The first presidential contest of the year takes place tonight in Iowa, where voters will file into roughly 2,000 caucus precincts just as a blizzard descends on the state. We get the view from on the ground, and discuss why the candidate with the most votes doesn’t necessarily win. Plus: the conventional wisdom on how to run a political campaign is run for the center — the coveted swing vote. Steve Phillips says that conventional wisdom has pushed the Democratic Party to neglect the growing numbers of voters of color who could be part of a progressive majority coalition. We’ll discuss his new book, and ask whether there’s a better explanation of Democratic political strategy than simple neglect.
Guests:
- Laura Belin, main author of Bleeding Heartland. She tweets @demoinesdem.
- Steve Phillips, co-founder of PowerPAC.org, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, and author of Brown is the New White, How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority. His book launch event is this Thursday at 6:30 at Impact Hub Oakland (Free, RSVP required).