BOONE, Iowa — Once upon a time, nobody here felt compelled to defend their state and the unique role it plays in selecting presidents.
Where else, besides New Hampshire and South Carolina, will more than 1,500 people give up half their weekend to press the flesh with more than half dozen 2016 contenders and then listen attentively to candidate stump speeches one after the other, as they did Saturday for Sen. Joni Ernst’s “Roast and Ride” event in Central Iowa. And yet, top Republicans who spoke were clearly defensive about the caucuses, declaring that other states either can’t or won’t do what Iowa does.
“It’s Iowa Republicans who will ask the right questions, who will choose the right leader for our nation,” Gov. Terry Branstad said in his remarks kicking off the latest cattle call of GOP presidential contenders. “We have an important role to play.”
The Iowa caucuses serve as the first nominating contest of the presidential primary calendar, followed by New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. In the middle of a campaign that has seen all of the contenders descend on Iowa going back to early last year, it might be odd to debate the Hawkeye State’s influence over the process. Even the Democrats who are running for president, or thinking of running, are spending as much time here as ever.
Yet Republican officials are worried, perhaps because the state GOP’s quadrennial straw poll is in danger of being ignored by the party’s top presidential contenders and dying; or perhaps because the winner of the Republican caucuses has not advanced to the party’s nomination since 2000, when then-Gov. George W. Bush of Texas finished first. Republican voters also are jealous of their place in the pecking order, particularly in an election cycle with such a wide-open field.
Kristine Bartley, a fifth generation Iowan from Des Moines, said the sort of intense campaigning her state is known for, where ordinary voters meet personally with candidates and vet them one-one-one, just wouldn’t happen if other states were allowed to supplant her state on the primary calendar. She spent 30 years in Southern California working in the entertainment industry before moving back to Des Moines, and said the difference in interest in politics among non-Iowans is stark.
“I can actually say it’s like the Woodstock of politics,” Bartley, 66, said, of the experience here. “I really like watching the process with the candidates.”
Indeed, because Iowans are predisposed to participate in the campaign in a way that citizens in other states aren’t — either because other states are too big or people are less interested — rank and file Iowa Republicans might be less worried than their party’s leadership.
“The candidates have a chance to vet themselves here and they’re on a national stage because you’re here — all of the media’s here. You’re going to follow the candidates if they went to the moon,” Jay Semerad, 65, of Adel, Iowa, said. “If they start off in California or Los Angeles, I think it would be harder because of the sheer numbers of people and I don’t know if they could meet people this way in a large metropolitan area. Maybe, but the average person wouldn’t [meet] them.”
The Roast and Ride was hosted by Ernst, 44, a freshman senator who won election to an open Senate seat in 2014, becoming the first woman elected to Congress from Iowa in state history. The event, a fundraiser for her political action committee, began with a convoy of 300 motorcycles, departing from Big Barn Harley-Davidson in Des Moines and ending with Ernst in the lead, and ended at the Central Iowa Expo in Boone, where the straw poll is supposed to be held this August.
Ernst and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker led the motorcycle convoy, and were joined at the event by Branstad; Sen. Chuck Grassley; retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson; businesswoman Carly Fiorina; Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, among others.
Iowa is still important to the candidates, at the very least, who have come to the state early and often and made a point Saturday of emphasizing just how important voters here are to their plans for winning the nomination. Rubio worked the crowd for nearly 40 minutes before his speech, saying he plans to return often and with his family now that his kids are out of school for the summer. Other candidates pledged their allegiance to Iowa’s special status.
“It’s set up in a way that you get to actually meet a lot of people. They get to actually see who you are. You can’t really hide and it gives them a real opportunity. I think it’s a very important part of the process,” Carson told reporters.
“People in Iowa, they’re so engaged, they’re so totally involved in politics,” Huckabee added. “They know the issues, they know the candidates, they don’t get off into crazy stuff, they focus on stuff that really matter to Americans.”
