So much went wrong on caucus night. I was at something that went right.
Results were delayed by complications from a new app. At least this change to the system was beneficial.
With every passing minute of reporter ad-libbing on Monday night, it became clear that something had gone very wrong in Iowa. Almost 48 hours later, the results of a quarter of all precincts haven’t been reported. While the Iowa Democratic Party said that it was an issue with a new app-based system, conspiracy theories are abound — from Russian interference to Hillary Clinton’s revenge — some with more detail than the official narrative. Through all this noise, one thing is clear: The 2020 Iowa caucus system did not perform well and it will forever have an asterisk attached.*
Plenty of news and social media users have made jabs. CNN touted that “The Iowa caucuses just died forever” and #MayorCheat trended on Twitter. But was it the caucus system that failed? Or was it the institution running it?
I had the opportunity to get a first-hand look at the system. In contrast to the barrage of negative news, I attended an event that actually went right.
For the first time ever, there was an absentee option; not only were caucuses hosted in Iowa, but satellite caucuses were held around the country and world for those who could not make it back to the Hawkeye State. I attended one of these caucuses down the street from my apartment in the South Side of Chicago, right on the edge of the University of Chicago campus. Dozens of people huddled into a room in the University Church to play a part in picking the next president of the United States.
Hannah Gregor, organizer of the event, told us that on a literal level, scheduling the satellite caucus here was important because she “needed a place to caucus and [had] to be at work at 9 a.m.” But that wasn’t all: By providing displaced Iowans a place to go, the organizers knew they were bringing the caucus to so many people who wanted to participate but were too far from home to have a hand in the nominal game.
And the people came. Andrew Yang supporters Michael Leone and Laura Sieh, who were precinct captains, were concerned that “Washington is technologically illiterate.” They brought a PowerPoint titled “The Data” and were keen on showing everyone how Yang could help inject economic power into the South Side.
UChicago law professor Geoffrey Stone gave a speech about how his former student, Amy Klobuchar, had the life experience to make her an amazing president. He said that she was the candidate to “fit perfectly with the culture of the Midwest that Hillary Clinton lost.”
A student, who traveled nearly two hours from Illinois State University, was not planning on caucusing for Pete Buttigieg, but was eventually swayed by the former mayor’s supporters. This seemingly innocuous switch made Buttigieg viable, earning him a crucial delegate from Hyde Park’s satellite.
Andre Washington, a graduate of Chicago’s Kenwood Academy High School and University of Chicago Law School, said Elizabeth Warren had an honest understanding of intersectionality and that for one of the first times, he truly felt heard by a candidate; the Massachusetts senator’s maternal mortality plan really brought him aboard. He and his mother were ecstatic when Warren took home two of the satellite’s delegates.
Of the people I met, just a handful were actually caucusing — only registered voters of the Iowan Democratic Party were permitted. So many people were excited to take part in the process in some way that they came just to watch. It showed that in our ever-changing, ever-developing, ever-improving process of democracy, the citizens of Iowa are extended a privilege that all Americans at one point in their lifetime should have: the ability to pick the president. Although all 50 states, territories and even voters abroad hold their own primaries, we would be lying to ourselves if we did not admit that there is something special about going first.
Our Founder’s development of democracy denoted a means to constantly adapt, amend and improve; that is what happened in Chicago’s Hyde Park Tuesday night. The ability to vote and make one’s voice heard was expanded to people who, by nature of nothing more than geography, would have been silenced otherwise.
With that, I experienced what a caucus was supposed to be about, despite the debacle that ultimately ensued. Standing there with my neighbors and community, making and witnessing fundamentally massive decisions about the future of our nation, I realized, everyone should be able to have this experience.
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