What Everyone’s Missing About Iowa
DES MOINES, Iowa—For a few nights every four years, the hotel bar at this downtown Marriott becomes the hottest spot in American politics. And sure enough, J. D. Scholten, a Democrat who is making his second run for the House seat held since 2003 by the anti-immigrant Republican Steve King, spent part of last night here.
At this point, with the first votes of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary just days away, Iowa is also a place where Scholten couldn’t get through a podcast interview without Elizabeth Warren calling him.
“We’ve been playing phone tag all day,” he told me, and declined the call. (They connected later.)
Scholten has appeared with many of the presidential candidates, but the only way journalists will find out who he’s backing is by driving out to the rural, low-cell-service area where he’ll help run a caucus site Monday night.
A peculiar mix of insider and outsider, Scholten wasThe Atlantic, the relaunched podcast I’ll be hosting over the course of this crazy election year.
