Thread by @mattdpearce

New: I followed Kamala Harris around Iowa for five days and talked to more than 30 Democratic voters about her campaign.

Over and over again, I heard the same thing: They’d love to see her debate Trump, even if they’re not sure if she’s their candidate. latimes.com/politics/story…

A few more notebook observations after talking to a ton of Iowans: voters have grown increasingly irritated with the size of the Democratic field, to the point they say that it’s actively impeding their ability to make decisions about candidates. latimes.com/politics/story…

Pretty much every undecided Democrat I talked to has filtered down their options to a handful (two to five) of candidates — usually the biggest names — and they consider Harris as very much among that bunch.

Another interesting tidbit is that several undecided Iowa voters I talked to, who were white, saw Kamala Harris as more “electable” than Elizabeth Warren, while in the past I’ve heard some black voters worry whether America would vote for a woman of color.

There have been a lot of concerns and skepticism among progressive activists about Harris’ record on criminal justice, but in Iowa, the undecideds I talked to saw her background as a prosecutor very as a plus, not a minus. latimes.com/politics/story…

Another thing: Harris did poorly in that last debate, but the Iowa Democrats I talked to were more bothered by the fact that the candidates spent a lot of time attacking each other instead of Trump. They really, really hated it, and they said they want to see unity in the party.

Anyway, this fixation by Democratic voters really wanting Kamala Harris to debate Trump — it’s not an electability thing, i.e. they think the strongest debater would win the race. They’re just hungry for someone, anyone, to publicly hold Trump accountable. latimes.com/politics/story…