Wings, burgers compete for debate-watching Iowans' attention at Des Moines-area watch parties

Nick Coltrain Shelby Fleig
Des Moines Register

While leading candidates for the Democratic nomination for president debated less than 10 miles away, Mike Scholer wore a "Cory Booker 2020" pin on his sweater at a Clive watch party.

He hoped another candidate would fill the hole left in his political heart after the senator from New Jersey ended his run for president earlier in the week. 

Scholer was one of several people in the metro to attend watch parties Tuesday for the CNN/Des Moines Register Democratic presidential debate, which brought the top six candidates to Drake University in Iowa's capital. 

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota won the night, in Scholer's mind. She was direct and was pushing workable policies, he said. Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg was No. 2. He seemed unshakable, and Scholer — a veteran himself — likes that experience in a politician.

A member of Save the Children Action Network watches the CNN/Des Moines Register Democratic Presidential Debate, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020, at Papa Keno's Pizzeria in Des Moines, Iowa.

He was asked while at Wobbly Boots Roadhouse in Clive if either could be the nominee:

"No!" he said with a laugh. "Absolutely not."

Buttigieg, at 37, is too young, Scholer said. Klobuchar seems to have a problem similar to Booker: A lot of Iowans seem to like her, but she's not gaining traction national .

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So Scholer, a substitute teacher who gave his age as "senior," didn't get the clarity from what might be Iowa's last marquee event before the Feb. 3 caucuses.

“I’m grieving the fact Cory dropped out,” he said. “I’m looking for someone new, but I have no inclination toward anyone right now.”

The campaigns themselves hosted watch parties across the state, and nationally. But not everyone tuning in to Tuesday's debate had decided yet whom they plan to support.

The Clive Democrats added a debate watch party at the tail end of their regular monthly meeting, and the Polk County Democrats encouraged their members to watch the debate at Wobbly Boots.

About 20 people turned out initially to watch the event at the Clive restaurant. A quick show of hands at the start by the county party's chair, Lila Starr, revealed most attendees were uncommitted to any candidate so far. Three supported Klobuchar, three supported U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and one supported former Vice President Joe Biden.

Spectators watch the CNN/Des Moines Register debate of six Democratic presidential candidates on Jan. 14, 2020 at Wobby Boots in Clive.

The College and Young Democrats of Iowa and Drake University Democrats co-hosted a watch party at Papa Keno’s Pizzeria — just two blocks from the debate stage. The regional chain, known for serving giant slices of New York-style pizza, is a popular hangout for students and Drake’s mascot, Griff the bulldog. It hosted then-presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand last April.

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Half an hour before the debate began, young people sat on stools at long tables in front of televisions around the room. Some were affiliated with groups outside Drake, like the Save the Children Action Network, a national advocacy group.

A couple dozen supporters of entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who didn’t qualify for Tuesday's debate, briefly filed into Papa Keno's to escape the cold. Before the debate had started, 28-year-old Tully Baker of New Hampshire, who said he'd led protests earlier in the day, guided the group to their next stop: “To the Mars Cafe, Yang Gang! Let’s roll out!"

As an announcer introduced the six presidential candidates onto the stage, Warren was the only candidate to get light applause from the youthful crowd. One of the moderators got some love, too: Members of the College and Young Democrats of Iowa cheered on debate moderator Brianne Pfannenstiel, the Des Moines Register’s chief politics reporter.

Sanders-Warren rift draws contrasting reactions

The Clive restaurant livened up when debate moderators asked about reports that U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont told Warren in a private meeting that a woman couldn’t win the presidency.

While Sanders disputed the characterization, as he has from the start, and Warren compared the successes she and Klobuchar have seen in their elections to the track records of the men on stage, Linda Dorsey laughed.

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“The use of her eyes and her eyebrows during the moment with Bernie (was) like a classroom teacher,” Dorsey said with a chuckle, noting she was a teacher herself for years.

John Benham of Des Moines dismissed the controversy as something ginned up by the media to keep Sanders from the presidency.

“You can watch all these videos with Bernie Sanders in the 1970s and 1980s, where he goes into classrooms and says, ‘you young girls’” can win elected offices including the presidency, Benham said.

At Papa Keno's, high school student Zoe Card said she hoped that the rivals on stage “stay on task” and refrained from “personal attacks."

She was part of the loud reaction in the room — some cheering, some laughing and others groaning — when Warren and Sanders contradicted each other on his election track record.

“The only people on this stage who have won every single election that they’ve been in are the women: Amy and me,” Warren said.

Card, 18, said she appreciated that Warren included Klobuchar in her rebuttal about electability.

Potential caucus-goers attend a watch party for the CNN/Des Moines Register Democratic Presidential Debate, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020, at Papa Keno's Pizzeria in Des Moines, Iowa.

“I don’t appreciate the attack that Warren did, but it was kind of entertaining,” Card said. “I think she could have just talked about her own elections, but she brought in Klobuchar and included her, which is what we need as a country right now.”

► More:Bernie Sanders leads the Iowa Poll for the first time, just weeks before the Iowa caucuses

As foreign policy dominated the first 30 minutes of the debate, nothing provoked substantive reaction from the Democrats in the Wobbly Boots like the business's chicken wings, burgers and other pub food.

Scholer, the Booker supporter, was wary of Sanders’ and Warren’s pitch for free college for most Americans. The field’s support of universal pre-k child care had his attention, though. Scholer, a teacher, calls the measure “vital.” He was likewise skeptical of “Medicare for All”-style plans, though.

“We need to reform health care, for sure, but I don’t think the answer is getting rid of private insurance,” he said, referencing the insurance industry’s place in Des Moines. He added that he agrees with Sanders, however, that insurance and pharmaceutical companies are “ripping people off and making money hand over fist.”

Fundamentally, any of the candidates on stage would be an improvement over President Donald Trump, he said. They would bring “kindness and charity” and not just “nasty tweets,” Scholer said.

Back at Drake University, Tom Steyer mentioned the need to impeach Trump, and back at the bar, Scholer pointed to the screen for emphasis.

Another teacher, Jeff Bakke, who watched the debate over pizza and pop at Papa Keno's,  especially liked the candidates' focus on child care issues. The Urbandale resident was one of six Save the Children Action Network volunteers wearing bright red stocking caps throughout the debate. 

During a commercial break, Bakke, 46, started a short-lived chant of "Vote for kids!"

"Senator Warren really had some strong views and that might come from her life experiences," he said. "That's the reality for so much of our population, for single parents trying to work and still provide child care. I'd love to see (candidates) go a step further and realize there's a lot of second- and third-shift workers who have an even harder time finding child care."

Two recent Drake graduates came to Papa Keno's thinking it would be a relatively quiet place to grab some food and watch the debate, unaware of the organized watch party until they showed up.

Hannah Albrecht, 22, said she appreciated the policy-driven debate around education and child care. 

"To get to free college you still have to have children who are educated and we lack policy around that," she said.

Her friend Katie O'Keefe, 23, said she noticed what topics weren't debated, like voter suppression and gun violence. 

For both women, the debate did little to change their view of any candidate. 

"We do our own investigations outside the debate in terms of policy and the candidates themselves," Albrect said. 

► Debate guide: Highlights, what it means, photos, videos and more. Browse Des Moines Register coverage.

Nick Coltrain is a politics and data reporter for the Register. Reach him at ncoltrain@registermedia.com or at 515-284-8361.

Shelby Fleig covers Des Moines' western suburbs for the Register. Reach her at shelbyfleig@dmreg.com or 515-214-8933.

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