x
Breaking News
More () »

Hillary Clinton’s second wave of Iowa courtship arrives in Mason City

More than 70% of Iowa’s Democratic caucus-goers chose an alternative to Hillary Clinton in 2008, a fact her aides in the state are actively looking to add...
Hillary Clinton Secretary of State portrait
By Dan Merica

MASON CITY, Iowa (CNN) — More than 70% of Iowa’s Democratic caucus-goers chose an alternative to Hillary Clinton in 2008, a fact her aides in the state are actively looking to address early in her 2016 run.

Clinton will make her second visit to the state Monday when she headlines a small “house party” in Mason City that campaign aides hope will showcase their focus on moving Democrats who supported other candidates — particularly then-Sens. Barack Obama and John Edwards – to Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

Clinton’s Iowa operation has a total of 27 field organizers on the ground in Iowa, six regional organizing directors and 21 organizers who live in cities and towns across the state. So far, according to campaign aides, their focus has been on reconnecting with Clinton supporters from 2008, winning over those who rejected her first presidential bid and connecting with those young people and students who are new to the state.

Monday’s event in Mason City, which will be hosted by Dean Genth and Gary Swenson, is an example of Clinton’s campaign looking to target former Obama supporters.

Genth and Swenson were the first gay couple to receive a marriage license at the Cerro Gordo County Courthouse when same-sex marriage was legalized in the state in April 2009. During the 2008 caucus, both were outspoken and early Obama supporters. They housed Obama campaign staff and volunteers in their Mason City home and told Obama’s campaign office in Chicago that they would be willing to do whatever they could to get the senator elected.

“We were supportive of Clinton but we actually caucused for Obama,” Genth said Monday. “As the caucus campaigning went on we got really involved with the Obama campaign. It was more a function that we were so early on with Obama, we had already pitched out tent at that point.”

A former business executive, Genth moved from Ohio to Iowa in 2003 after meeting Swenson, a radiologist and breast cancer specialist, in 2002. Genth said it was love at first sight. The two have long been activists for same-sex marriage and Genth is a member of One Iowa, the state’s leading LGBT rights organization, that spearheaded efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in the state.

Genth said that while Obama’s position on same-sex marriage was “not a determining factor” for their support in 2008, it did play a role.

“We definitely got signals from Obama where he stood on some of the basic principles and basic rights,” he said.

As a candidate in 2008, Clinton opposed same-sex marriage, supporting the idea of civil unions instead. She did not proclaim her personal support for same-sex marriage until 2013, after she left her diplomatic position as secretary of state.

Shortly after her announcing her presidential bid, her campaign said that Clinton now believes same-sex marriage is a “constitutional right,” a departure from her past statements.

The steady change in her position hasn’t bothered Genth. “Some people seem to never evolve,” he said. “So somebody that does evolve is a great thing.”

Genth is the vice chairman of the Cerro Gordo County Democratic Party and has said he has “reached out to every Clinton campaign person that walks into the area or has a phone number” about getting the candidate to North Iowa as much as possible.

Clinton’s campaign aides have regularly said the candidate will focus on Iowa and come back regularly, but no future trips have been announced. Clinton will overnight in Iowa on Monday and headline an event on small business at a bike shop in Cedar Falls, Iowa on Tuesday.

The state of play in Iowa is also vastly different than it was in 2007 and 2008. Clinton leads every poll on the Democratic side and many activists in the state, despite hungering for a competitive primary, acknowledge that there isn’t a Barack Obama-like candidate that could come from behind to topple Clinton. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent, is the only other declared candidate for the Democratic nomination, although former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is expected to announce his run later this month.

In an effort to showcase their grassroots organizing efforts, Sarah Marino, the campaign’s Mason City grassroots organizer, will introduce Clinton at the event on Monday.

Before You Leave, Check This Out