Cory Booker
Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker will wrap up his four-day bus tour of the state this afternoon with a holiday party at his campaign headquarters in the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale. During a stop in Ottumwa Sunday night, Booker delivered his unity message.
“If you Caucus for me, if you stand with me in this fight, I promise you that we will fight the only way I know how, which is bringing people together,” Booker said.
And Booker suggested Democrats will lose if the message is anger.
“The last thing America needs is for our party to out-Trump Trump,” Booker said. “I don’t want to do that. You know what Martin Luther King said. It’s so beautiful: ‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness.’ Only light can do that.”
Wendy Thompson of Bloomfield has not committed to Caucus for a candidate yet, but she liked Booker’s message.
“I think I am going to wait for the Caucus…I just kind of want to see if anyone gets eliminated before that time, if they drop out, to see what things are going to evolve from all the other debates that are coming up, but I’m leaning,” Thompson said of Booker. “I’m leaning.”
Cara Galloway, a social worker from Ottuwma, said Booker’s message inspired her.
I haven’t committed to anyone,” Galloway said. “And today I texted someone and said: ‘I think I’m going to Caucus for Cory.'”
Booker’s other stops today are in Mount Pleasant and Indianola. Pete Buttigieg will hold a town hall meeting this afternoon in Ankeny. There will be a three-day lull on the Iowa Caucus campaign trail on the 24th, 25th and 26th, then Joe Biden and Amy Klobuchar return to the state on Friday the 27th. Klobuchar will visit Emmet, Kossuth and Humboldt Counties that day — completing the 99-county circuit.
(By Ellis Codjoe, KBIZ, Ottumwa)