The People Who Power the Presidential Campaigns in Iowa

“At the end of the summer, I went home to the Bay Area for two weeks. And when I came back, the campaign had opened an office in West Des Moines. And they started staffing people who were more politically connected. Phone banking and canvassing became something we were able to actually do. It hasn’t been until the last two months that people have been excited enough for Yang to do some door-knocking for him. It’s a very online campaign, so there’s a lot of support from other states. I’ve housed people who have come in to volunteer.

“I’m probably not the most efficient door-knocker. I have my own objective here, which is to get a different perspective, to get to know people. You’re supposed to just do the pitch and not spend too much time there. But I really like going into people’s houses and talking to them about their problems, what matters to them.”

“I’m a stay-at-home mom of five children, and I’m working my way out of a job because my oldest is in the workforce, my three middle ones are in college, and my youngest is a high-school sophomore.

“I grew up in southeast Iowa. I was a social worker, and when I started having kids I decided I wanted to stay home. My husband is a surgeon, and, because of his job, we moved to northwest Iowa, here, to Spencer.

“It’s complicated. We have Steve King as our representative. We’re so isolated. People are just starting to get, Oh, he is a racist. We have so much white privilege here. We do have an influx of Hispanics, but we are really white out here.

“Politics have always been a part of my life. When I could first vote, at eighteen, it was a big privilege. I grew up Democrat, very liberal. My parents always took me to caucus, to vote. I get how lucky we are, for Iowa to be the first state to caucus. In 2006, I walked across the street and saw then candidate Obama, and my kids played basketball with him in the gym there.

“With five children, I paid attention to politics but wasn’t super involved. But when Obama ran for President, I just really got into making phone calls, knocking on doors. And that was really the first time I put myself out there in the community. And I got a lot of pushback. You know, ‘Liberal? You’re pro-choice? Oh, my God.’ I knew I was so outnumbered here, but with Obama, and then with Hillary—I worked on Hillary’s campaign, too—I was just, like, screw it. And now, with Trump, I’m just, like, we have to get him out. I’m very vocal, but respectful, too. I believe in civil discourse.

“For two years, I woke up every morning braced for, What has he done today? Dismantling institutions I care about, rolling back women’s health care. All that stuff. So when Democrats started running, I paid really close attention. There were so many good candidates, which I think is a total positive thing. Amy is in the state next door. I’ve been watching her career for a long time. She’s super effective. She’s got something like a hundred bills that she’s passed, and she’s always reached across the aisle. She cares about the same things I do: women’s health care, the environment, gun control. She knows farmers, because Minnesotans farm, too. And then I started hearing my Republican friends who weren’t enamored with Trump talking about her. And I was, like, ‘Aha. She could beat Trump.’

“It’s either Biden or Klobuchar around here that the Republicans talk about. Why Biden? Because he’s an old white man, to be honest. And they feel comfortable with that. And Amy Klobuchar, I think, because she’s practical. She’s a Midwesterner.

“Over the summer, we had the Summer Sizzler, in Spirit Lake, where the candidates go and talk. I went to her table, filled out my commit-to-caucus card. Right away, I was contacted and started making phone calls, knocking on doors, posting gatherings to kind of get to know Amy. With social media, it’s super easy to reach out to people and let people know what’s going on. I hate talking on the phone. I really have to force myself to call people and bug them. I’d much rather knock on doors.

“I noticed people are really engaged and thoughtful about their choices. Two months ago, people couldn’t make a decision to save their lives, because there were so many good candidates. Now, recently, when I’ve knocked on doors, they’ve all narrowed it down to two. Once in a while you’ll get a for-sure, you know, “I’m Warren,” or “I’m Buttigieg.” But usually they’ve narrowed it down to two. People are so thoughtful—they’ve been watching the debates, paying attention to the news. I’m just really proud of our area Democrats.

“I’m not an anxious person, but I wake up anxious every day, and I just feel it’s so important to get Trump out of office. So I picked the best one that I really thought could beat him and could be a damn good President. And I’m going to put time into it. It’s important to me. Our democracy is very important to me.”

“I was born and raised in Texas. I’ve been here in Iowa since 1985. I’ve been in Iowa longer than I was in Texas, but people still tell me I have the Texas accent.

“My husband was in the Air Force for twenty-one years. We were stationed in the four corners of the U.S.: Washington State, Alabama, California, Ohio, Michigan. We really fell in love with the Midwest. Liked the four seasons. Skiing. Ice-skating. Being out in the cold. So when my husband left the Air Force—he was trained as a computing officer—we were looking for a college town that had a position open in their I.T. department. The University of Iowa fit the bill.

“I taught in elementary schools. But eventually I went back to school and got a master’s in computer-based education and worked for I.B.M. part time. When we moved to Iowa, I also worked at the university and continued to take courses—partly because they had a nice option where we could take one course a year for free. When my husband died, in 1993, I checked my transcript and realized all I needed were two more courses and then to write a dissertation to have a Ph.D. in education. So I finished that and then taught at a small Catholic college in Dubuque, Iowa, for about five years. I still substitute-teach here in Iowa City and the surrounding towns a couple days a week. I tell the kids, ‘You can call me Ms. Taylor, but you can also call me Grandma Jan.’

“I have three boys. Once they were out of the house and grown, I got very involved in campaigns. Al Gore in 2000. John Kerry in 2004. Of course Barack Obama. I did a lot of phone-calling. When they realized I wasn’t going to say no to knocking on doors—some people don’t like to be out, face to face, knocking on doors—I started doing a lot of that.

“In 2016, Bernie was saying many of the things that I really agreed with. I have for a long time felt that the rich were getting richer and the middle class was stagnating. We have huge numbers of people who are homeless and people who are unable to afford good housing. Bernie Sanders talks about equalizing—I don’t think he’s going to take all the money away from the top one and two per cent, but having them pay their fair share in taxes. Health care—I was so glad to hear him say that it was unacceptable for a country as wealthy as we are to have people going bankrupt because of medical expenses, and not having medical care because they couldn’t afford it. As a military wife, I was well cared for. I delivered three babies through a system that is essentially a government—socialist, if you want to call it that—system. And it worked very well. We spent three years in Oslo, Norway—1972 to 1974—on a small NATO base. We didn’t have a dentist on the base, so we used the dental care that the Norwegians provided. And I realized that we were getting excellent care, paid by the taxpayers of the country. Now I am on Medicare, and my supplemental program is one provided to service members and retired service members and their wives and children. I think I’ve got wonderful care. I wish I could be in the big pool, sharing my good health, and the little amount that they pay for my health care—once a year, a visit to my family-practice doctor, who checks me out and says I’m doing pretty well.