Candidates on the streets

By: Maria Ramirez Uribe

As is the case with most people, before coming to Iowa, I had never met a presidential candidate. Because of this, the idea that Iowans had candidates in and out of their living rooms regularly was fascinating. I don’t think I truly understood the level of access and the normalcy many Iowans feel. 

As our days have moved on, I have realized how common it really is to run into candidates on the streets and see candidates speak on any given day. 

A few days ago a group of us were sitting in the hotel lobby when Andrew Yang walked up to us and had a conversation. The normalcy around having a presidential candidate converse with regular people is truly unique to Iowa. We had just covered him the day before at one of his rallies and got the chance to ask him a couple of questions. 

As someone who lives in Washington, D.C., even I’m not used to this level of access to politicians.

Later in the week, a group of students in our course who have been working for the Elizabeth Warren campaign ran into her while she was out for lunch with her husband. Yet again, regular people had the opportunity of running into a top presidential hopeful without any barriers. There was no event, no security. Just a regular person, who happens to be running for president, taking the time to speak to her potential constituents. 

After that, as a group of students and I walked back from dinner, we happened to run into Joe Biden as he arrived in Des Moines, Iowa and checked into his hotel. Once again, the normalcy in walking down the street and seeing a former vice president is still outstanding to me. 

I think these experiences, and our last few days in Iowa, just prove the fact that the citizens of the state have immense privilege in their accessibility to the candidates. As we have said in the past, Iowans truly get to experience retail politics. 

Seeing the ability Iowans have to make decisions based on seeing candidates in person, has made me think a lot more about the lack of access for other people in the country. I myself have seen the difference seeing someone in person and attending an actual event makes on your impression of a candidate.