Stuck in DC for impeachment, senators hold ground in Iowa

BURLINGTON, Iowa — Since President Trump’s impeachment trial kicked off nearly two weeks ago, three key senators in the Democratic field have been cooped up in Washington and unable to campaign across Iowa ahead of Monday’s caucuses.

Fortunately for them, their time away doesn’t seem to have mattered.

Since the trial started Jan. 21, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has seen his campaign on the upswing in Iowa, taking over the lead in multiple polls. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has ticked up in the polls and has hit double digits in three straight surveys, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) remains firmly in the pack, though her support has dropped slightly in that time.

As for the remaining two top-tier candidates, the support levels for former Vice President Joe Biden and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg have remained relatively static despite both candidates having barnstormed the state throughout.

“Given the importance of social media and tele town halls, technology, all that kind of stuff, the folks who’ve been in D.C. during impeachment, they were able to stay in touch with a lot of folks in Iowa. I think that’s been lost on some folks,” said Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa), a Buttigieg supporter. “They haven’t been here physically as much as they would have liked to been, but they’ve still been able to stay in touch with their folks.” 

Since the start of the trial, Biden and Buttigieg have spent all but two days in the Hawkeye State. However, having set up shop in the state has not led to a rise in the polls.

“I was always very skeptical about the conventional wisdom that the impeachment trial would be this major detriment for Warren, Sanders, and Klobuchar because they couldn’t physically be in Iowa,” the Biden supporter said. “To the contrary. I think I saw more of Klobuchar on TV during the trial being interviewed than in any previous point.”

The Minnesota Democrat has done a total of 27 national TV hits along with 20 local media interviews since the trial kicked off. 

Along with being a constant presence on the airwaves, Klobuchar held three tele-town halls — two aimed at Iowans across the state and another for senior citizens. More than 35,500 Iowans tuned into those, according to a campaign memo released Friday morning.

All three campaigns have relied heavily on surrogates in that time as well, with Sanders and Warren holding events continuously featuring high profile lawmakers, celebrities and their own families.

Three members of ‘the squad’ — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) — stumped for Sanders on Thursday and Friday.

Their fourth member of the squad, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), got a standing ovation from voters in Ames, where she headlined a late rally for Warren.

Reps. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Andy Levin (D-Mich.), former HUD Secretary Julián Castro and Warren’s husband Bruce Mann — accompanied by the family dog — also hopped around the state for the Massachusetts senator.

“This is an opportunity for us to highlight the new faces of this campaign, to show the breadth and depth of surrogates,” said Misty Rebik, Sanders’s Iowa state director. 

But the senators’ absence has clearly dimmed turnout, though that is set to change as the Senate passed a resolution on Friday paving the way for President Trump’s acquittal. The chamber will reconvene on Monday, freeing up the 2020 candidates to campaign in Iowa over the weekend.

Pressley addressed a few dozen voters in a cavernous hall on the campus of Iowa State University, a fraction of the crowd Warren herself would have drawn.

“It’s hard if you’ve got two favorites to pick the one you haven’t seen,” said Rob Sand, the state auditor, who remains uncommitted.