Here in Iowa, the Fight Goes On

In Johnson County, a record-breaking 87,012 people voted on Tuesday. Democrat Christina Bohannan beat the Republican incumbent by over 35,000 votes—just 800 shy of what she needed.

by Dave Leshtz
See the full article published in The Nation

Iowa City, Iowa—“I can’t quit door-knocking until I have the ultimate experience of a naked person coming to the door.”

Organizer Sharon Lake is half-serious as she trains and inspires 15 Democratic volunteers for door-to-door canvassing. At the end of her 20-minute presentation, the volunteers—mostly middle-aged women who have never door-knocked before—charge out of Johnson County Sheriff Brad Kunkel’s garage, clipboards and campaign lit clutched in their hands.

Lake might be joking during training (“So far I’ve only had loosely draped towels”), but she is 100 percent serious about grassroots organizing. Starting as an Obama precinct captain in the 2008 Iowa caucuses, she now trains Democratic volunteers across eastern Iowa.

Iowa caucus organizing was strong 16 years ago, but an effective statewide structure didn’t exist. Volunteers were deployed without adequate training, and systematic canvassing didn’t begin until late summer or fall before elections. Lake, now retired from her job as a supply chain manager for a natural food producer, began to build a team and develop a strategy focused on training (“no meetings, just training and working”) and starting early. This last election cycle, Lake’s team started one year ago and extended its reach to Scott County, an hour’s drive away.

Dan Feltes, an Iowa native who had become the youngest majority leader in the history of the New Hampshire Senate, moved his family back to Iowa City a couple of years ago and quickly became involved in local politics. He helped develop the early door-knocking plan, with an initial emphasis on listening to voters’ concerns rather than campaigning for specific candidates. When it came time for persuasion and turnout efforts, thousands of voters had already been “touched” by a friendly neighbor who wanted to know what issues were important to them.

The army of canvassers recruited and trained by Lake was a major factor in the record-breaking plurality of votes in the latest congressional race in Iowa’s southeast quadrant. As many as 100 volunteers showed up daily in Iowa City alone. Many of them drove to other towns in their congressional district (Iowa’s 1st). State Senators Adam Zabner and Janice Weiner estimated that between them they hit upwards of 4,000 doors in 10 counties (Weiner was often accompanied by Alaska, her 6-year-old granddaughter). Feltes reported that volunteers knocked on approximately 58,000 doors.

The results of this fine-tuned ground game were astronomical in Johnson County, home of the University of Iowa and a longtime Democratic stronghold: 87,012 people voted—the biggest turnout in the county’s history.

—Dave Leshtz is the editor of The Prairie Progressive www.theprairieprogressive.com

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