Thread by @AlxThomp

👋🏼 from Oskaloosa, Iowa at a Warren backyard house party. She opens up the speech w/ a Memorial Day riff, noting her oldest brother served in Vietnam for 5 years and other two bros also served.

Warren focusing a bunch on climate change out here, bringing it back to her usual themes. “You wanna understand the climate crisis we face today, look at 25 years of Washington corruption, that’s the answer,” Warren says.

When Warren defends the concept of her wealth tax, it’s a variation of this riff that went viral in 2011.
From the original: “you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate”

Her stump speech is often a greatest hits of sorts from her public career. #persist almost always makes an appearance. But she usually talks much more about growing up in Oklahoma rather than the Harvard/CFPB part of her bio.

Maybe it’s because she wants to tell people something they don’t about her (many voters know about her CFPB work, at least in IA and NH). Warren has been trying to emphasize her OK roots for a while. Here’s the back cover of her paperback of Fighting Chance 5 hrs ago.

Point being, Warren’s events are a lot more Oklahoma and a lot less Harvard.

Mark Malloy, a 64 yr old inventor who drove from Des Moines, was, uh, quite taken w/ warren: “god, that woman’s amazing. I envy her husband who gets to spend his life w/ such a brilliant, energetic woman.”

Interestingly, Mark is still deciding between Warren and Mayor Pete. Ideologically it doesn’t make a ton of sense but I’ve met a lot of voters deciding between the two. Many cite their storytelling and ability to explain.

And just down the street from the warren event, the Trump/American flag combo for Memorial Day (trump flag reads “no more bullshit”)

Next stop (2/4 today) in Ottumwa, IA. Starts with a discussion of minimum wage, money in politics, then does an abridged version of the climate change riff noted above. Says “the country is in trouble” but doesn’t say “Trump”.

On health care: Warren says everyone needs to be at the table to get to 100% coverage, including unions (some aren't completely bought in on Medicare for All). Warren says the focus should first be on "low-hanging fruit" like prescription drug prices, especially generics.

it's this sort of answer that has brought some criticism of Warren from the left as they'd like to see her make the Bernie-model of Medicare for All her biggest priority (or at least a bigger one).

Warren's campaign announces to the crowd that this is the 400th town hall question she has taken. The campaign counts or apprximates a lot fo these metrics (# of selfies, # of questions from reporters in gaggles, # of interviews)

Warren says that her goal isn't to just win 2020 "by a smidge" but by a "Russia-proof majority."
....
"when we run as Democrats, we gotta be damn clear about what we're running for"

Warren tells the crowd that she has run ZERO polls since announcing for president. And ran zero polls before announcing. Suggests that she does not have a pollster for the primary, at least not yet. In 2016, Bernie relented to his advisers and had a pollster.

Asked in a gaggle afterward if the campaign has a pollster, Warren said “I don’t think so...no one told me.” Adds that “I’m making the point that I’m fighting these from the heart not b/c they were poll tested.”

Warren doesn’t rule out using a pollster in the primary race eventually. Added that “These are the issues that I believe that matter right now to the survival to America’s working people”

Next stop (3/4): Fairfield, Iowa. Event was originally going to be a House party but was moved to fit the expected crowd. Still standing room only.

*hisses* as Warren name-checks the Koch brothers. The brothers still elicit boos in these progressive crowds but first hisses I've heard. She talks about them in the context of the fight over carbon/climate change/big $ in DC, which has been her go-to issue at events in rural IA

Last event of the day on an idyllic farm in Iowa. eastgrovemead.com is here w/ mead and beers, lots of lawn chairs and some wood picnic tables. Also dogs running around.

Warren says that over 250k people have used her online student debt cancelation calculation (the #'s are new). elizabethwarren.com/debt/

Questions from voters here (crowd count abt 160 per campaign):
1. Housing and home ownership for middle class.
2. bipartisanship. "there is a time for fighting...but what would you do to promote unity and bipartisanship?"
3. Moving the declaration of war power back to Congress.

Update from Warren’s campaign on having a pollster:
- we do not have a polling firm.

- We do not poll to determine her positions and stances; she wants to do what she wants to do and that’s our strategy.

And last pt via photo b/c outta characters

Going through my notes, one interesting interview from the event last night was with one of the few people who caucused with Biden in '08. 83-year-old retiree Kay Young is undecided but of Biden: "I hate to say it but age. We've already got this old man who's senile in the WH"

👋🏼 from Burlington, IOWA (not VT) which has struggled with flooding. desmoinesregister.com/story/news/201…
Warren starts off with climate change, as she has at every stop on this rural Iowa tour. Also talks about the disaster bill held up in Congress.

"Oh I love saying this, when I'm president," Warren says to cheers. gets a standing ovation from many when she talks about her promise that her Sec. of Education will have been a public school teacher.