Sanders sets first campaign visit to Iowa

Bernie Sanders will visit Iowa on the weekend of May 29, in what will likely be his first visit to the Hawkeye State since officially declaring as a presidential candidate.

The Vermont senator, who will hold a campaign kickoff event in Burlington on May 26, is scheduled for three events in eastern Iowa on the May 29, according to multiple sources. Sanders, who announced a run for the Democratic nomination last month, will hold his first event that day in Davenport, followed by an afternoon event in Muscatine and an evening event in Cedar County.


The Cedar County event will be at the West Branch home of David Johnson, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully in 2012 and 2014 for an Iowa House seat. Johnson, who confirmed there will be an event at his house that night, said he will be heading up Cedar County operations for Sanders, who last visited in February.

The Sanders campaign will also likely add an event the next day, May 30, in Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa.

The liberal Johnson County, where Iowa City is located, will be particularly important to Sanders, a progressive favorite challenging Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton from the left. Rod Sullivan, a Johnson County supervisor and former county Democratic Party chairman, said Sanders specifically insisted that he visit Johnson County after his team initially left it off the schedule.

Sanders announced his presidential bid on April 30 with a low-key launch — an email to supporters and a brief news conference outside the Capitol. Two days later, he visit New Hampshire for two events — a house party in Manchester and a speech at the state AFL-CIO conference in North Conway.

Since then, though, Sanders has been primarily in D.C., using his Senate perch to strongly oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and fast-track authority, on which Clinton hasn’t yet weighed in. The senator last week introduced legislation to break up the so-called Too Big to Fail banks, another implicit challenge to Clinton, whom liberals have criticized for her Wall Street ties.

Sanders, who raised $3 million in his first four days as a candidate, also hired several members of Barack Obama’s 2008 digital outreach team to run his digital fundraising and social media, crucial for a candidate who will rely on small-dollar donations and won’t have a super PAC connected to his campaign.