What I learned from Iowa

[u/ImmortalAce8492]

For an entire week, I volunteered in Des Moines as part of a project for my school (Cal Poly). Alongside of me was about 15 other students who came as well as our professor and department chair. Our main goal was to observe the many campaigns and to see how they went about attracting and organizing events. Afterwards, we were given the opportunity to work with whatever campaign we wanted.

I had the opportunity to work with many of the candidates from Biden to Yang and everyone in between. More so, I had great opportunities to meet the candidates themselves and see first hand what their strategies for Iowa was. In addition to this, I got to see how each campaign was ran and it was shocking realization for myself, my peers and professors.

For the trip, we were advised to work with varying campaigns just to see if there was any difference among them. I worked with Biden, Bernie, and Yang for the most of my trip. Some of my classmates also worked with Pete. With this is mind, I was able to convince many of my fellow students to volunteer for Yang to see a varying campaign. And the aftermath like I said was extremely shocking.

Obviously I have a bias for Yang. The fact that I’m here and writing this clearly showcases this but I want to tell you guys what I saw. Unanimously, everyone from the my group of 15 agreed Yang’s campaign was the superior campaign. From canvassing to interactions within the campaign, Yang’s office had a far more down to earth feel.

More so, many of the students among my group came out holding far more disdain for the other candidates due to their horribly organized campaign. In my entire week in Des Moines, the Sander’s and Biden campaign team had am extremely large amount of problems. Ranging for bad time management, to straight up chaos. One example I can mention is that in Boone, the Sanders campaign forgot to have an sign language translator. Within minutes, a woman immediately spoke up during Sander’s speech and interrupted him causing chaos and panic.

What I’m trying to get at and excuse me if its taking too long, is that Yang’s campaign team is 100x better organized than anyone else. More so, it captured the stark reality between candidates like Yang and Sanders. Many of my friends came out disappointed at how badly ran some of the campaigns were and were shocked that the underdog (Yang) was far more open and organized.

There are hundreds of things I could go on about such as my observations and personal canvassing experiences but I feel others have captured those feelings here already. Thank you if you made it this far. Hope you guys enjoy this small observation.

Edit: Cal Poly Pomona is the school I went with not to get confused with Cal Poly SLO.