U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley pitches progressive policies in first visit to Iowa

Jason Noble | The Des Moines Register

Show Caption Hide Caption "There is nothing gentle about Harvey, there is nothing nice about Irma." U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, of Oregon, talks about climate change in his speech at the Progress Iowa Corn Feed fundraiser on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017, in Des Moines.

Unapologetically progressive policies on health care, education and infrastructure can address America’s rising challenges of income inequality and technological change — and win elections for Democrats in 2018 and 2020.

That’s the political thesis offered by U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat who headlined the Progress Iowa Corn Feed in downtown Des Moines on Sunday amid a busy Iowa visit that will almost certainly be read as a signal of potential presidential aspirations.

“Shouldn’t we fight for an America where the son or daughter of a millworker or a fast-food worker or a fireman … has the same opportunities as the son of a CEO?” Merkley asked at the corn feed, where he shared the stage with South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden. “Shouldn’t we have a principle in America that nobody who works full time lives in poverty?”

In an interview Sunday morning ahead of the event, Merkley argued that Democrats could succeed first by thwarting the agenda of Republican President Donald Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress and then by offering an alternative that shifts the burden of essential services from businesses and individuals to the government and drives new public investment in key areas.

“There’s a yearning for common sense strategies on education and infrastructure and health care and a reaction to the very divisiveness of Trump,” Merkley said. “I think there’s going to be a real desire for healing, to remember that we’re indivisible, that we’re in this together.”

Merkley spoke forcefully for new public infrastructure spending not only on roads, bridges, passenger rail and ports but also on rural internet expansion and even thinning Western forests to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires like those now burning in Oregon, Montana and elsewhere.

He also backs a universal government-funded health care system — he uses the term “Medicare for all” — which, he argues, would deliver better care, administrative efficiency and, above all, peace of mind for Americans.

“That should be our goal for the health-care system: peace of mind. If a loved one gets sick, they get the care they need and they don’t go bankrupt.”

The second-term senator is making the most of his first trip to Iowa, which, of course, is traditionally the first state to hold a presidential nominating contest and a place that values face-to-face interactions with candidates and politicians.

Immediately upon arriving Saturday night, he attended a reception thrown by the Iowa Democratic Party. After the corn feed, he met with Polk County Democratic activists and some of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ top supporters from the 2016 presidential campaign at separate events. (He was the lone incumbent senator to endorse Sanders’ presidential candidacy.)

On Monday, he’s scheduled to chat with Drake University students at a meeting organized by the Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement, followed by a get-together with business leaders at the Greater Des Moines Partnership.

That’s six events in about 40 hours.

And before he even arrived in Iowa, Merkley made sure to reach out to several prominent Democrats to personally invite them to the corn feed and stake out some common ground. Among those he called was Iowa Senate Minority Leader Rob Hogg, the Cedar Rapids Democrat known for his advocacy on addressing climate change.

“Yes, Sen. Merkley called me. We had a very nice conversation,” Hogg said Friday, adding that Merkley specifically raised the climate issue with him. “It’s exciting to have a leader for climate action coming to Iowa. I think that will be good. I think Iowans will appreciate hearing his message on that issue.”

Making those contacts and keeping such a busy schedule in Iowa could easily arouse questions about his interest in the 2020 caucuses. Indeed, his itinerary is among the fullest yet seen by a senator, governor or any other Democrat with a potential presidential resume.

(Sanders and fellow U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., have each visited Iowa twice this year, and 2016 candidate and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has made several trips, including this weekend.)

Among the 200-or-so activists who turned out for the corn feed were postal workers Mark and Christine Sarcone, of Ankeny, who lauded Merkley’s support for unions and views on health care and education. And they didn’t hesitate to link his appearance in Iowa in the fall of 2017 to the caucus race looming in 2019 and 2020.

“I think he’s a potential vice president,” Mark Sarcone said. “I don’t know about presidential, but he’s certainly vice presidential.”

In the interview on Sunday, though, Merkley sidestepped questions about his 2020 plans entirely.

He’s traveling across the country and doing more political appearances these days, he said, simply because his children are now out of high school and he has more time. Making five extracurricular appearances in Iowa beyond his corn feed keynote, he said, was just his way of making the trip worthwhile.

He was especially keen on meeting with students at the Harkin Institute because of his admiration for Iowa’s former Democratic senator.

“Tom Harkin is a real example for me in the Senate of somebody who was so dedicated to fighting for ordinary, working people and people who were sick and needed health care, and individuals struggling with disabilities,” Merkley said. “A real champion.”

The other national speakers at the corn feed likewise plotted a course for the Democratic Party’s future, balancing resistance to Trump with a positive Democratic agenda.

“Here in Des Moines, people are rising up in opposition to the Trump agenda,” Tanden, the Center for American Progress president, said. “But it’s not enough to resist. We need to build — we need to build an agenda that answers people’s problems.”

Despite being a 35-year-old small-city mayor, Buttigieg has built a national profile after running for chairman of the Democratic National Committee earlier this year and being tagged by a New York Times columnist as potentially the first gay president.

His mission since losing his bid for the DNC chairmanship, he said in an interview, has been to make Democrats more competitive “between the coasts” — in places like Iowa and his native Indiana. The way to do that, he said, is to simplify the party’s message and avoid what he called the “false choice” between engaging white working class voters and championing racial and social justice.

“Our party is about supporting and defending ordinary people going through their everyday lives,” he said. “Our message really ought to be that straightforward. We’re trying to protect and support people in their everyday lives.”

Like Merkley, Buttigieg packed a lot into his Iowa schedule, meeting with Dallas County activists on Saturday and Grinnell College students on Sunday in addition to gatherings with state party leaders and donors.