Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Kim Motl doesn’t work in the health insurance industry. But her friends and neighbors do. So when she saw Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Motl pressed the Democratic presidential candidate about her “Medicare for All” plan, which would replace private insurance with a government-run system.

“What about the little guys that work in the insurance business, that support our communities? The secretary that works for them, but maybe supports their family, what happens to them?” the 64-year-old housing advocate asked the senator.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — In his rise to the top tier of the Democratic race for president, Pete Buttigieg has impressed voters with his unflappable demeanor. But that moderate bearing is being tested as his opponents challenge him to reveal more about his two years working for an international consulting company.

How Buttigieg handles the heat will be another measure of the durability of his improbable run, now that the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is seen as a serious threat to front-running candidates, especially in Iowa.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — Fighting to be in the next Democratic presidential debate, Cory Booker concluded a nearly 800-mile, 12-county tour of Iowa on Sunday by criticizing the Democratic party for allowing “elites” and “money” to control who gets on stage and urging voters to offer his name when pollsters call.

“Iowa never lets elites decide,” he told a crowd at his campaign office in Cedar Rapids on Sunday. “Let’s let Iowa have another comeback story.”

OELWEIN, Iowa (AP) — Joe Biden said Saturday that it is “bizarre” for Bernie Sanders to propose withholding U.S. military aid from Israel if the government there doesn’t moderate its treatment of Palestinians.

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — Joe Biden is taking aim at Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren during an eight-day tour of Iowa that the former vice president hopes will help him gain ground in the state that holds the first presidential caucus.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Joe Biden launched an eight-day bus tour of Iowa on Saturday projecting confidence, ignoring his many Democratic presidential competitors and pledging that he will unseat President Donald Trump in 2020.

The former vice president pledged first to win the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses, despite recent polls suggesting his standing there has slipped in recent months.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Joe Biden kicks off an eight-day bus tour across Iowa on Saturday with a message: Reports of his demise in the nation’s first presidential caucus state have been greatly exaggerated.

Biden’s aides acknowledge that he must sharpen his pitch ahead of the Feb. 3 caucuses that launch Democrats’ 2020 voting. Yet the former vice president’s advisers reject any characterization of the 18-county swing as a campaign reset, even with polls showing that Biden’s standing in Iowa has slipped in recent months.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — In endorsing Democrat Joe Biden for president on Saturday, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack said, above all, the former vice president’s personal losses give him “the capacity to comfort” and “the need to heal” a divided nation.

Vilsack, who served eight years in the Obama administration with Biden as secretary of agriculture, said during a morning rally in Des Moines that Biden could step into the office with an immediate command of domestic and global issues at a time when events demand “you can’t be a rookie in this business. You’ve got to be a pro.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Bristling at Elizabeth Warren’s suggestions that he’s a milquetoast moderate with small ideas, presidential candidate Joe Biden countered Saturday that he offers a “bold” vision for the country and warned that Democratic primary voters should not get distracted by the party’s increasingly tense battle over ideological labels.

MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) — Look no further than Pearl City Station, a plain brick building set along the banks of the Mississippi River, to understand the growing sense of uncertainty seeping into the Democratic Party’s 2020 primary contest.

Inside, 200 Iowa Democrats recently sized up Joe Biden, the former vice president and one of their party’s leading presidential candidates. He engenders respect and admiration, but generates little excitement.