What They’re Saying About Elizabeth Warren at the Iowa Polk County Steak Fry
Charlestown, MA - Elizabeth Warren spent three days in Iowa last week, visiting Iowa City, North Liberty, Mount Vernon and Cedar Rapids before attending the Polk County Democratic Steak Fry on Saturday in Des Moines. Warren met with climate activists and attended the LGBTQ presidential forum and CCI People’s Forum. She’s now made 12 trips to Iowa in 2019 and held 60 events in every corner of the state.
Des Moines Register: Elizabeth Warren's slow, steady ground game helped propel rise in latest Iowa Poll Elizabeth Warren’s slow but steady rise in the first-in-the-nation caucus state is as much a result of her robust organizational presence here as it is a response to the Massachusetts senator’s many plans and policies, Iowa experts say.
“You’re seeing a major result of Sen. Warren being here a great deal, hiring a smart team in Iowa and executing a smart campaign operation,” said Matt Paul, a Des Moines operative who ran Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Iowa caucus campaign.
Los Angeles Times: Behind Elizabeth Warren’s surge: Emotional punch coupled with attention to detail As Friday night’s forum showed, Warren has attracted support by combining two skills often not found together — careful preparation and attention to details on the one hand, and, on the other, an ability to connect emotionally with her audience.
In her rallies, Warren taps into much of the same voter anger toward government and the political system that President Trump feeds on, while offering a dramatically different solution.
Where Trump plays off his supporters’ resentment of “the elites,” Warren denounces the corrupting power of money. She has honed her case into a succinct argument that she laid out this way at an event Thursday evening in Iowa City: “Whatever issue brought you here tonight, whether it’s gun violence, healthcare, education — whatever brought you here — there’s a decision to be made in Washington: I guarantee, it’s been influenced by money.”
Polk County Steak Fry
Iowa Starting Line @IAStartingLine: Rather than engage in big visibility spectacles, Elizabeth Warren’s team is treating the Steak Fry as an organizing opportunity. They’re training up volunteers at their rally site to go in and talk with caucus-goer about Warren
https://twitter.com/IAStartingLine/status/1175418408998985728
Iowa Starting Line: WHY IS WARREN LEADING NOW? LOOK TO HER STEAK FRY STRATEGY Amidst a day full of chanting, marches, sign wars and a number of other moves to demonstrate organizational strength, Elizabeth Warren’s Iowa team diverged from the pack to focus on something very specific: talking to voters.
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At the Polk County Steak Fry at Des Moines Water Works on Saturday, Warren’s team decided to not have a massive pre-speech rally, nor a big march into the event. Instead, they did a training session early in the day with volunteers before sending them out in the event to mingle with attendees. “We’ve proved at other events this summer that we can get hundreds of people together to scream and chant and make a huge fuss, but at the end of the day that’s not how you win,” said Morgan Sperry, an organizer for the Warren campaign in Dallas and Madison Counties. “You win by talking to people, finding out where they are and having these persuasive conversations.”
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Olivia Ellis, a Warren organizer in Ames, Iowa, said that Warren wants to invest in the field, and put an emphasis on talking to voters, “and that’s exactly what we did today.” “It’s not every day that there’s 10,000 Iowans in one place, so we would be remiss to not be talking to them about who Elizabeth Warren is, where she comes from and what she’s fighting for,” Ellis said. And the work seemed to pay off. When it came time for Warren to speak, third in the day’s order, there was an eruption from the crowd as a sea of liberty green signs were raised over attendees’ heads to welcome the Senator to the stage.
Des Moines Register: Largest Polk County Steak Fry in history draws 12,000 attendees, 17 presidential candidates Warren’s team...focused its organizing efforts on the more than 12,000 Democrats who attended the Steak Fry. Instead of a large rally or march, volunteers fanned out to speak with Iowa Democrats about her story and the issues she's running on. The campaign used its rally spot as an “Organizing HQ” to train volunteers on canvassing, including tips on how best to approach potential supporters. Volunteers were easy to spot as they canvassed the crowd with “liberty green” clipboards and balloons — the color of the Statue of Liberty and the signature tint of the Warren campaign. Many wore buttons that said, “Ask me about Elizabeth Warren.” Afterward, Warren stayed for her signature “selfie” line, taking 1,050 photos in two hours, according to her campaign.
Kim Norvell @KimNorvellDMR: . @ewarren organizers are doing things a bit differently at the #SteakFry. Instead of loud rallies and marches, they’re training volunteers to speak with Iowa Dems here about her plans and campaign for president. #IACaucus
https://twitter.com/KimNorvellDMR/status/1175419619479302144
Frank Bruni @FrankBruni: You hear it. You feel it. Elizabeth Warren is the rock star of the Democratic Party right now. #SteakFry crowd goes wild when she’s introduced. https://twitter.com/FrankBruni/status/1175490133090611201
Brianne Pfannenstiel @brianneDMR: .@ewarren gets a standing ovation as she walks out to her signature "9 to 5" Dolly Parton walkup music. Not sure if it was the first standing ovation of the day, but certainly seemed to be the most enthusiastic reception so far. https://twitter.com/brianneDMR/status/1175490483830894594
Eric Bradner @ericbradner: Warren starts her #polkcountysteakfry speech saying she’s “here to stand up for the Constitution.” She says it’s time for Congress to “start impeachment proceedings right now.” “Congress has failed to act, and now Donald Trump has shown he believes he is above the law.” https://twitter.com/ericbradner/status/1175490350468796416
Musadiq Bidar @Bidar411: This long line of hundreds wraps around twice. I ask what’s going on and someone yells: we’re waiting to take a photo with @ewarren while another yells out “we’re waiting to take a picture with the next president”
https://twitter.com/Bidar411/status/1175504411541626880
