DES MOINES, Iowa — It wasn’t how Steve Bullock would have preferred, but for just one day, the Democratic presidential contender was king in this crucial early nominating state.
Montana’s low-key governor was blocked from joining most of the crowded field of primary candidates on the debate stage for two nights in Miami this week after failing to meet qualifications set by the Democratic National Committee. Bullock did his best to make the most of it, “making lemonade out of lemons,” he told the Washington Examiner.
The governor insisted to anyone who would listen that he’d rather spend a day talking to potential Democratic caucusgoers in Iowa, host of the first nominating contest on his party’s 2020 calendar. That, he said, was worth more than the estimated seven minutes of verbiage to a national audience each candidate is likely to get in during the crowded first round of debates.
“I’ve got no complaints,” Bullock, 53, said during a brief telephone conversation with an Iowa voter on his call list. “It’s a beautiful day in Des Moines.”
With two dozen Democrats running for president, Iowa even at this early stage in the campaign is typically awash in candidates. But not on Wednesday, Night One of the Democratic Party’s debate extravaganza. Instead, it was a political ghost town, even as campaign staff for the contenders continued to toil behind the scenes.
Bullock did his best to capitalize by spending the day telephoning potential caucusgoers and Democratic activists, starring in a televised town hall broadcast by the local NBC affiliate, and gaggling with Iowa press. He bought pizza for staff at his downtown Des Moines campaign headquarters and urged them to look ahead to the second round of debates in Detroit at the end of July, for which he’s already qualified.
It was almost like any other day on the 2020 trail, save for his absence from the big show.
His staff projected a stiff upper lip, but Bullock eventually conceded that he would rather be in South Florida, wondering aloud how it serves the Democratic Party to exclude a governor who has been successful in a state that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016.
He is a “competitor” but “also a marathon runner,” he told the Washington Examiner. “I’ve done a good handful of those and you know it’s over the long field. Yeah, I was disappointed, and yeah I was frustrated, but it is what it is.”
With that, Bullock, currently a blip in the polls, headed to Des Moines International Airport to board a plane for New Hampshire, the second state on the nominating calendar, where he plans to be king for a day yet again as the second group of Democrats takes the stage for Night One of the first debate.
