Dem
51
GOP
49
We don't have an account from any of the 100,000 or so people who braved the cold last night to vote for their favorite Republican. However, we do have a narrative from B.K. in Hell's Kitchen, NY, about what it was like to be a part of the 2020 Democratic caucuses. We thought readers might like to get a little bit of the flavor of things. So:
I am a life-long New Yorker. But for 34 years, I've taken part in an annual weeklong ride across Iowa that has 10,000 cyclists. No matter how many people I asked, the Iowa Caucus remained incomprehensible to me. So, in 2020, I decided to actually go. One of my close friend's neighbors is a prominent Iowa City politician (Kim Painter, the first openly gay elected official in Iowa). So I had a guest invitation and wore a guest tag.
The caucus was a little different than expected. When you go down the stairs, you enter a carnival-like atmosphere, beginning with a representative from each campaign tackling you as you enter.
The space I was in was a bar in the basement of an organization (I don't remember which). To add to the rowdy atmosphere, everyone was given a coupon for a free beer. It was one large space, in which groups of chairs were placed throughout. This being Iowa City, they knew well in advance that the two largest groups would be supporters of Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). There were no meetings to choose a spokesman. Whoever had been the precinct captain for the candidate's campaign was the leader. There were no speeches made on behalf of the candidates. People who knew who their choice was got their beer and went straight to their group. Others milled around, speaking to different candidate groups' leaders or supporters (and there was an area for undecideds if there were those who wanted to remain so).
Then came the vote. This was done simply by counting raised hands.
After the vote, those whose candidates didn't make it had to decide what to do next. Really and truly, I have rarely seen a group of people as depressed as that of the Biden contingent (he came in a very distant fifth). After they sat around, all mopey, almost all of them just left without choosing another candidate. One of the most upbeat, enthusiastic groups was the Sen. Amy Klobuchar (DFL-MN) group. When they didn't make the threshold., they remained upbeat and almost all of them stayed and found another candidate. Actually, a majority of them immediately went over to join Pete Buttigieg. The most aggressive group was the Yang Gang. They made forceful effort to try to get people to join them. After the second round, everyone was viable. This was followed by some sort of meeting, but almost everyone went home. The only candidate who seemed to be marginalized from the start was Tulsi Gabbard, as her supporter(s) weren't given chairs.
P.S.: As I was flying home, I sat next to a young Fox News researcher. Since I had friends all over Iowa, we had been texting each other delegate counts from a lot of precincts. When the researcher heard this, he asked if I could give him the info, which I did. And which he promptly sent to Fox. To this day, some of my friends are still mad that I helped Fox out.
Thanks, B.K.! (Z)