'Why not go some place where there are candidates?' Political tourists are flocking to Iowa
DES MOINES —A few months ago, Jennifer Vroom decided she wanted to see some of the Democratic candidates running for president in person. Only hiccup: The high school teacher lives in Washington state.
So the 49-year-old bought a plane ticket to Iowa, the epicenter of presidential politicking.
Roughly one week later in August, Vroom was in the same room as candidates like former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
"Every year I try and see a different part of America, and this year I just thought, 'Oh, you know, why not go some place where there are candidates?'" she said.
A few months later, in early November, Scott Sellers drove more than 10 hours north from Denton, Texas, to listen to presidential candidates at an NAACP forum in Des Moines. Sellers then got in his car and attended a fish fry cattle call event hours later in Cedar Rapids.
"Caucuses," Sellers said in a Texas drawl when asked about his trip. "Came to check it out."
These are the political tourists of the 2020 caucus cycle. They're willing to forgo vacation and personal time to travel across the country to Iowa to catch a glimpse of the people trying to become the next president of the United States.
The phenomenon has existed for years, especially right before the caucuses, when some visit Iowa to witness the candidates' final events. But political tourists have been spotted at campaign events around Iowa at least six months out, a trend that could be due to the historically crowded Democratic presidential field and heightened attention on the 2020 race.
"It was interesting that I wasn't the only one," said Vroom, who met a woman during her Iowa trip who lives in Pennsylvania and was visiting family, and a father-and-son pair on a cross-country road trip. "Because I felt like I was doing something kind of crazy."
Large events attract out-of-state visitors
In the days leading up to multi-candidate events and annual party fundraisers in Iowa, there's a noticeable spike in online traffic to the Des Moines Register's candidate tracker, which notifies the public about candidates' upcoming house parties, town halls and other meet-and-greets in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.
Some political tourists plan their trips around those major events for guaranteed candidate-spotting.
Ken Hattrup drove about six hours north from Wichita, Kansas, in August to see candidates speak at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.
“I’m looking for a sensible Democrat I could support," said the 57-year-old Hattrup, a landlord who said at the time he liked U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
Abbie Tuckner of Minneapolis drove two hours south to Clear Lake, Iowa, in August to attend the Democratic Wing Ding fundraising dinner to see Sanders. The 22-year-old came with her twin sister, Rosie, and the two stayed to watch other speeches.
“We’re very concerned,” Rosie Tuckner said. Abbie Tuckner chimed in: “About everything.”
Michael Kim flew in from Los Angeles to see entrepreneur Andrew Yang at the Liberty and Justice Celebration dinner on Nov. 1.
"I had no interest in coming to Iowa ever in my life," the 37-year-old software engineer said while holding a toasted pretzel. "It's not on my bucket list. I don't think it's on a lot of people's bucket lists."
"Iowa is great," added Kim, who rented an Airbnb with several Yang supporters he met on Twitter. "Don't get me wrong."
Elle Franklin of Dallas, Texas, rented a car to see former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke in Des Moines at the same November dinner. Ahead of the event, Franklin learned from television news at her hotel bar that the presidential candidate had dropped out of the race.
The moment may have tinged her view of the state.
“I was pleasantly surprised by Des Moines," Franklin said. “But this sucks, so I’m probably just going to hate Iowa now.”
Iowa's importance attracts new attention
Nick Roberts woke up at 5 a.m. on his birthday in August to drive more than five hours from Indianapolis to Muscatine, Iowa, to see Buttigieg, his preferred candidate.
Roberts, a college student studying political science, didn't want to wait for Buttigieg to host an event closer to home. So the 19-year-old put on a tie and took a 10-hour detour.
“I think you have to take opportunities like this when you get them,” Roberts said.
Political strategists and pundits at the beginning of 2019 theorized that a nationalized primary was on the horizon, potentially removing some of Iowa's shine this election cycle.
California officials moved up the state's primary date, allowing voters there to begin casting early ballots on the same day as the Feb. 3, 2020, Iowa caucuses. Separately, several presidential candidates in the crowded Democratic field indicated plans to focus more on other early states.
Things haven't played out that way. With fewer than three months before the caucuses, several candidates have positioned Iowa to be make or break for their campaigns. Candidates are expected to appear at as many as 3,000 public campaign events before caucus night, according to a Des Moines Register analysis.
Presidential candidates have already held more than 1,600 events in the state, and many Iowans have taken full advantage of the opportunities. A recent Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll found that nearly half of likely Democratic caucusgoers have seen a presidential candidate in person; 11% have seen six or more candidates.
But tourists have to travel to see the candidates, which also gives them a chance to help their favorites in Iowa, which casts the first ballots in the presidential campaign..
Barnstormers for Pete, a grassroots organization unaffiliated with the Buttigieg campaign, said it helped organize people from all 50 states to come to Iowa for events around the Liberty and Justice dinner. They estimated more than 1,000 people showed up.
"I think there's a realization of how important Iowa is in selecting the Democratic Party's candidate for president," said Gregory King, a 64-year-old retiree from Baltimore, Maryland, who joined the group's efforts.
Sellers, from Texas, likes Klobuchar's candidacy so much he wants to work for her campaign if they're hiring. Though Sellers planned to be in Iowa for only a few days in November, the 53-year-old retired real estate broker said he would extend his time to help her.
"My head's for Joe," Sellers explained, referencing former Vice President Joe Biden. "My heart's for Amy."
Limited data on the tourism impact
It's hard to gauge how many people are coming to Iowa specifically to see presidential candidates. Iowa's tourism department doesn't such track data, and local tourism officials have limited information.
The Greater Des Moines Convention & Visitors Bureau, which oversees tourism to the capital city, maintains a map of some caucus-related event spaces around the state. Greg Edwards, the bureau's CEO, said his staff is completing an analysis of the impact of the Iowa caucuses to the state.
Though the metrics are difficult to quantify, Edwards noted multiple examples of out-of-state walk-ins dropping by the bureau's downtown Des Moines office to get information about seeing candidates while they're in town.
"It's an economic generator for the whole state," he said.
Mark Eckman, executive director of Council Bluffs Convention & Visitors Bureau, said his office has created a new website for campaigns to see what local venues are available for events. In future caucus cycles, Eckman hopes to tie upcoming candidate events with suggested attractions around the city and county.
"It's not as far as we'd like to be in terms of motivating travel to Council Bluffs, but it was a starting place," he said.
Since April of this year, the Democratic candidates have spent more than $4.2 million in the state, according to an analysis of campaign filing data. That doesn't include the cost of having more than 650 campaign staff on the ground, the indirect spending that goes into staffers' rent, food and gas or the amount tourists spend in the state.
Vroom, the teacher in Washington state, did more than see candidates while she was in Iowa, contributing to the total. She also checked out the covered bridges of Madison County, the American Gothic House in Eldon and the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch.
Seth Dudley, general manager of the popular restaurant Hamburg Inn No. 2 in Iowa City, has observed groups of patrons come in wearing candidate T-shirts and stickers — signs they're headed to or from a political event. Dudley has struck up conversations with people who have driven in from Nebraska, Illinois and Wisconsin this cycle.
Dudley noted that the week leading up to the 2016 Iowa caucuses was the busiest sales week in the seven-decade history of the restaurant. He doesn't know what to expect in February, but he believes the attention so far in the lead-up months is good for business.
"Iowa: We get spoiled here," he said.
Register reporters Nick Coltrain, Ian Richardson and Austin Cannon contributed to this report.
Barbara Rodriguez covers health care and politics for the Register. She can be reached by email at bcrodriguez@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8011. Follow her on Twitter @bcrodriguez.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Election 2020: Political tourists forgo vacation for Iowa caucus watching
