Bernie Sanders Sent Me on an All-Expenses-Paid Trip to Iowa
My experience as one of the ranks of volunteers being shipped into Iowa by the Sanders campaign ahead of the caucuses
Special thanks to Danijel Juric for taking some of the photos featured in this article! (@dqnijel.j on Instagram and @dqnijel on Twitter)
First of all, hello Medium! This is my first article here and it certainly will not be my last!
This week I am writing about my experience over the past weekend boarding a bus paid for by the Sanders campaign for a “Bernie Journey” (as the campaign calls it,) a type of grassroots organizing event being advertised to folks who are on the campaign’s mailing lists. The concept is simple; the campaign charters buses from major metro areas surrounding Iowa, packs them with as many rabid volunteers as possible, and sends them to one of the dozens of campaign offices around the state.
Getting signed up
My Iowa getaway started with a text from the campaign advertising the system of campaign buses for volunteers. I have been a vocal supporter of Sanders since he announced his first presidential campaign in 2015, and as a result I am inundated with messages from the campaign (I love Bernie enough to tolerate them.) This particular text caught my attention. Rather than a robo-text asking me for money, it was a text from an actual campaign staffer who directed me to sign up for a bus to Fort Dodge, Iowa using the campaign’s BERN app after he received my enthusiastic response:
The Bus was scheduled to pick up volunteers at the Empire Mall parking lot in my hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a decently sized metro area of about 250,000 which is, importantly, about a 15 minute drive from the Iowa border. I later learned that the campaign also has buses carting supporters from larger Midwestern metros like Chicago and Minneapolis to field offices that are in need of more volunteers to hit doors.
The bus
I hopped on the Bernie bus bright and early at 8:30 AM on a Saturday. Immediately, I was warmly greeted by the woman who was in charge of this particular “Bernie Journey,” while another offered me some snacks that she brought for everyone on the bus, which I gladly accepted after making a quip about “Single payer bus snacks,” which was met with some chuckles. By the time we took off, the bus had around fifteen people on it which might not seem impressive unless you understand two factors. First, South Dakota, even in its largest metro area, is deep red “Trump Country,” and second, this trip involved six hours of total driving and giving up an entire Saturday. In my opinion, it is impressive that the campaign is able to get even one person to go on these trips, as the time and energy commitment required is quite high.
The trip to Fort Dodge took about three hours. I spent my time napping, gazing out the window at the endless fields, and enjoying the free WiFi and power outlets in the bus (the Sanders campaign did not cheap out.)
Arriving in Fort Dodge and getting trained
After a very pleasant bus ride, we finally arrived in downtown Fort Dodge, a city of around 24,000 according to the 2017 census. While not massive, the town is a hub of commerce for the endless acres of farms which surround it, a local told me. Fort Dodge is made all the more relevant by which state it happens to be located in, and the insane pressure on politicians to win Iowa and generate momentum early on in the election cycle. As I stepped out into the bitter -5 degree air, the town’s role in the primary was vividly apparent. Right next door to the Bernie field office was an office for Tom Steyer’s presidential bid.
As we filed into the elevator to the 4th floor of the building, my awareness grew that I was decidedly in the center of US politics at that very moment in January of 2020. The 2020 democratic party is responsible for choosing it’s antidote to the plague of Trumpism which has gripped the nation. There I was in an elevator full of fellow Bernie fans preparing to pitch our vision of America after Trump. It was very exciting.
Our posse stepped out of the elevator and walked down a hallway into the doors of the Bernie office. We were greeted by the official staffer for this office and his gang of Fort Dodge-based volunteers. We were asked to sign in at a table, offered coffee and were directed towards some chairs arranged in a circle.
We were guided in a discussion and orientation by Will, one of the staffers in Fort Dodge. The circle was comprised predominantly by volunteers who rode the bus from Sioux Falls with me, but there were also a number of local volunteers present. Will introduced himself and asked us to go around the circle, sharing our names and why we supported Sanders.
One thing I learned volunteering for the campaign in 2016 is that Sanders’ base comes from a wide set of demographics and even party identities. This truth seems to still be the case in 2020. In the circle, the spectrum ranged from a young Marxist who saw Bernie as the closest mainstream candidate to his ideology to an older man who identified as a Christian, a Conservative, and a Republican who was here to spend time with his son and wife, who were both strong Bernie supporters. This man in particular had some interesting thoughts on the 2020 race.
The man explained that he, despite his past support for the Republican party, felt left behind by the far right-wing rabbit hole that the party seems to have fallen down in the Trump era. Below I have paraphrased one quote of his which I thought illustrated Bernie’s cross-party appeal well…
When I look at Bernie, I see a genuinely compassionate man of depth, even though I may not agree with his policy positions.
Many of us in the circle were captivated by this man’s unique location on our political landscape, as was the staffer. After the man was done speaking, Will segued the conversation to explain some guidelines for canvassing, using the man as an example of someone who we might not necessarily agree with. Here is a summary of the campaign’s guidelines for engaging with voters:
- Share why you personally support Sanders. People don’t respond too well to rehearsed talking points as an opener. Explain what Bernie means to you and why it matters that he wins the nomination and presidency.
- Ask the voter what the most important issues are to them in 2020
- Do not engage in arguments with people who don’t agree with you. Science tells us that people walk away from arguments feeling more set in their ways and arguments end up feeling like personal attacks. Instead validate (which does not mean agree with) their opinions. Then, pivot to reasons why Bernie is the better candidate.
- Do not smear other candidates. Despite what corporate media is pushing this week about Bernie volunteers smearing Warren, a key pillar of the Bernie ethos is to validate the opinions of Biden and Warren supporters. We are taught to simply redirect the conversation to highlight Bernie’s strengths. This is what we were trained to do, and the campaign should not be held responsible for the actions of individual volunteers who do express more negative sentiments towards Warren.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the office. Visually, the space was dated, but in a 70s chic sort of way. The old doors, door frames and wood paneling on the walls, combined with the passionate dispersal of Bernie literature, photos, and pins throughout the office let my imagination transport me to a hypothetical bastion of progressive energy circa 1974, during the peak of the Watergate scandal, (a situation mirrored in its volatility and shifting of political paradigm by the Trump impeachment fiasco of 2019/2020.)
In terms of raw political energy, the Fort Dodge office was filled to the brim. We were all excited to help Bernie win the Iowa caucuses, and our excitement was bolstered further by the first primary poll of 2020 by Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom reporting Bernie’s lead in Iowa, which was released a few days prior. Unlike in 2016, Bernie is now widely viewed as a serious contender for the primary nomination. The volunteers I met on Saturday were well aware that Bernie has a real shot this time. Bernie’s Iowa army seems to be propelling itself on the energy of folks who are excited about the newfound energy of Sander’s movement and doing their part to help build the “political revolution.”
Another factor contributing to the palpable energy in the Fort Dodge office was the fountain of youth being funneled into the ranks of the Bernie campaign's volunteers. A good number of the fellow Bernie aficionados who made the trek from Sioux Falls with me were 18–20, around my age. The young energy of the campaign is not new, as Bernie’s rise to prominence in 2016 was in part because of his indelible ability to mobilize and register young first time voters. I could not vote in 2016 when I first volunteered for the campaign, but in 2020, at 19 years old, I am ready to finally give my vote to Bernie and foaming at the mouth to turn out as many Bernie supporters as I can during the primary.
After being trained on how to use the miniVAN app to canvas the houses of likely Sanders supporters, Will split us up into groups of about 4 people with one local volunteer in each group who would drive us out to the neighborhoods. We were each given a map of the neighborhood that we were to canvas, a clipboard full of campaign literature, and some hand warmers (very necessary for a January day in Iowa.) We piled into the car and we were off! The volunteer dropped each member of our group off in our respective neighborhoods and told to text her our address at 2:30 so that we could make it to our lunch with a “special guest” from the campaign at 3 (spoiler alert: it wasn’t Bernie Sanders, but close.)
And so I stepped out once again into the bitter Iowa winter, ripped open my campaign-issued pack of hand warmers, shook them vigorously, and placed them in my coat pockets. I was ready to “hit some doors.”
Canvasing
After knocking out my first few houses, I developed a system for accomplishing my task while keeping my hands safe from the absolutely gnarly cold. The main problem was that I was constantly taking off my thick winter gloves as I needed to use the miniVAN app to read the door knocking script and report the results to the campaign. I ended up throwing the gloves in my backpack and settling on the following guidelines to prevent frostbite: keep hands in warm pockets for as long as possible, only take them out when walking up the driveway, after reporting the door knock put phone back in pocket and quickly put hands back into coat pockets.
By the end of my first round of door knocking, I had hit about 3/4ths of the houses on my list, not too bad for my first time in 4 years. I texted the volunteer who dropped me off and she picked me back up and brought me back to the office. We were greeted once again by the staffers, this time with pizza and drinks for lunch. There was a short debriefing session, where we discussed some memorable door knocks (lots of passionate Trump supporters,) and what we could improve upon for the next round after lunch.
Lunch with Rep. Ro Khanna
Our debrief was interrupted by the special guest, Representative Ro Khanna from California’s 17th district, who in the past week had made headlines for leading a bipartisan effort in the house to cut funding for Trump’s war with Iran. Rep. Khanna was met with excitement and handshakes from the office full of progressives who had followed this bill and revere Khanna who is, in my opinion, the “AOC of the West Coast.”
After a healthy dose of greetings, Khanna stood in the circle and thanked us personally for helping to propel Bernie Sanders into the presidency. Rep. Khanna then opened himself up to question from the group for about 15 minutes. The first questions from the group pertained to a general sense of anxiety about Trump’s brinkmanship with Iran during the week prior. Below is a tweet thread of videos from Khanna’s question and answer session with volunteers:
What became clear after the lunch with Ro Khanna was the role of the campaign’s network of left-wing celebrities like Khanna and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez who are being carted around Iowa by the Sanders campaign. The visits by the progressive firebrands of the 116th congress seems to be a means of injecting energy and buzz into the campaign efforts in tiny Iowa towns where the grassroots work is being done by an army of passionate volunteers. Ultimately, turning out voters in record numbers for Sanders all across Iowa and the US is how the primary will be won. Having the opportunity to engage with politicians who are fighting for our issues was an added bonus for a day spent trying to accomplish exactly that goal.
All good things must come to an end, and with Rep. Khanna’s departure, we wasted no time getting geared up with new maps and replenished literature for round 2 of canvassing. This time, Will sent each carpool to a different small town in the area around Fort Dodge. My group was sent to the microscopic community of Dayton, which according to the 2010 census had a population of 847 people. We did not have very much time before we were scheduled to get back on the bus for the 3 hour drive back to South Dakota, so upon arriving in Dayton, we jumped out of the car and started speed-walking in opposite directions towards homes marked by the campaign as likely Bernie voters.
Reaching out to small communities
We only had about 30 minutes to hit as many houses as possible in a mad dash to make a splash in this farming town. I ended up only speaking to about 3 voters. However, two of those interactions were among the most memorable of the day.
In Dayton I spoke to three people: a woman who was completely undecided and did not know where her caucus location was, a rugged man who donned a camo baseball cap and carhartts, and finally a middle aged librarian who was very engaged in the primary news. I informed all of these individuals that they could caucus on February 3rd at the Dayton community center.
My conversation with the final woman was probably my most memorable door knock of the day. She told me that she supported Bernie in 2016 and still liked him, but was also considering voting for Pete Buttigieg. At this moment Will’s training kicked in. Personally, I despise Buttigieg on a purely political level (though I think he’s a nice enough guy.) I cannot accept the fact that he takes donations from billionaires and corporations (knowledge that was made famous by Elizabeth Warren’s iconic wine cave quip.) Instead of arguing with this woman about her support for mayor Pete, I validated her opinion by agreeing that I do see the appeal of his well-spoken sharp-as-a-tack Obama-esque politics. I then stated that I personally would not vote for him and would instead vote for Bernie based on the fundraising issue. I believe that the top priority in this country is getting money out of politics and overturning Citizens United by any means possible. The librarian understood my gripes and gladly took my campaign literature. We wished each other a nice night as I walked back to the car to depart Dayton, IA for the weekend.
Going home
Back at the office, the team of volunteers seemed to know each other quite a bit better after spending a day in the freezing cold fighting for the issues that they believe in with conviction. I personally feel that I met some great people who were volunteering for the campaign, both in Fort Dodge and on the bus from Sioux Falls. We ate dinner together in the office and with calls to action to return next weekend, we departed and loaded the bus back to South Dakota.
The three hour drive back home felt shorter than the drive in the morning, as this time it was occupied by honest and deep political discussions about the past ills and future of this country. One of my new friends commented that her favorite thing about volunteering for Bernie was meeting the “Kindred souls” who are attracted to working for the campaign.
Based on my experience in Iowa, it seems that the campaign is using its new influx of cash to enhance and build on the grassroots organizing strategies that shook up the 2016 primary. One thing is clear; in 2020 Bernie is back, and his campaign seems to be using their money in new and unique ways.
I felt that my free mini-vacation to Iowa was well worth the sacrifice of an entire day. I left feeling inspired and excited about the results of the Iowa primary. Above all else, I got to spend time with people who shared the same passion for politics and progressive issues that I have. And for that, I am grateful to the campaign for facilitating such an environment.
