Cory Booker visits Iowa in first campaign stop, talks Medicare, education, farming
Hundreds of miles from gritty
A week after announcing, Booker found an audience of more than 100 who filled folding chairs in the basement of the
But first, Booker, began with a flub, thanking the bundled-up gathering for coming to see him on a Saturday morning. “Friday!” they called back in correction, many laughing.
He told the group he was there, a senator and presidential candidate, because of “a conspiracy of love,” returning to one of his catch phrases and tying his campaign theme around his life story. He described how real estate agents had excluded his family from suburban
“Every time my dad would tell the story, the dog would get bigger,” Booker said, to more laughter.
His opening went for about 20 minutes, before Booker turned to the famous civil rights march on the
The audience was rapt, and one woman called out “oh” as Booker brought the point home. He cited the Rev.
“I am running for president because that garment, that fabric, has been ripped, it has been torn and we must repair it,” Booker said. When he later concluded, he drew some of his most enthusiastic applause by saying “I don’t think that you are going to win back this country by talking about what you’re against. You have to talk about what you’re for.”
His prepared remarks never directly mentioned President
He frequently, however, told the crowd heavy with
At one point, Booker talked about putting more rules on CAFO’s (pronounced K-foes), or confined animal feeding operations, often called “factory farms” by opponents. The facilities, common in
“I was super-impressed,” said
The stop in
“I’m shopping,” said
Most of Booker’s
Chris Laritsen, a retired representative for the
Booker is on board with the minimum wage hike, and has co-sponsored a Medicare for all bill, but suggested that smaller steps might be more attainable. He noted that
“We’ve got to start looking at what our goal is: full coverage for everybody. And if we don’t have the vote in the
Laristen later said that “if you speak politician, he didn’t answer about single payer.”
But he still said he was leaning toward supporting Booker, though he also liked Sen.
Asked about college costs, Booker called for allowing students to refinance their loans, and said more apprenticeship programs could help people who don’t want to attend college, arguing that machinists can make more money than new college graduates in their first jobs. He pledged to be “a champion for public schools," despite questions from some liberals about his embrace of charter schools in
At one point, when a questioner’s cell phone rang, Booker reached into the man’s shirt pocket to take the phone, and say hello to the man’s wife.
And
And Booker defended his support for the Green New Deal, an aggressive plan to make the
“Our planet is in peril and we need to be bold,” Booker said. “If we used to govern our dreams that way we’d have never gone to the moon.”
He said he was rejecting Super PAC spending and the influence of money in politics, but faced questions from reporters about a college classmate,
“That’s really frustrating to me,” Booker told reporters when asked about the group. “I don’t think Super PACs should be in this campaign for anybody, including
Asked if he would tell the group to stop its activity, Booker said, “I’m not going to be talking to the Super PACs.” (By law, candidates are not allowed to coordinate with such groups).
For the most part, Booker received a positive reception, though few were ready to commit. . He spoke for about 20 minutes, took questions for an hour and stayed after for dozens of selfies.
"Iowans are used to looking all the candidates right in the eye, shaking their hands and asking them questions,” said
“It’s a huge field and they’re mostly on the same page on the issues,” she said, so to stand out a candidate has to “be inspiring, be somebody that we want to work for, that we want to see win."
Above all, she said,
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