Democratic longshot Martin O’Malley re-upped his efforts to win Iowa, launching his “Rebuild the American Dream” tour at the Iowa State Fair Thursday.
O’Malley, who has been basing his entire candidacy on winning Iowa, has spent the summer campaigning there, making an effort to visit each of the 99 counties, doing what he calls “old school retail campaigning.”
The former Maryland governor’s latest pitch includes 15 goals to improve American life paired with 15 stops throughout Iowa over the next three weeks. He will also take his new policies to New Hampshire during the end of August.
His 15 goals are economic and environmental, serving families, immigrants and veterans. Highlights include increasing American families’ median net worth by $25,000, reaching full employment for veterans by 2020, cutting deaths from gun violence in half by 2025 and implementing public financing of congressional campaigns.
Many of his goals, such as climate change, immigration reform, debt-free college, criminal justice reform and Wall Street reform have already been laid out by the governor on previous policy platforms.
“Today, our country faces new challenges — among them a changing climate, a justice system in need of reform, and an economy in which 70 percent of us are making less today than we were 12 years ago,” O’Malley said in a campaign statement. “These new challenges require new solutions, bold ideas and a real commitment to action. ”
While O’Malley has laid out multiple substantive policy platforms, he only averages 1.6 percent of the Democratic primary vote nationally, behind Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and Jim Webb.
