DES MOINES, United States: Months into the Democratic nomination marathon, after seven debates, countless rallies, bitter candidate clashes and an impeachment effort to remove the US president, Iowa on Monday holds the first-in-the-nation vote to see who challenges Donald Trump in November.
More than two dozen White House hopefuls began the journey, some as early as a year ago. Eleven now remain, exactly nine months from Election Day.
Despite the historically diverse field consisting of men and women of colour and young candidates with little Washington exposure, the two frontrunners are septuagenarian white men — Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden — with more than 80 years of political experience between them.
In a typical election year, Iowa absorbs the country’s full political attention. But this presidential cycle has been anything but normal.
Looming over the process is Trump’s impeachment saga, which is coming to a climax on Wednesday with acquittal almost certain in the Republican-led Senate.
Three senators — progressives Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and moderate Amy Klobuchar — have faced the unprecedented scenario of spending much of the past two weeks tethered to Washington for the impeachment trial, essentially leaving them to campaign in Iowa with one hand tied behind their back.
Add January’s military scare with Iran, a stubborn trade war with China, a deadly outbreak of novel coronavirus that has set parts of the world on edge — and US Democratic hopefuls find themselves competing for headlines.
Trump is all but certain to be confirmed as the Republican nominee at the party’s national convention on August 24-27 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Iowa’s all-important vote will likely whittle the Democratic field further as it provides the first verifiable results in a contest deciding the party’s future direction, and its 2020 flagbearer.
The Democratic primaries culminate July 13-16 when delegates to the party’s national nominating convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin will decide who runs against Trump on November 3.
Sanders, running as a democratic socialist, is leading in Iowa. An Emerson College poll of Democratic voters released on the eve of the caucuses shows him with 28 per cent support, seven points clear of centrist Biden, the former vice-president who is the national frontrunner.
South Bend, Indiana ex-mayor Pete Buttigieg and Warren are about four points behind Biden in poll averages. Second-tier hopefuls Klobuchar and tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang look to outpace expectations and seize momentum heading into the next contest, in New Hampshire February 11. “This is the most consequential election, certainly in the modern history of this country ... and it all begins tomorrow night,” Sanders told supporters on Sunday in Iowa City.— AFP
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