DES MOINES— The matching shirts are printed, the band instruments are tuned, the meat is thawing and the smell of grilling will soon be in the air. That’s right, it’s the annual Polk County Steak Fry, the official kickoff of the fall campaign season and a must-impress moment for 2020 Democrats.
The event was started in the early 1970s to help former Sen. Tom Harkin’s (D-IA) first congressional campaign. Harkin retired in 2014 but the Steak Fry has lived on. The intervening years have included a who’s who of Democratic politicians: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton secured past speaking spots, as have current contenders former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Both are set to attend this year.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is currently the candidate to watch in Iowa. She is thought to have arguably the best ground game operation and is expected to draw a big crowd of supporters at today’s event. A new Des Moines Register poll, set to drop tonight, will give Iowans a clearer picture where she stands compared to Biden and Sanders, her top rivals for the Feb. 3, 2020, caucuses.
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Biden’s campaign has in recent weeks has lowered expectations for the first caucus state. In a call with reporters, officials suggested it’s not a must-win. “Do I think we have to win Iowa? No,” a senior adviser said earlier this month, according to Politico.
Still, his fortunes have changed since his last run for president in 2007. That year, Biden’s speech hardly received a top slot.
“I apologize that I’m the last speaker you have to hear,” he told the crowd, focusing most of his time on foreign policy and ending the Iraq War, before pivoting to a campaign promise that earned loud applause: publicly funding elections to “end this obscene amount of money being spent.” Twelve years after earning less than 1 percent of the vote in the caucus, Biden has been criticized for relying heavily on big ticket fundraisers over small dollar donations.
In 2013, when he headlined the Steak Fry as vice president, he made an economic appeal to Iowans over jobs. “I don’t know how many times I’ve walked the picket line, I don’t know how many times I’ve been with you in your hometowns as factories were being padlocked and jobs were sent overseas,” he said, referencing a theme that’s taken fresh relevancy under President Trump’s focus on trade in the Midwest and as the United Auto Workers strike across several states.
Sanders, whose campaign announced it had contacted more than 1 million voters in Iowa since launching in February, recently parted ways with his political director here. The move was part of a series of early-state staffing shake ups as he toggles between the number two and three spots with Warren.
As this September’s event is likely to attract new attention in the midst of the contentious Democratic primary, past years have not escaped the drama. Last year, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), another current 2020 contender, pulled a big neighboring state no-no after agreeing to attend the event and backing out at the last minute, leading local activists to muse at the time that she may never be invited back! (Spoiler alert: She was and will be there today.)
Democrats have ordered more than 10,500 steaks and sold more than 12,000 tickets, organizers on the ground estimate. And the campaigns are making sure their supporters show up en masse. Biden’s team purchased 1,800 tickets, the most of any contender, while South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg impressed local Democrats with a 1,500-ticket buy. A big ticket buy practically guarantees that a candidate has a cheerleading squad around them at all times, a Democrat familiar told me. Those fans can come in handy for candidates not known for drawing big crowds.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) purchased 1,200 tickets, and plans to march to the Steak Fry with McDonalds workers calling for a $15 per hour minimum wage. The spectacle is on purpose because Harris has a lot riding on Iowa. She’s “f**king moving” there, if you hadn’t heard. And these kind of gatherings are not just cattle calls, but ways for voters to not only meet the candidates one-on-one on their own turf, but also see the strength of their ground game with less just five months until the caucuses.
As The Daily Beast reported earlier this week, some Democratic activists and operatives have been expressing concerns that Harris has not paid enough attention to the Hawkeye State. (In case you missed the story, one prominent Democrat audibly gasped when I mentioned that Harris hadn’t been to the state in over a month, adding that they hadn’t even noticed she was MIA).
Her campaign publicly acknowledged that on Thursday and held an impromptu call with political reporters to discuss their strategy moving forward. Some notable details: Harris’ campaign manager Juan Rodriguez and communications director Lily Adams said that they plan to invest significantly more time and resources here, including adding 60 new paid, full-time organizers and opening up 10 new offices. They also stressed that Harris is expected to be in the state every week in October.
As I weave in between ice cream trucks and marching bands–just a few of the festivities to come today–I’ll be asking voters if they believe Harris’ new Iowa push is enough to change some skeptical voters’ minds. If not, who is the frontrunner? Is Warren’s rise for real? Will Biden fare better now that he’s the man to beat? One thing that Iowans take seriously is their ability to vet candidates in hopes of setting the tone for the rest of the Democratic primary. But it takes time to get to know a candidate. And you have to be there to be known. I know they’ll give me the juice.
