired would see remote working – which Ramaswamy calls “pro-lazy” – brought to an end.Like barroom bores across the country, he thinks the US has lost its “civic pride, civic identity, civic duty”. He has said affirmative action – the effort designed to ensure colleges and businesses offer equal opportunities to people of color, and people of all genders and sexual orientation – is “a cancer on our national soul”. His opposition to affirmative action, however, invariably lands on policies which may benefit Black or Latino Americans.“Top companies now regularly disfavor qualified applicants who happen to be white or Asian,” he tweeted in June. “Time to restore colorblind meritocracy once and for all.”Ramaswamy did not provide any evidence for his claim and did not respond to a question on the topic from the Guardian. Last year, a report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that “one of the most durable and defining features of the US labor market is the 2-to-1 disparity in unemployment that exists between black and white workers”.“African Americans have made considerable gains in high school and college completion over the last four and a half decades – both in absolute terms as well as relative to whites – and those gains have had virtually no effect on equalizing employment outcomes,” the EPI wrote.Ramaswamy has also called Juneteenth, a federal holiday which recognizes the emancipation of Black people from slavery, a “useless” holiday.Strikingly, he wants to strip the vote from people under 25; they can avoid being disfranchised if they agree to serve in the military or as a first responder (he did neither).Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Ramaswamy studied at Harvard and Yale before becoming a venture capitalist and investing in pharmaceutical companies, some of which focused on pharmaceutical drug development. It has made him very wealthy – his net worth is in the hundreds of millions of dollars – and as of late June he had loaned his own campaign $15m.While Ramaswamy has pledged to use his business prowess to lead the US to fiscal glory, in part through revitalizing the coal industry, it is the ongoing American culture war where he has focused much of his attention.A particular bugbear is “wokeism”. He wrote a book about the subject, and according to his website, education, capitalism, big tech companies, American Express and Mother’s Day have all been infected by wokeness, which he defines as “obsessing about race, gender and sexual orientation”.Probably not coincidentally, all of Ramaswamy’s shtick fits in with current rightwing Republican dogma, and Trump’s agenda.Billing his plan as “America First 2.0”, he has clung tightly to Trump’s lengthy coattails, defending the former president against the four indictments he faces. In Iowa he said Trump was the “most successful president in our century”.What Ramaswamy offers, in his telling, is Trumpism, but with more competence, and with a youthful vigor.He has leaned into his youth – as well as the rap he frequently mentions his prowess on the tennis court – as a point of difference from both Trump and Biden. He is also not short on confidence: in Iowa he went so far as to compare himself to the US founding fathers.“Thomas Jefferson was 30 years old when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. Alexander Hamilton was 24 at the time. Years later, he wrote the Federalist Papers, along with John Jay and James Madison. So do I think those guys were too young to set this nation into motion? You’re darned right they weren’t,” Ramaswamy said.Jefferson was actually 33 when he wrote the Declaration of Independence, while Hamilton, who was 19, had nothing to do with the famous breakup text, but in any case Ramaswamy’s tender years are not the only obstacle he faces.It remains unclear whether a person of Indian descent can charm Republican voters, 85% of whom are white. In Iowa, Ramaswamy was asked by the Guardian about his experience of racial discrimination.“I have faced racial discrimination in my life. It has come from people of diverse races. I don’t think racism is limited to one race, actually, but I also don’t let it ruin my life. Have I stubbed my toe? Yes, I have. Is it pleasant when your toe is stubbed? No, it is not but you don’t let it ruin your life. So hardship is something that happens to you; victimhood is a choice,” he said.Hopefully Ramaswamy does not spend too much time on Truth Social, the social media network established by Trump as a safe space for his supporters to rant and rave.On the rightwing platform Ramaswamy’s eligibility to run, as a child of immigrants, has been questioned (Ramaswamy is eligible to serve as president), while Trumpers frequently draw attention to Ramaswamy’s Indian heritage, and his Hindu faith.Moreover, he is running in a party that undeniably has a racism problem.A Trump supporter was arrested last week after threatening to kill Tanya Chutkan, the judge who is overseeing the election interference case against Trump in Washington. The threat against Chutkan, who is Black, included racist terms. Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney in Georgia who is prosecuting Trump over alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, has also received racist threats, while this week Trump himself used the word “riggers” in a social media post – which a former Trump aide described as a racial “bullhorn”.As for Ramaswamy’s chances of winning the Republican nomination, they – along with all other candidates not named Trump – seem small at the moment.Trump has a 40-point lead over his Republican rivals in an average of national polling, with 54.6% of party members planning to vote for the twice-impeached former president. Ramaswamy is in third place, at 6.7%, but has gone from an unknown to a near ever-present face, and on Wednesday one poll put him in second place among Republican primary voters – albeit 47 points behind Trump.He has so far thrown everything at the key early voting states of Iowa – where he has spent at least 26 days, far more than his rivals – and New Hampshire, but it remains to be seen if ubiquity will be enough.“He has no political background, which in this day and age could be a very big plus,” said Steffen Schmidt, professor emeritus in the department of political science at Iowa State University.“People are tired of professional politicians. He seems to have an outgoing, engaging personality, which is what you need to have when you’re going and meeting people who have no idea who the hell you are.”There’s no rest for a presidential candidate, and on Sunday, fresh from the fair, Ramaswamy traveled to New Hampshire, where he won applause as he railed against the “rotten, corrupt federal bureaucratic state” at a “No BS BBQ”.The next night, Ramaswamy, who frequently pops up on the influential Fox News, was the focus of a town hall hosted by NewsNation, a far-right channel popular among Trump supporters, as he tries to expand his national profile.“He will talk to any media who will have him,” said Dante Scala, a political scientist at the University of New Hampshire.“That’s all part of the game now. You can’t just rely on Iowa and New Hampshire catapulting you. Because in some ways if you wait until then, the catapult is too late.”People tend to like Ramaswamy. In New Hampshire, he has the highest approval rating of any Republican candidate, and people who come to his events invariably have good things to say. But Scala pointed to an old political adage that people in early-voting states “will date candidates, but marry someone else”.“I think Ramaswamy’s dilemma is he’s generating a lot of good word of mouth, and people like what they see,” he said.“But ultimately will they go beyond dating to actually marrying – especially if that means abandoning someone like Trump?” More

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      5 Applause Lines From Tim Scott at the Iowa State Fair

      by

      The senator from South Carolina leans on his biography — and gets a little help from a crowd echoing a familiar phrase on the stump.Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina enjoyed on Tuesday what other candidates had missed: having the Iowa State Fair largely to himself.He shook hands, tried barbecue and threw footballs with fairgoers — all a natural part of the retail politics of a presidential candidate seeking to gain standing in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. And he didn’t have to share the spotlight with rivals or hecklers.Mr. Scott, who has made heavy media investments in Iowa, has a polished pitch that draws on a more “common sense,” optimistic message and frequently refers to his faith, a nod to Iowa’s evangelical voters. His efforts paid off on Tuesday, as he drew a crowd that was one of the largest for any of the candidates who spoke with Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa and was repeatedly recognized — and praised — by fairgoers.Still, he faces an uphill battle as he seeks to propel himself from a distant third place, at best. Polls from The New York Times and Siena College this month found that he had support from 9 percent of likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers and just 3 percent of likely voters for Republican primaries nationally.Here were five of his applause lines from Iowa on Tuesday:“I believe America can do for anyone what she’s done for me.”Mr. Scott has used his story — raised by a single mother, the first in his family to go to college and a career leading to Congress — as proof of his belief that race does not predetermine success or struggle. A Black man, he has told largely white Iowa audiences that their futures are not dependent on “the color of your skin,” — even as he has recounted instances of discrimination he faced — and has referred to his experiences when supporting school choice policies.“The great opportunity party.”Mr. Scott often invoked a rebranding of the G.O.P. when referring to what he called the achievements of the “great opportunity party.” He used the phrase when talking about speaking with people who don’t share his politics, about tax cuts and in explaining “opportunity zones” — a signature policy initiative he helped pass in Congress. That legislation allowed preferential tax treatment for investments in areas identified as economically distressed. But it is debatable whether those zones actually benefited poorer neighborhoods or instead became a means for wealthy investors to gain tax breaks on high-end projects.“If you commit a violent crime, you go to jail.”It’s a simple message but an effective one. When Mr. Scott started this sentence on Tuesday evening — at a dinner for the Story County, Iowa, Republican Party, several in the room finished the sentence for him as they recognized the line from his advertisements. He has used such lines to emphasize his support for “backing the blue” — another reliable, albeit mainstream, applause line — and to denounce bail abolition, “weak” district attorneys and what he called the “weaponization of race” when discussing crime.“It is not the strength of China or President Xi. It is the weakness of President Joe Biden that is our problem.”Though he often employed a forward-thinking approach to distinguish himself from a crowded Republican field, Mr. Scott took swipes at President Biden in particular when discussing what he called a need for the United States to “stand toe to toe with China.” He has specifically said that the United States must prevent China from “buying our farmland and stealing our jobs” — a stance that has drawn bipartisan support and speaks directly to Iowan farmers. “I recognize that America is great because America is good, and the goodness of America can be found in the pages of our foundation, the Judeo-Christian foundation.”Mr. Scott has frequently linked his Christianity to the optimistic pitch that is central to his strategy. He has often quoted Bible verses that support the adage to “treat others” as you “want to be treated” and the idea that “all things are possible,” explaining that he wants a president who has faith in what he says are the country’s original values. More

    • 113 Shares159 Views

      in Elections

      Voters Are Wary of a Trump-Biden Rematch in 2024

      by

      Voters say they are wary of a replay of 2020 in 2024, and while they largely will fall in line at the end, they would prefer other options.Emma Willits, a mental health counselor from Des Moines, is looking for a candidate who cares about climate change and universal health care. She voted for President Biden and will probably do so again, though Ms. Willits, 26, says “it feels a little hopeless, honestly.”Sitting on a bench just across the fair midway, John Hogan described how he believed Mr. Biden was a criminal who should be “hung” — before his wife shushed him for being unkind. He said he voted for Donald J. Trump twice and would probably do so again, if the former president wins his party’s nomination for a third time.But Mr. Hogan, too, would like more options.“These two jokers compared to Ronald Reagan?” said Mr. Hogan, a 58-year-old retiree from Pella, a small town an hour southeast of Des Moines. “Come on.”In an era when American politics are defined by discord, there’s one issue on which voters across the divided political landscape appear to be able to find common ground: Please, not another round of this.Five months before the first nominating contest in Iowa, the country appears headed for the first presidential-election rematch since 1956, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson II for the second time.Mr. Biden is running for re-election with no significant Democratic challenger. In Iowa and among Republicans nationally, Mr. Trump remains the dominant front-runner despite facing multiple election-year criminal trials, leading his nearest challenger by a two-to-one margin, with nearly all the others in the pack of a dozen challengers mired in the single digits.President Biden is running for re-election with no significant Democratic challenger.Doug Mills/The New York TimesFormer President Donald J. Trump remains the dominant Republican front-runner even as he faces multiple indictments.Jon Cherry for The New York TimesInterviews with over two dozen strategists, voters and candidates indicate that many see the country as slowly marching not toward a new season but into reruns. And even in Iowa, where voters invest deeply in presidential politics, a whole lot of them would really like to change the channel.“That’s surprisingly one of the few things Americans can agree on right now — they don’t want a rematch,” Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, one of the lesser-known Republicans challenging Mr. Trump, said in an interview while riding the Ferris wheel. “Presidential campaigns should be about a vision of where our country should go. In both cases, there’s a lot of discussion of the past.”While recent polls show Mr. Burgum deep in the pack of Republicans, surveys indicate he has a point. Only 22 percent of Democrats said they would feel “excited” with Mr. Biden as the nominee, and nearly half of the party would like another choice for president, according to polling last month from The New York Times and Siena College.A larger portion — 43 percent — of likely Republican voters said they had a “very favorable” opinion of Mr. Trump. Yet 46 percent said they would be open to another option.If those are the choices, most voters would probably fall in line. Only 10 percent said they would vote for an alternative or stay home.As he waited for Mr. Trump to arrive at a grill stand sponsored by the state’s pork industry, Dan Pelican, 40, said he felt little anticipation over the prospect of flipping pork chops with the former — and perhaps future — president. He backed Mr. Trump in 2016 but in 2020 wrote in his own name.Dan Pelican, left, standing alongside Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida at a grill stand sponsored by Iowa’s pork industry at the State Fair on Saturday. Jon Cherry for The New York TimesOf course, the race is far from set. Mr. Trump’s standing could falter as legal troubles escalate and as his criminal indictments go to trial — a calendar that’s likely to overlap with primary season. Mr. Biden — the oldest president in history at 80 — faces persistent anxiety about his health within his own party. There’s also the prospect that his son Hunter Biden could face his own criminal trial during the campaign.As she sold funnel cakes from a stand at the fair, Emily Wiebke grimaced when asked whether she was excited for a Biden-Trump rematch. She would vote for Mr. Biden again, she said, but would really like some less seasoned options.“Last time I kind of felt like, why are you making me choose between these two people?” said Ms. Wiebke, 48, a high school English teacher from Fort Dodge. “Maybe get some younger people with some new ideas and kind of see where that is.”Instead, the 2024 election is shaping up to be as much about re-litigating the past as about casting the country toward the future. Biden supporters argue that he’s the only candidate who can defeat Mr. Trump, who many see as an existential threat to American democracy. Backers of Mr. Trump believe his falsehoods about the 2020 election being stolen and see the next race as a chance to right what they view as a historic wrong.“We know who we voted for and we watched all the way through that the results we were hoping for were taken away,” said Ray Hareen, 76, a retiree from Des Moines, who planned to vote for Mr. Trump. “I still can’t get over it in a way.”Strategists say those motivations reflect tribal forces driving American politics. Voters are driven more by hatred of the other side — what political scientists call negative partisanship — than by a desire to solve national problems. Surveys show that increasingly Republicans and Democrats view people who support the opposing party in extremely negative terms including stupid, immoral and dishonest.“Who do you hate? Hey, who hates you? Those are the motivating forces right now,” said David Kochel, a longtime Trump-skeptical Republican strategist from Iowa. “It would be better for the country if we had an argument about the future. And it’s hard to do that if you have two really old politicians who already ran against each other.”A number of voters described their thinking in ways that made clear that their support was far more about which candidate they didn’t like than about any positive qualities.“I’ll vote for Biden because I’m anti-Trump,” said Lydia Stein, 32, a nurse from Des Moines. “But there’s a question of how long Biden can continue to be effective and bringing forth new things to work on in another four years.”Much of the angst around the choices relates to the age of both front-runners. Mr. Biden is asking voters to keep him in the White House until age 86, a request that polls show raises concerns for most Americans and is the source of enormous anxiety among party leaders. He has found an unlikely defender: Mr. Trump, 77, who has said that Mr. Biden is “not an old man” and that “life begins at 80.”Voters are not so convinced. Jesse Lopez, a retired factory worker from Des Moines who was showing off his vintage 1970 Chevy Monte Carlo at the fair, said he would consider a Democrat or a moderate Republican. He planned to vote for Mr. Biden, but thought the president should have cleared the way for a new generation of leaders.“We need to get some younger blood in the government,” said Mr. Lopez, 71. “The younger generation, they see things different than us older generation, so I can see that the change needs to happen.”Partisans on both sides blame their opponents for the lack of excitement around the choices. As he walked the fairgrounds promoting Mr. Biden’s re-election campaign and sampling Iowa’s pork chops, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota said voters weren’t looking forward to “the fatigue around what we know will be the nonsense” from Mr. Trump.Asked if he was looking forward to a Trump-Biden rematch, Sam Clovis, a retired college professor from Sioux City, Iowa, who was an early Iowa adviser on the 2016 Trump campaign, replied, “Honestly, no.”After seven years of chaotic and often unprecedented political events — from impeachments to indictments to a once-in-a-century pandemic — many voters say they are seeking a break.Standing near the state fair’s soapbox Thursday afternoon awaiting former Vice President Mike Pence, Kim Schmett, a lawyer from Clive, Iowa, who voted twice for Mr. Trump, said he was hoping for anything in 2024 but a rematch of 2020. “President Trump and President Biden have had their opportunities,” Mr. Schmett said. “I think it’s time we move on to the future and try to unite people instead of reliving the last decade or two.” More

    • 175 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      ‘People just want change’: political circus at Iowa state fair can’t dispel civic discontent

      by

      Donald Trump held aloft a pork chop on a stick. Ron DeSantis and children rode bumper cars and a ferris wheel, played carnival games and ate snow cones and ice-cream. Vivek Ramaswamy rapped Lose Yourself by Eminem, Marianne Williamson recalled her days as a cabaret singer and Mike Pence said he was hoping to renew his acquaintance with a cow called Chippy.All the fun of the state fair in Iowa includes an agriculture and livestock show, amusement rides, every fried food imaginable and, every four years, a political circus like no other. Presidential aspirants make the pilgrimage to Des Moines to field questions from voters – including hecklers – and show their ability to speak, dress and eat like Middle America in the state that kicks off the Republican nominating contest in January.But for all the sunshine, the opening weekend of this year’s fair did little to dispel a sense of America as nation sunk in a political depression. It was difficult to find fans of Joe Biden. While Trump drew the biggest crowd, plenty of Iowans said they were eager to move on from the former president. Some of the most passionate and sizeable support was for radical outsiders such as Robert Kennedy Jr and Vivek Ramaswamy, suggesting discontent with the status quo and yearning for disrupters, no matter how unorthodox or outrageous.“I see it everywhere – people just want change,” said Gail Buffington, 62, wearing a white “Kennedy 2024” cap and “RFK Jr for president 2024” T-shirt. “They want this oligarchy to be done with. We saw that with Bernie Sanders in 2015. That was the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen in my life.”But this being Iowa, even populism comes deep fried in nostalgia. The fair, first held in 1854 and now spanning about 445 acres and attracting a million people over 11 days, is a point of pride for a state that often feels flown over and left behind. Homages to the way things used to be are everywhere, from a pipe band in revolutionary-era garb to an early 20th-century barber shop to a diner with old school Coca-Cola signs. Each morning, the national anthem is played, and visitors stand to attention.This is a majority white heartland where Trump’s “Make America great again” message still resonates. On Saturday he swooped in on his “Trump Force One” Boeing 757, stealing the thunder of Florida governor DeSantis. He drew thousands of sweaty, chanting supporters to his stops at a pork tent, baby farm animal exhibit and Steer ‘n’ Stein bar. In a dig at DeSantis, he was joined by about a dozen members of Congress from Florida, including Matt Gaetz, who said darkly: “We know that only through force can we make any change in a corrupt town like Washington DC.”Trump was not alone in trading on the idea that America needs to rediscover its mojo. Several other candidates harked back to the country they grew up in: Republican Nikki Haley recalled her childhood in small town South Carolina. “It was always about faith, family and country,” she told a crowd, citing research that 78% of Americans think their kids will not live as good as a life as they did. “And that’s what I want America to be again. That’s what I want us to get back to.”Kennedy also spoke with gauzy nostalgia about living during the period of great prosperity after the second world war. “When I grew up in the sixties, my uncle [John F Kennedy] was president, we had created the greatest generator of wealth in the history of mankind,” he told a big and enthusiastic crowd at the Des Moines Register newspaper’s political soapbox. “We owned half the wealth on the face of the earth in our country.”These laments for the past pointed to malaise in the present. For Democrats, the choice is between an 80-year-old whose son is the subject of a special counsel investigation, a self-help author with no experience in elected office and a vaccine conspiracy theorist who has won praise from Steve Bannon and other far-right extremists.For Republicans, the runaway leader in the opinion polls is twice impeached and facing 78 criminal counts in three separate court cases. There could be a fourth criminal case filed against him within days.His principal rival is running even further to the right and has become embroiled in a debate over whether slavery had upsides. And Ramaswamy, whose youthful energy and talk of “revolution” could appeal to a new generation, speaks of a climate change agenda “hoax” while voting to drill, frack and burn coal as never before. He also vowed to shut down the Federal Bureau of Investigation.It might be argued that neither party is offering an inspirational optimist in the mould of John F Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton or Barack Obama. The country is divided and at odds with itself. Many voters are turned off, especially by the prospect of a Biden v Trump rematch.Ginny McKee, 73, a retired special education teacher from Claremont, California, said: “I just wish Trump and Biden would go away. Both of them damaged the presidency or, in Trump’s case, what people did to him damaged the presidency.“I don’t think Biden is running the government. There’s just a whole group and they keep him tethered for fear he might say his views. My husband at home watches Fox News all the time so I’m getting a lot of things that other people don’t see: the blunders and all of the word games and all of that.”Despite the White House pointing to figures that show low unemployment, inflation falling and the best post-coronavirus pandemic recovery of any major industrial nation, negativity about the Biden economy now seems baked in with many voters.Patty Reeve, 68, a retired accountant, said: “He caused the inflation with all the excess spending. He continued to pour money into the economy that went far past the point we needed it, continued to pour money into things on the environment. We’re not ready for electric vehicles. We don’t have the infrastructure. He’s pushed that to no end. Just all of his policies have been wrong and I’m not buying his spin on it.”Dennis Alatorre, 30, a call centre worker, claimed that he was living proof of the president’s failure. “I actually just lost my job because of Biden’s economy. The company that I work for no longer could afford to continue to have my position because they were paying so much in taxes and regulations for work-at-home employees. So my position basically just got eliminated.“It had nothing to do with my performance or anything of that nature. It was simply because they just couldn’t afford to continue to have that position for me anymore. So I can directly relate that the unemployment rate has in fact increased and it’s very apparent just based on the economy that Biden has presented. The cost of gasoline is almost the same price as milk.”Even Biden’s supporters wish that someone else was the party nominee. Kathy Jones, 73, a retired public school teacher from Iowa City, said: “I felt like he has accomplished amazing things and he’s too old. I’m sorry that the Democratic party has not been able to come up with a candidate other than, like, Marianne Williamson, who’s kind of out there, or a conspiracy theorist: Robert Kennedy’s son. That’s disappointing.”On the Republican side, Trump continues to reign despite – or because of – criminal charges widely dismissed here as politically motivated. Some fans wore bright green hats that said “Donald Trump Back to Back Iowa Champ” and bright green T-shirts that declared: “Make Our Farmers Great Again”.Joe Wiederien, 52, said: “He says it straight up and he’s the best president we’ve ever had. He says things as he means it and, for the United States, he puts our people first. He had a good, strong economy built up and safe borders.”But there is a significant chunk of Republicans at the state fair who wish it wasn’t so. John Rusk, who refused to vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020, said: “It looks like it’s a done deal. He’s got his 30%, 40% of diehard followers. The others are all splitting the vote – 2% here, 10% there, 15% there. The other problem is they’re still following Trump’s line. They will not come out and tell the truth that Trump is a traitor and shouldn’t be back in the White House. He’s an insurrectionist.”DeSantis once seemed to provide an alternative, but his struggles to show the kind of down home charm that Iowa expects were laid bare again on Saturday. As he held an event with Iowa governor Kim Reynolds, a plane circled overhead with the taunting message, “Be [likable] Ron!” – reportedly paid for by the Trump campaign. The conversation was also interrupted by LGBTQ+ rights protesters blowing whistles and ringing bells. DeSantis also had to run the gauntlet of pro-Trump hecklers at various stops.Rusk added: “Ron DeSantis might have been all right, except he’s trying to out-Trump Trump and he’s fighting the culture wars. The average middle American that’s not too liberal and not too conservative – the poor people in the middle of the political spectrum who don’t have a voice right now – doesn’t care about the culture wars. It’s all been ginned up by the rightwing press. I don’t care if somebody wants to transition to another sex or gender or whatever. It’s none of my damn business.“As a Republican I’m in a small minority but I’m one of the swing voters in the middle that’s going to keep Trump out.”DeSantis, Haley, Pence and Republican candidate Larry Elder had one more important pilgrimage, passing the aroma of cheese curds, corn dogs, cotton candy, funnel cakes and deep fried pickledawgs to visit the state fair’s 600lb butter cow – an attraction dating back more than a century. Sarah Pratt, 46, who has sculpted the butter cow since 2006, said: “It’s tradition, almost like you have to have a corn dog, ride the giant slide, see the butter cow. It’s like a checklist.”Come the end of the fair, the cooler will be switched off, and the cow will melt down and end up in five-gallon buckets. But for those seeking a hopeful metaphor, Pratt and her twin daughters will sculpt it all over again next year. More

    • 163 Shares119 Views

      in Elections

      DeSantis Gets Heckled and Trolled on His Big Day With Trump in Iowa

      by

      It’s been said that a bad day at the fair is always better than a good day at work. For Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, those two ideas collided on Saturday in Iowa.Mr. DeSantis, who has been struggling to gain ground on former President Donald J. Trump and is counting on making his mark in the state’s first nominating contest, suffered a series of moments — all beyond his control — that would be enough for any candidate to question his place in the political universe, especially before a near face-to-face encounter with the front-runner at the Iowa State Fair.Ahead of the Florida governor’s appearance with Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa at a “fair-side chat,” a plane flew overhead with a banner that read “Be likable, Ron!” Although it wasn’t immediately clear who was responsible for the stunt, the joke was a reference to advice given to Mr. DeSantis before a 2018 debate during his first run for Florida governor.Then, during the interview, a small group of liberal protesters with cowbells and whistles sought to interrupt the conversation with Ms. Reynolds, who reminded the crowd to be “Iowa Nice.” Several of the protesters were removed from the event by the Iowa State Patrol. For other candidates, Ms. Reynolds’s interviews have been a safe space with softball questions and few unpredictable moments. Not so for Mr. DeSantis.But drawing scorn from the left has always been part of the Florida governor’s brand. And Mr. DeSantis’s appearances on Saturday with two of Iowa’s top Republicans — in addition to the interview with Ms. Reynolds, the governor and his family rode the Ferris wheel with Senator Joni Ernst — reflected the attention his campaign is showering on Iowa, where he has pledged to visit all 99 counties.Mr. DeSantis leaned into his Iowa-centric approach, criticizing Mr. Trump for his attacks on Ms. Reynolds, which the governor called “totally out of bounds” as he spoke briefly with reporters. “She’s never done anything to him,” Mr. DeSantis said of Ms. Reynolds, who is staying neutral in the caucuses. “But that’s just how he operates, to attack one of the best governors in the country.”Accompanied by his wife, Casey, and their three small children, Mr. DeSantis walked through crowds of fairgoers to join Ms. Ernst and Representative Zach Nunn, also a Republican, for a session at the grill flipping burgers and pork chops. Donning a red Iowa Pork Producers Association apron, Mr. DeSantis dove into the retail politics demanded at the busy state fair.But Mr. Trump, who also visited the fair on Saturday, proved impossible to escape, although the paths of the two candidates never directly intersected.Mr. DeSantis was trailed for much of the day by Trump supporters with placards trumpeting Mr. Trump as a “back-to-back Iowa champ” in 2016 and 2020. Mr. Trump of course did not win the 2016 Iowa caucuses, placing second to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. He never conceded defeat.And while the Trump Team handed out anti-DeSantis fliers before the former president’s speech at the Steer N’ Stein, the trolling was not limited to the fairgrounds, it seems. As Mr. DeSantis finished flipping pork chops, Mr. Trump’s plane appeared overhead, circling the fairgrounds in what Iowa locals say is a nonstandard flight path into Des Moines International Airport, and prompting chants of “We love Trump” from supporters in the crowd.Mr. DeSantis’s tour through the state fair also exposed him to the kind of unscripted interactions his campaign usually avoids. Some people shouted positive encouragement as he and his family walked by (“We love you, Governor!” “Go get ’em, Ron!”), to which Mr. DeSantis often responded with a smile or a wave.Others — on both the left and the right — jeered him with cries of “Loser!” “Fascist!” or “DeSanctimonious” (a favored insult of Mr. Trump’s), which Mr. DeSantis ignored. One woman hurled an expletive at him as he carried his young daughter on his shoulders.All the while, Mr. DeSantis and his family reaped a prize bounty at the fair games, including a milk jug toss and balloon popping. They walked away with at least two oversize Pikachu stuffed animals and what appeared to be a giant koala.Mr. Trump’s decisive grip on the Republican Party was further emphasized on Saturday night, when Mr. DeSantis joined Ms. Reynolds at the Knoxville Nationals, a major sprint car race an hour outside of Des Moines. Roughly 25,000 people attended the event — and many seemed to be from Mr. Trump’s wing of the party.The crowd’s reaction was decidedly mixed, as both governors gave brief remarks from inside the oval dirt racetrack. A smattering of boos rang out when Ms. Reynolds spoke, growing into a chorus when it was Mr. DeSantis’s turn.“Go back to Florida,” one man bellowed from the bleachers, as Mr. DeSantis sought God’s blessing for the state of Iowa and the nation, as Ms. Reynolds looked on.“If you win, take her with you,” another person shouted.Anjali Huynh More

    • 125 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      Trump Needles DeSantis and Commands Spotlight at Iowa State Fair

      by

      Former President Donald J. Trump has made it known that he will not concede even a moment of the spotlight to his 2024 rivals.On Saturday, just as Gov. Ron DeSantis was working the pork tent at the Iowa State Fair — a rite of passage for presidential aspirants — Mr. Trump’s private plane flew noisily within spitting distance of the fairgrounds.Another plane circled the fairgrounds earlier in the day with a “Be likable, Ron!” banner trailing behind. The exclamation point was designed to look like the logo of a previous Florida governor that Mr. Trump dispatched in 2016, Jeb Bush.The Trump campaign wouldn’t take credit for the plane, though it heavily promoted the stunt. “I direct all inquiries to Generra Peck,” said Steven Cheung, Mr. Trump’s spokesman, referring to the campaign manager that Mr. DeSantis replaced this week.In the weeks leading up to the state fair, Mr. Trump has been on rocky terms with leaders in Iowa, including the state’s popular governor, Kim Reynolds, but he is well suited to the old-school politicking and political theater for which the event is known. On Saturday, he met a much warmer reception than Mr. DeSantis, his leading rival, who has struggled to connect with voters in more unscripted moments — a vulnerability Mr. Trump took advantage of on the fairgrounds.In another effort to poke Mr. DeSantis, the former president brought along a host of prominent Florida Republicans who have endorsed him over their governor. “We got pork that’s more well done than Ron DeSantis,” said Representative Matt Gaetz, a former DeSantis ally who is backing Mr. Trump in 2024 and was wearing a shirt that said “Florida man.”As Trump walked into the pork grilling area — wearing a white shirt with cuff links, no tie and a suit — he was handed a pork chop on a stick. He briefly held it aloft before offering it to a right-wing television personality nearby, who proceeded to eat it.Later, Mr. Trump spoke inside the Steer N’ Stein beer building, which advertises its extra cold 27-degree brews and on Saturday had a “MAGA Meal Day” special of “$24 for 2024” that included a double cheeseburger, “freedom fries” and a coke.Before he took the stage, Mr. Trump’s team handed out leaflets attacking Mr. DeSantis for his position on agricultural issues, calling him an “utter catastrophe” for farmers. The handouts were a reminder of the asymmetry of the unfolding primary: Day after day, Mr. Trump and his team rip Mr. DeSantis, who has mostly tried to disengage with the former president, lest he anger the sizable portion of the party that likes Mr. Trump but that he still hopes to win over.Mr. DeSantis wasn’t winning over Trump supporters on Saturday. They booed him as he strolled by the beer hall with his daughter on his shoulders, before Mr. Trump arrived.Reid J. Epstein More

    • 113 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      Pence Leans Into Civility Politics at Iowa State Fair

      by

      Looking to contrast himself with former President Donald J. Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida — leading rivals in the race for the Republican nomination who converged on Iowa on Saturday — former Vice President Mike Pence made a play for civility politics during a round table with about two dozen Christian college and university presidents.When Mr. Pence arrived at the event in Ankeny, Iowa, Mary Jo Brown, 67, told the former vice president that he was “a man of integrity.”A former teacher at Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary, a private Christian school, Ms. Brown said in an interview that Mr. Pence’s faith had guided his decision-making on Jan. 6 and that she would support him “if he can get through.”Mr. Pence is polling at a distant sixth place in Iowa, according to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, far behind contenders like Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis, who are commanding attention in Iowa this weekend with their brasher style of politicking.Since the latest indictment against Mr. Trump came down, which revealed that Mr. Pence had provided prosecutors with “contemporaneous notes” regarding the former president’s efforts to reverse his 2020 loss, Mr. Pence has been emphasizing his loyalty to the Constitution — and invoking his faith as he tries to win the support of the evangelical voters he is counting on to propel him in the 2024 primary.But polling shows that Mr. Pence has the same 3 percent support among white evangelicals in Iowa that he has among the larger field of Republican caucusgoers.On Saturday, Mr. Pence cast himself as a key figure in the appointment of three conservatives to the Supreme Court by Mr. Trump, telling the Christian education leaders that he had interviewed each justice — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — as vice president.“You can have confidence that we have a pro-religious majority on the Supreme Court,” he said.Mr. Pence also shared an anecdote at the event about being invited in 2010 to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., by his then-House colleague John Lewis to commemorate Bloody Sunday.Noting their political differences, he called the civil rights leader, who died in July 2020, a “great man” and said that they had a mutual respect for each other as men of faith. That’s a stark contrast from how Mr. Trump played down Mr. Lewis’s accomplishments after his death.“He didn’t come to my inauguration,” Mr. Trump said at the time. More