Spoils shared for Democrats
Clinton and Sanders supporters try to convince O’Malley supporters to come to their side.
by Sergio Carro
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton neck and neck after Iowa Caucuses
103 people turned out to caucus at Oskaloosa High School to vote, with results split almost entirely down the middle of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Three voters came to support Martin O’Malley but were soon disbanded once caucusing began, convinced onto either the Sanders or Clinton side. After the votes were tallied, Bernie had received 52 of them and Hillary the remaining 51, which after some calculations left both with 9 delegates each.
Trevor Eaton was chair of the precinct for the first time, helping to run proceedings as well as counting the votes. As a voter as well as organizer, Eaton had to carefully balance these roles. “I wanted to make sure to keep everything as on the level as possible, I didn’t want to bias it one way or the other, so I didn’t participate in trying to persuade anyone one way or the other, but I did caucus for Bernie Sanders tonight” Eaton said. In such a close precinct, others took control to sway voters their way.
Luis Angel Islas, a graduate from William Penn University who is now doing a masters in business leadership, has been working for the Clinton campaign and was taking part in his first ever caucus. “You have to try to rally,” said Islas, which is exactly what he did to the three Martin O’Malley supporters that turned up. “I guess the number one thing you have to do when you’re talking to somebody or trying to convince them to caucus on your side is, you have to be a listener more than anything, you have to sit down and listen to what concerns them the most,” Islas said. One of the concerns the O’Malley supporters he spoke to had was early childhood education and the minimum wage, which Islas tried to assuage. He told them, “Hillary has been fighting for children since the 1990’s when she was first lady and she also wants to help out with salary in terms of women.” His words seemed to do the trick. “Luckily for us she decided to come on over, it was really close between her going to Bernie and us, and she chose us,” Islas said.
Another young voter taking part in the caucus was Jacob Cummings, a student at the University of Iowa. “I’m here both as a caucus member and as a Bernie Sanders volunteer,” Cummings said, who is very excited about Bernie’s proposals of free college tuition. “It’s just really hard to rack up that much debt and then join the job pool and not be sure that you can pay off all that debt.” Cummings was surprised to see any O’Malley supporters. “It was funny to see the three of them coaxed by all sides, just surrounded by a bunch of people,” said Cummings, who argued that Bernie’s the most genuine candidate of the lot. This stance was supported by Leslie Ruggles who works at Crisis Intervention Services in Oskaloosa. “For me, it was looking at where the campaign contributions were coming from, and Bernie had a lot of small contributions and not a lot of corporations,” said Ruggles.
A more experienced caucus goer, Jean Smith, a retired school nurse, caucused for Hillary eight years ago and is doing the same this time around. “I hope she has a lot more luck, I think our country is ready for a woman President. I think women have a lot more logic and patience, and so I think that she has a better chance of working across the aisles, and with the congress and the senate that she will get a little more cooperation,” said Smith. Smith believes that voting for Hillary would be a chance to make history by making Clinton the first ever female President, which she used in her persuasions to the O’Malley supporters.
For the Democrats it is going to be a two horse race between Clinton and Sanders. Clinton won in Mahaska County with 56.2% of the vote. She also holds a very slim lead in the whole of state of Iowa after Monday night’s caucuses, coming away with 49.9% of the vote and 23 delegates compared to Sanders’ 49.6% of the votes and 21 delegates. Martin O’Malley received 0.6% of the vote and has no delegates.
The next stage in the race to become President is the New Hampshire primaries, which take place on February 9th and according to current polls has Sanders as the favorite.
