citizens Iowa they talk deeply pride On his role in the United States election process in 1972 congress “They started to open the race for the presidential nomination and they won it.”first in the country“They dress like medal. These are explained as follows:“good people, normal and ordinary”Vince Newendorp’s choice of words at the Nikki Haley event a few days ago. There are very few people in it population of 3.2 million, They participate, but celebrate their political weight and national and global media attention; although it has long been questioned that both are oversized. And they applaud that the system lets them “It has a voice.”.
This Monday, in the midst of a cold as hell storm, it rose once again only on the Republican side in a duel dominated by an overwhelming majority of Republicans. donald trump in which Haley and Ron DeSantis were battling for second place to prevent their ambitions to continue in the race from being silenced. However The role and relevance of these meetings, looking into the future, passing through The tightrope on which the acrobat walks.
Complete selection calculations And radical transformations of political traditions living in United States of America since the arena was raided Trump, a unique political animal, They question whether the model of the last fifty years can be sustained. And there are warnings that the voice of money is increasingly outweighing the voice of the citizen.
Democratic strategy
democrats They have already minimized the role of party committees After the 2016 big fight between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in Iowa, which was marred by doubts about the reliability of the results, and the chaos that followed 2020.
Just then an attempt was made to make the process more reliable and transparent, but fiasco He left the team and the country, waiting for days for results, which came with mistakes, and left Iowa with what was one of their own. main assets: act like screencan strengthen or bury candidates.
Together clearly political strategy Joe BidenThis year’s party meetings here were not even the first election event of the process. democratic primariesHe also officially skipped New Hampshire and is currently It will officially open in South Carolina on February 3. Meetings were being held this Monday, but only to resolve bureaucratic and party issues, and the results of open voting by mail will be announced on Super Tuesday, March 5.
We’re dealing with a dominated state like Iowa white vote, older and deeply religious, South Carolina is undoubtedly more representative in terms of racial, demographic, and ideological diversity. Not coincidentally, it was also she who helped the current president, who finished fourth in the Iowa caucuses and fifth in New Hampshire in 2020, position himself and lay the foundations of the coalition that allowed him to win the nomination. , Banking House.
Republican model
Inside Republican area There is also a crisis in party meetings (the historic cold weather made it doubtful that the attendance record of 186,000 people set in 2016, when Trump came in second after Ted Cruz, could be broken). moment of transformation.
DeSantis and Haley developed this: traditional campaigns This has made Iowa the center of the US political universe for months. they started organization machines In the case of the governor of Florida, he is particularly powerful and well-oiled in the state (although his fights within his own campaign and with the Super Political Action Committee, which is vital to him in Iowa, are also debilitating, damaging, and open the door to attacks that seek to undermine his image as a good administrator).
Haley and DeSantis have visited the state frequently, with DeSantis setting foot in all 99 counties at least once; Vivek Ramaswamy has completed this full tour twice. And on his agenda were: dozens of events and meetings with voters, sometimes small groups of no more than 20 people.
embersThe greatest destroyer of American politics, partially shattered this concept. Her organization on the field It was like DeSantis’ huge and exemplary to mobilize volunteers, supporters and voters. But their Visits became much less frequent. only 30 per year And the former president often holds large or medium-sized rallies, drawing about a thousand people Sunday at an auditorium at Simpson College in Indianola. not forced to bow to the rigors of retail policy like its rivals Iowa is the maximum expression of this. Your followers no longer need to ask you questions to get to know you. They can wait in line for hours in winds of almost 40 degrees below zero just to see it from afar.
Occasional interventions throughout the 100 minutes in Indianola One night at El Molino in Barcelona As a political event, Trump took the opportunity to accuse Democrats of “abandoning Iowa” and promised: “As long as I have something to say, you will continue to be first in the country.” But his own figure weakens this commitment.
The overwhelming advantage that put beyond doubt in this race (although the duels for second place were crucial) meant that: Interest in Iowa and the rain of millions has waned this often accompanies this interest. If the direct economic impact of expenses such as hotels, restaurants or car rental in the last week before the vote in the capital’s metropolitan area in 2020 was more than $11 million, this year it is estimated to remain at 4.2 million.
Although the Republican caucuses continue to create an economic boom (For example, more than 105 million dollars were spent on advertising in this campaign), some observers warned that they were becoming another political capitalism machineThis removes the DNA of the citizen voice that Newendorp proudly speaks of. Meanwhile young people democrats They believe, or perhaps hope, that there is no return and are betting on taking advantage of it. permanently delete They see meetings as a distraction from what they believe is truly important: Local level organization and politics.