Iowa Caucuses Field Trip Day 3

Caucus Day is here! We started the day being interviewed on The Point with Mindy Todd - the students did an excellent job representing Monomoy and speaking articulately about our experience here. We checked out of La Quinta and headed to a meet and greet with Gov. Weld - our commonwealth's representative in the Republican race this year. It was a small event in a coffee shop, and the governor was generous in speaking to the students at length and answering their questions.

We then went up to the Capitol for a few pictures.

From there, we hauled across the state to Davenport to catch Andrew Yang's canvass launch at his campaign office there. The energy among his volunteers was unbelievable - we met people from Texas, California, Belgium, Sweden, and lots of other places who all came to work for him in Iowa. The place exploded when he and his wife, Evelyn, arrived. After a short speech to fire up the Yang Gang, we headed out.

We had some time in the afternoon to get some Chick-Fil-A, go for a walk down by the Mississippi River, and to get some souvenirs at the Black and Gold shop.

We then went to Fillmore Elementary School to observe a caucus in Precinct D24. We set up in our observer corner, then the festivities began. After a few initial formalities, the crown of ~125 gathered in different areas for each candidate and they did the initial round of counting.

After the first round, Buttigieg, Sanders, and Biden were the only ones to make viability, though Steyer and Klobuchar were close, and there were groups for Warren and Yang as well. Then there was some confusion over whether people for candidates with less than 15% could try to attract a few more to make it in the second round, or if they had to go to one of the top three to be counted toward county delegates. Eventually checking with the county, our precinct chair declared that they could, and after a lot of haggling, Klobuchar just barely made the minimum of 19. Then there was confusion over the preference cards that were given to each voter (new this year). They had a side with a one and a side with a two - presumably to indicate their preference in the first and second round. But this wasn't clear to everyone, and people left after filling theirs out (some seemed to have only filled in one side, but they counted these). In general it was a big mess, but in the end, out of the six county delegates that were to be selected, Buttigieg and Sanders would get two each, and the others one.

It had been over two hours, and we left before the calculations became official so we had time for a late dinner at Subway before getting to our Comfort Inn. Once checked in, the news was reporting a delay in the Caucus results, perhaps reflective of the confusion around new rules and procedures that we saw at our precinct, though the report blamed it mostly on the new reporting app that precinct chairs were to use that was producing some inconsistencies with the results they were getting by phone. So as we go to bed, we have no results. Tomorrow we are up early for the drive to O'Hare and the flight home - what an experience we have had! A huge thank your to our driver Victor from BusBank - got us all around Iowa safely, efficiently, and stylishly.

Another to our 20-strong delegation from the Monomoy RHS Political Action Club - there was never a more engaged and focused group out to save Freedom and Democracy.

Another to the two best co-chaperones in the history of the world.

And a final thank you the great state of Iowa and the Iowa Nice we encountered all over the state - see you in four years!

[And thanks for all the good luck, Rwenzori and Fifi]

Iowa Caucuses Field Trip Day 2

After our late arrival last night, we did not start too early this morning. Leaving at 9:30, we headed to Indianola for a Warren Rally at Simpson College, but getting there 40 minutes early was not early enough to get into the hall where she was to speak. There were a couple hundred of us who were left in the lobby, so her staff had us all huddle around an impromptu soap box and eventually (30 min behind schedule) she came out to give us a brief speech, which turned out great, partly because she took just three questions and two of them were from us and one was from my nephew there with us (see video below).

After the rally, we went to downtown Indianola for a bite to eat between rallies, stopping at the old timey Corner Sundry where most got a shake from the soda fountain. (and I enjoyed a chat on the bench outside with a couple native Iowans).

Next we went back to Simpson College, to a much smaller room, for a Joe Walsh event (one of the two Republicans running against Trump). We were about half the crowd, but this may have been the best experience of the trip. Walsh gave an impassioned speech about why Republicans should vote against Trump, and then took questions for the better part of the hour, most of which were from our students (maybe 12 of us got to ask one). We were unexpectedly impressed with the former US Rep from Illinois, and appreciated the chance to interact so closely with him.

From there we headed to Des Moines, and after grabbing a bite at the most friendly and efficient Subway I have ever seen, got in line at the Hiatt Middle School for the Biden Rally. Waiting outside on a beautiful day, we had a typical Iowa Caucus experience, meeting a couple counter ralliers in their Trump Tractor, getting free Constitutions from some C-SPAN folks, meeting someone who wants to Make America Kosher Again.

Once we got inside, we got the usual parade of surrogates speaking before the candidate, some of whom were impressive, especially Iowa's two new women members of Congress. By the time the VP spoke, it had gotten very hot in the crowded gym. He gave a speech, mostly about how and why to defeat Trump, never mentioning the other Democrats in the race. As we gathered outside after, a number of media outlets interviewed various students about their experience.

We took one last shot at seeing a candidate as Amy Klobuchar was scheduled to speak at halftime at a sports bar in Johnston. It was very crowded and we got to Jethro's BBQ just as the candidate arrived. A few of us packed in to catch part of her short speech, which she gave early in the second quarter as she was rushing for a plane to take her back to DC for the trial tomorrow.

We then headed back to the hotel where we ordered pizza delivered and watched the 2nd half. Tomorrow we will be up early to get on the radio - WCAI.

Iowa Caucuses Field Trip Day 1

Welcome to Caucus Weekend! The Political Action Club of Monomoy Regional High School is barnstorming Iowa!

We met at MRHS at 3:45am for the bus ride to Logan Airport where we caught a 7am flight to Chicago-O'Hare. By 9:30 Central time we had boarded our coach bus with our driver, Victor, and headed to Dubuque.

After stopping for a photo at the U.S. Grant Home in Galena, we headed across the Mississippi to Dubuque for lunch at the Sunshine Family Restaurant.

After some good Iowa diner grub, we went over to the Loras College Fieldhouse for the Buttigieg Rally. He gave a good speech in front of a crowd of ~500.

We then got on the bus and drove to Ceder Rapids for the Sanders Rally at the US Cellular Center. This was a big venue and about 3000 people were there.

The energy was high and there were a bunch of surrogate speeches that featured Michael Moore, Ilhan Olmar, Cornel West, and others.

Finally we got to Bernie who gave a rousing speech, followed by a set by Vampire Weekend. We were there for more than three hours (standing! the video above is the full set of speeches - Bernie is the last 30 minutes) and still had to leave before VW was done,

After, we grabbed a late dinner at Wendy's and then headed for a very late check-in at our hotel - LaQuinta in Altoona. Up early tomorrow for more rallies.