Pod Save America - Iowa Episode 1: The Stakes

Episode Date: November 19, 2019

This is the first episode of a five-part miniseries on the Iowa caucuses hosted by Tommy Vietor and produced by Pineapple Street Studios. In episode one, Tommy looks back at Barack Obama's 2008 Iowa operation to explain how he won, how that victory propelled him to the White House, and why Obama says his Iowa caucus victory was more meaningful than the night he was elected president. Tommy also heads to the Iowa State Fair to talk with 2020 candidates and introduces you to some young campaign field staffers who we'll follow for the next few weeks.

Back in August, I went canvassing with Matt Felsenfels, an organizer for the Warren campaign. We're in the Northridge area, like less than a half mile that way. It's just like fields. It's a beautiful late summer evening in suburban Iowa. Matt's knocking on doors, but no one is home. Yeah, and it's, you know, it's hit or miss at this time. You know, you're either going to get a ton of people home or... What happens next, though, is important.

It's not super dramatic, but it's important. Matt spots an older guy out walking his dog. He's literally the only potential voter we've seen since we got there. What are y'all doing tonight? Actually, I'm Senator Warren's organizer here in this part of Maine. Are you planning on caucusing this year? What party? Democratic Party.

Yeah, I could do that. Awesome, I'd love to hear it. Do you know who you're gonna be caucusing for yet this year, or do you have some candidates in mind? No, I really don't. Totally up in the air? Well, I encourage you to check out Senator Warren. Well, Elizabeth Warren has been a good candidate, as far as I can see, in all the debates and so on and so forth.

Awesome. I don't know if you'd be willing to grab a cup of coffee or something sometime this week? Sure could. Love it. What's your schedule looking like? Let's see. I'm retired, so nothing. Nothing?

Love it. Love it. Do you want to just come by? Or do you want to meet somewhere? We could do a cafe date. You can just come by. Love it. Do you want me to just come by? Or do you want to meet somewhere? We could do a cafe deal. You can just come by. Sounds good. In just a couple minutes, Matt had turned small talk about a dog

into a pitch for Elizabeth Warren. And that is how you win in Iowa. Man, you're a pro. Oh, I have a moment and opportunity to organize. I'm Tommy Vitor, and this is a special Pod Save America series from the ground in Iowa. Today, what I learned in Iowa on the Obama campaign. Next episode, we're going to look at how Iowa got to go first. We'll look at all that history. In episode three, we're going to talk about what it takes to win in Iowa. And

then in episode four, we're going to explore some potentially better ways to pick the nominee. Iowa is a weird place. Not the state. The people in Iowa are wonderful. But it's strange that the state holds so much power in our presidential politics. The caucus rules are Byzantine and they're arguably undemocratic. The voters skew old and white, especially when you compare them to Democrats nationwide. And the campaigning in Iowa is intense to the point of just being absurd. When I was working for President Obama in Iowa in 2008, a staffer named Dennis McDonough was on the ground for that final sprint. Dennis is an experienced foreign policy expert. He actually went on to be the White House chief of staff.

And he was so hellbent on signing up one couple for Obama that he got their policy questions personally answered by Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader. And when a huge snowstorm hit, Dennis shoveled out their driveway. They still caucus for Hillary Clinton. But Obama won the state. And I'll be honest, the fact that we won is one of the reasons why I have such fond memories of the Iowa caucuses. But there's a lot of people that hate them. And we're going to get deep into all the reasons why in this series. But before that, I want to talk about what a caucus even is, how they work,

and what it takes to win in Iowa. And we're going to ask the question that comes up every time these candidates descend on Iowa, is this really a good way to pick a president? Here's where I'm going to ask you to go on a little sentimental journey with me. It's July 4th, 2007. We are in a little town called Pella in southeastern Iowa. It's me, the press corps, about 30 Iowans sitting on folding chairs on someone's front lawn, and Barack and Michelle Obama. Malia and Sasha were there too. This is a special day for us because our oldest daughter Malia is nine years old. And she was so kind to come along with us on this tour. She's back and back jumping on the trampoline,

so you may never see her. This is a family affair for us. This campaign is a tremendous journey for us, and we are honored to do it. I was 27 and working as the press secretary for the Obama campaign in Iowa, which at that point was kind of rough going. We were way behind Hillary Clinton and John Edwards in the Iowa polls and the national polls. So in Pella, this family showed up with a basket of toy horses from the leader. For most of us in America, political campaigns play out on TV, not in Iowa. They're used to seeing presidential candidates up close,

and it's actually not that weird to invite them over for a play date, in part because there's a decent chance that they'll show up. David Plouffe was Barack Obama's campaign manager in 2008. July was when I think Obama really began to click in. He was starting to hit his stride. Palo Alto is pretty red, and most campaigns weren't spending much time there. But we knew we had to because our only hope was to contest every part of the state. You know, in a general election, there's going to be plenty of counties you lose.

But what if you lose them 58-42 instead of 70-30? Matters. You want to be broad-based. You just don't want to do great in the African-American areas or college-educated areas. So I think in the beginning, a lot of people thought, you know, Obama, he'll do well in Iowa City. Right. an African-American guy against Clinton and Edwards do well in Pella and in Kossuth County and in Sioux County and in Lyon County. And, you know, we did. And that was such a huge part of winning. Like, we did not suck anywhere. It didn't mean we won every county, you know, but we did what we needed to do everywhere. Yeah, we really did. On January 3rd, 2008, Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses. On this January night, at this defining moment in history,

you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do. A few years ago, President Obama sat down with a guy named Chris Liddell Westefeld for an oral history of the Iowa caucuses. Here's how he described the feeling of winning that night. Yeah, that's my favorite night of my entire political career. To me, that was a more powerful night than the night I was elected president. He saw that night what we had worked so hard to build. Here's David Plouffe again. Here's an African-American candidate probably turning in the best performance in the Iowa caucuses we've ever seen and certainly built the strongest organization.

So part of that is because he's a community organizer. He knows that that wasn't a great speech he gave or all the money we raised. It was just good old-fashioned shoe leather and digital organizing. For me, much more meaningful to me than the night we'd secure the nomination in June of 08 or even beating McCain and Romney. It's that Iowa caucus night. And it's rare in life that you do your best work and you're your best selves in like a mission that you consider to be so important. Winning Iowa made people believe that Barack Obama could be president. It proved his argument that he could get new voters to participate in democracy and turn out to vote for him.

Lots of candidates, whether it's in the Iowa caucuses or primaries or general elections, say, we're going to turn out young people. We're going to change the electorate. And generally, it hasn't happened. And what we were able to do in Iowa was we had enough people commit to caucus for Obama, and almost all of them turned out. And I think that's what surprised people, and that's where the increase came in. It was Republicans.

It was independents. It was young people. It was people who never caucused. That win proved that white rural voters would support an African-American candidate. And it helped us raise money and gave us momentum that we desperately needed after Hillary Clinton beat us in New Hampshire a week later. The other thing that happened in Iowa was the Obama team learned how to caucus. And that proved to be critical down the road. Well, there's no doubt if you look at some of the caucus states,

Idaho, Minnesota, Colorado, Washington, that's where we built our delegate lead because you don't really get a delegate advantage by winning a state narrowly. You've got to win it in a landslide. And so many of those victories, you know, Iowa has a hand in them, both because it informed our strategy and tactics. But a lot of the people who worked in Iowa then went on to those states and wore senior leadership roles. So we got really good at caucuses. Iowa was our proving ground.

I promise this show doesn't just exist so that I can get a bunch of Obama people into a studio and revisit the glory days. I'm talking about 2008 because that experience is useful in helping explain what's happening on the ground right now and how things might unfold. Okay, so the first obvious thing, campaigning starts really early in Iowa. I moved to Iowa about a full year before the 2008 caucuses. It was pretty ragtag at first. For a while, I crashed with co-workers and then with my friend's aunt. We cycled through temporary office space and worked off of card tables before opening our Des Moines headquarters in an old tile company on Locust Street in East Des Moines. Apparently, no one was worried about situating ourselves on a street named after a swarming

insect commonly associated with the plague, but, you know, that office is now a church, so do what you want with that information. That was the first of dozens of campaign offices across the state. And in every one of them, there was a sign on the wall that said, respect, empower, include. Presidential campaigns are a direct reflection and probably the only reflection that voters get to see, caucus goers get to see how this person's going to govern. So your campaign is really the test of how you're going to operate as president. That's Paul Tooze. He was Obama's Iowa state director. He was a grizzled campaign veteran leading a bunch of 20-somethings. Think of that job as sort of like being an NFL head coach.

You have a bunch of regional coordinators who handle the day-to-day management of a pretty big team, but Paul set the culture of the campaign. You know, there's a saying kind of in campaigns, you know, if you're really good at what you're doing and, you know, you're making great strides, you kind of manage yourself out of a job. So for the, at least for the first three or four months, you know, it was just finding people, So for the, at least for the first three or four months, you know, it was just finding people, training them, building a culture, which I think was very important. You know, building a culture of organizing, building a culture of how we wanted the campaign to be run. Part of that culture was making sure that everyone on staff did every job, especially field work,

like knocking doors and making phone calls. That included me, even though my job was dealing with reporters. I will admit that initially I wasn't thrilled about it, especially the Saturday when I had the canvas in Worth County, which is basically in Minnesota. So I drive to Worth County and I'm going door to door and I'm just getting nowhere. No one's answering, no one's home. And eventually I just see a woman on a riding mower cutting her grass. And I thought, you know what, she's not on my list. I'm not supposed to knock on that door, but why not try to talk to her anyway?

So I walked across the yard and waved, and finally she turned off the mower and sat there listening to my pitch. And after a few minutes, she signed a supporter card and committed to caucus for Barack Obama. And it is one of my proudest memories from my time in Iowa. I do think it makes us all better. Like, you know,

if you're in a campaign and you're trying to direct traffic without knowledge of how the traffic is moving, that's dangerous. And so, you know, part of it is like, I think, you know, you as the press secretary getting out there and hitting doors, you know, you just had a greater appreciation of what we're trying to say when we talk to the press. Yeah, seriously. Yeah. And I think it's important to the culture too. Paul, do you remember the Kupka Challenge? I do, yes. Can you describe the Kupka Challenge?

Well, so I think it was one of the hottest parts of July. We had a contest to see who could knock on the most doors in a given day. And a great day normally would be 75 to 100 doors. That would be a great day in a normal day. normally would be 75 to 100 doors like that would be a great day in a normal day this fellow joe kupka who was organizing in ames in the ames area just north of des moines i think ended up doing about 236 doors unbelievable that's like 12 hours people were bringing them gatorade and you created this that you like made it fun right and so organizing became part of everybody's day-to-day life. Ronnie Cho and Quinn Stout would go to the burger bar to get a cheeseburger, and they would end up bringing supporter cards because they tried to recruit the people behind the counter. It was like breathing to them, trying to get people to caucus for Obama. the respect and power include thing too, is that I think disseminated from him. This was the first campaign that I was on or experienced where you didn't feel like you were treating voters as

stupid. Your job as an organizer, it wasn't just to organize for him, but it was also to serve that community you were in. So, you know, one of the reasons for Offices Everywhere is that it had this sense of permanence that we were going to be here, we were going to listen to you, we were going to respect you, we were going to be part of your community. You know, we had a lot of staff that would go out and volunteer in their community. You know, the people that saw that, the people that would come in and out of these offices, the people that would come in and out of contact with these young organizers would show up to caucus because they wanted that person to succeed. That's just, that's so true. And I think just human nature, you know? Yeah. So do you think that the Iowa process and the way politics are conducted in Iowa serves the nation well? Yes. Yes, very well. The nature of a caucus is it's not like asking somebody to vote. You know, voting is a 10 or 15 minute enterprise. This is asking people to be

active public participants in the process of their democracy. And I think people that do participate have a great love of country, have a great love of potential of this country. Because of that, they take their role very seriously. There's an earnestness about it. A candidate can't get through Iowa just being a 30-second soundbite. You have to get out there and press the flesh and answer questions and be accessible. And that makes our candidates better, way better. The other real thing about it is you're in Iowa for a year, a year, and you're doing retail stuff. And you're getting asked about life and death issues to what's your favorite color? You like the Cubs or the White Sox? It gives people a lens for which to see you and judge you as the leader of the free world

that no other place would or could because you're not there long enough. And I bet you, Tommy, at the end of the day, there's activists. They probably saw Obama 15 times, heard from the campaign 30, 40 times, you know, and we're still undecided. I know. It made us crazy. It's great though. Yeah, but also made us better. Yeah, it is. It made us better. Made you go that extra mile. That's right. Made you answer that question or find out what it would take. So in hindsight, it's very clear that everything rode on his success in Iowa. In the moment, did you feel like everything rode on Iowa?

No. I don't think we ever sat around and said, hey, we got to win. Right? Do you remember that? Oh, we certainly never said it out loud if we did. And that, you know, was, I think, kind of the beauty of the culture, which is let's do our best. Right? Do you remember that? Oh, we certainly never said it out loud if we did. And that, you know, was, I think, kind of the beauty of the culture, which is let's do our best. Let's do it from a place of the heart.

Let's be respectful and empowering and inclusive on the way. Let's honor him. Let's honor his message. Let's honor Iowa. Let's honor the process. And if we did that, we knew we were going to be successful in whatever term that meant. We knew we would do our best. But I remember his second trip, and we were in Davenport, Iowa.

And there were about 4,000 people there. And I remember seeing that, saying, you know what? He's going to be president. Seeing that, saying, you know what, he's going to be president. And you just knew you were dealing with a once-in-a-250-year candidate in a once-in-a-250-year moment. I don't think we talked about we had to win, but when you witnessed him and the reaction people had, you sure as heck knew you could. The stakes felt huge to us in 2008, and they were. As David Plouffe said, if we don't win Iowa, Barack Obama doesn't become president. But the stakes today feel even bigger.

I mean, every Iowa Democrat I've spoken with cares deeply about the issues, but they will tell you that the only thing that really matters is beating Donald Trump. And the staffers feel that too. More than one of them told me that they feel the weight of the world on their shoulders. How they, the voters, the staffers, the candidates, are dealing with all that pressure after the break. I'm Tommy Vitor, and this is a special Pod Save America series from Iowa. Back in August, I spent a few days in Iowa talking to campaign staffers and voters, but really it was an excuse to go back and hang out at the Iowa State Fair.

The State Fair is my favorite stop on the Iowa campaign circuit. Candidates spend most of their time just kind of walking around. They check out the butter cow. It's literally a cow made of butter. They flip pork chops on a grill. Maybe they eat a fried Twinkie or a Snickers. But the best part is that anyone can just come up to them and ask a question. And that kind of accessibility, it actually really matters.

I have to be honest. I don't know if I ever vote for someone if I hadn't shaken their hand or met them, because if you're out here, you have the opportunity and the responsibility. If you just want to shake their hand, that's great. But if you also want to hear them speak, just about all the candidates give a speech at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox. Hello! Welcome to the Des Moines Register of Political Self-Offs. I'm Rachel Stassenberger,

the politics editor for the paper. Let me go over the ground rules because we've got some newcomers. Hi, guys. The rules are Iowa nice, so you don't hold up signs. Why? Because people behind you can't see. Feel free to cheer, as I've already heard you can, but don't cheer because that's not very Iowa nice. I caught up with Mayor Pete right after he had flipped pork chops at the Iowa Pork Producers tent. Hey Pete, how are you? How are you?

Good to see you. Good to see you. The fundamental question is sort of like, is this a good way to pick a president? And I know there's no better time to ask you that than when you're literally chewing a pork chop while surrounded by 400 of our closest friends. The main thing is there's not a lot of spontaneity in politics, right? You know, anything that compels people to have human interactions,

I think is good. And there's definitely plenty of that here. Yeah. Senator Michael Bennett of Colorado was there with his family. We talked see you, Tommy. I'm sorry. How have you been? Sorry, it's sweltering here. We talked for a minute as they walked to find some food other than frozen apple cider. Anne, what are you drinking now? An apple slushie. How many is that? Two.

I've actually come to really admire how seriously people in Iowa take this, you know, and it is a it's a rigorous and challenging vetting of the candidates that are running for president. So I think these guys are actually doing some pretty important work on behalf of the American people. I mean, as you know better than anybody, there are nine million people or so probably who voted for Barack Obama twice and for Donald Trump once. We need to get those people back if we're going to win this election. The mood at the fair felt pretty different than in 2008. Back then, Bush was done with his second term. Democrats were hopeful about what came next.

Now everyone is just terrified. When you ask voters about their priorities, they'll talk about health care, they'll talk about the environment. But when you really press them, they basically end up saying that they just want someone to beat Donald Trump. The word you hear over and over again is electability, even if no one really knows what that means. Every Democratic candidate is making the case that they're the one who can beat Trump. But they can't be everywhere in the state all the time. So that job mostly falls to their young field organizers, like Matt, who you heard at the top of the episode. If you had an org chart of the Iowa campaign, the field organizers, or FOs as they're called, would be the bottom rung.

They're usually fresh out of college. They make no money. But they are, without a doubt, the most important part of any campaign. Mitch Smith is an FO for Cory Booker's campaign in Polk County, and this team is very committed to the job. Someone has asked Senator Booker to write, we rise, I believe, on a piece of paper, and then got that tattooed on their arm. Yeah, so that was Shea, one of my fellow organizers here in Polk County. And I think we had, and I don't know whether this is Iowa specific or campaign specific, but I think we had like over 15 people around the country, volunteers and staff who all participated and, and have

either gotten tattoos already or are planning to in the near future. All right, Mitch level with me. planning to in the near future. All right, Mitch, level with me. Did you get a tattoo? I did not get a tattoo. I think my mom would fly out here to Des Moines and murder me if I did. But I have so much appreciation for so many people on the team who decided to get tattoos. There were some guys I worked with in 08 that got like a one, three 2008 tattoos to memorialize the caucuses. And, you know, feel like it's a good idea in the moment,

but maybe a longer term you're making the right call here. Well, I mean, I hope, I hope that, that, that, that you're wrong.

You know, she's going to have, she's going to have Cory book, president Cory Booker's handwriting. You know, we rise on her, on her arm. That's going to have President Cory Booker's handwriting, we rise on her arm. That's going to be pretty darn cool. Olivia Ellis packed up her life in Massachusetts and moved to Iowa to work for Elizabeth Warren's campaign. So when I first got to Iowa, I wasn't organizing in Ames. I was organizing in Marion and Jasper counties, which is very, very rural Iowa. And I

was living with a woman on a farm and there was no cell service and they actually just had baby goats. And so at 4 a.m., basically on the dot, I was woken up by baby goats. And I think Elizabeth was going to be in my turf that week, and I had to organize a massive town hall, and it was just kind of a mess. And so I just had to get out. I couldn't stand to be woken up by another baby goat at 4 a.m. And so I had reached out to one of the first people I met here on the ground, and I asked if she happened to have an extra room in her house. And her response was like, hell yes, come over. And she wasn't even committed to Elizabeth at the time, which was pretty awesome. So yeah, I moved in and I got to know her pretty well. We had a lot of late nights, like talking about the state of our government and how Elizabeth Warren is the one to fix it.

Turns out she is on our campaign, what we call a GSD, like a get shit done person. Yes. Yeah. So it was pretty awesome that I happened to move in with her because she'll basically move mountains for the candidate that she ends up supporting. So yeah, before I moved out and moved turf to Ames, Iowa, she ended up committing. How loud is a baby goat? Oh my God. I wish that you could hear what a baby goat sounds like at 4 a.m. It'll really change you. I bet it will. Did you name a baby goat Elizabeth by any chance?

No, because I didn't want to have those negative emotions. But actually, there's another organizer and another rural part of Iowa who was also living on a farm and he got a goat named after him. That's cool. Yeah.

Following the news every day and reading the latest Trump tweet can make you feel like you are trapped in a never-ending nightmare. But the time I spent in Iowa over the last few months has been an antidote to that feeling. It gives you hope when you meet with voters who take the process so seriously. And when you talk with these young field organizers who believe so deeply in their bosses that they've dedicated their lives to the campaign, it's genuinely inspiring. I have no idea who's going to win the Iowa caucuses, but my time in Iowa in 2008 taught me what a winning campaign looks like. It's part candidate, it's part message, it's part luck and timing, along with having a relentless field organization that can turn enthusiasm into support on caucus day. So come with me to Iowa as we try to figure out which candidate can recapture that Obama campaign magic and win the Iowa caucuses. In the next episode, we'll watch Mitch try to win over a living room full of undecided voters.

We'll explain how the caucuses work. And we consider how the mimeograph machine gave Iowa Democrats all this power. I'm Tommy Vitor. This series is produced by Kat Aaron. Production help from Justine Daum and Agarenesh Ashagre. Joel Lovell is our editor. Music and mixing by Hannes Brown. The executive producers at Pineapple Street Media are Jenna Weiss-Berman and Max Linsky. Thanks also to Elena Schwartz and Nancy Rosenbaum. The audio from Pella is courtesy of Amy Rice and Alicia Sams. The audio of Obama talking about his caucus night win is courtesy of Chris Liddell-Westefeld's book,

They Said This Day Would Never Come. A special thank you to Tanya Sominator, Sarah Wick, Michael Martinez, Kyle Seglin, Brian Semel, Nikki Fancy, and Jordan Silver from the Crooked Media team. Tune in next week. We'll be back in Iowa.