WATERLOO, Ia. — Frantz Whitfield watched the clock as Bill de Blasio entered the church for Sunday service.
As the New York City mayor and his wife, Chirlane, shook hands with the congregation at Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church that June morning, Whitfield felt relief for the logistical nightmare he had just avoided.
About 10 minutes earlier, former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas and his wife, Amy, had wrapped their own visit to Mount Carmel.
“They just missed each other,” Whitfield, the church’s pastor, said with a chuckle.
As candidates in Iowa try to differentiate themselves in the crowded Democratic field for president, they’re engaging in what one black lawmaker here called an “unprecedented” level of outreach to the state’s African American communities. That can be seen in their overlapping visits to Waterloo, where more than 15% of the population is black, the highest percentage of any city in the state.
O’Rourke and de Blasio were both in town that Sunday before traveling to Cedar Rapids, where the Iowa Democratic Party held its Hall of Fame fundraiser. They were among the five candidates who campaigned in Waterloo — about 50 miles north of Cedar Rapids — that weekend.
The night before the Hall of Fame dinner, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont held a town hall at a Waterloo pavilion. That Sunday night, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, appeared at a Waterloo house party less than a mile from where U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, spoke at Union Missionary Baptist Church.
In total, candidates have made at least 25 visits to Waterloo so far this year, a review of the Des Moines Register’s Candidate Tracker shows. In the two years leading up to the 2016 Iowa caucuses, Democratic candidates made 13 visits to Waterloo.
“We just want to see their faces in the black community,” Whitfield said of the candidates. “And we want to see them more than once.”
Community organizers see a moment
On a Saturday night in February, a crowd of several hundred people gathered at a Des Moines union hall to see Harris, who had just announced her candidacy weeks earlier. Outside, a snowstorm raged.
As car windshields in the union hall parking lot disappeared under the accumulating snow, Harris spoke inside to a predominantly African American group about the need to address racial inequities in America, including inadequate access to K-12 education and a high mortality rate for black mothers.
“Let’s speak the truth,” Harris said, repeating a well-known stump speech line. Many in the audience nodded their heads enthusiastically, and some stood up from their seats to clap.
The event was hosted by the Iowa Democratic Party Black Caucus, a group that has existed within state politics for years but with a limited profile. That’s changing.
In recent months, the black caucus organizers’ phones won’t stop ringing, said state Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad, D-Des Moines, who helps organize the group. It’s often staffers for the different campaigns, seeking to collaborate on events around the state. In April, the black caucus hosted a town hall for Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, in Des Moines. More events are in the works.
The interest from candidates this election cycle to reach out to black communities in Iowa is “unprecedented,” according to Abdul-Samad. He said that although the number of minority voters in Iowa is technically small — census data shows about 15% of Iowans are non-white, and only 4% are black — they could be the deciding factor in how the candidates place in Iowa.
“I think individuals are realizing that you can’t take it for granted,” Abdul-Samad said of the candidates.
The Asian & Latino Coalition, another prominent group organizing minorities in the state, has had packed rooms for their events that feature candidates.
“No constituency group is too small to be ignored,” said Stacey Walker, a member of the Linn County Board of Supervisors. “And because of that, minority groups are finding a bigger role and a larger voice in this process.”
‘Are you going to come to us?’
Whitfield, the pastor in Waterloo, said the importance of visiting churches with a predominantly African American membership should not be ignored in the 2020 election cycle. He said the faith community plays a critical role in social movements.
“The black church has always been at the forefront of politics and community involvement,” Whitfield said. “You can’t talk about the civil rights movement without mentioning the black church.”
Democratic presidential candidates have made 14 visits to Iowa churches so far in 2019, according to a review of the Register candidate tracker, including the O’Rourke, de Blasio and Harris visits in Waterloo on June 9.
Just two weeks before O’Rourke’s and de Blasio’s visits to Mount Carmel, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, also made a stop there.
But Waterloo resident Bridget Saffold said it’s not enough for candidates to focus on just those spaces to gain support from African American communities. The 41-year-old registered nurse, who is black, hosted the house party with Warren.
“They, a lot of times, go to churches when they’re trying to connect with the black community,” Saffold said. “And there’s a huge sector, I believe, that is not going to be found there. Are you going to come to us? Come and find that group of people?”
About 250 people gathered in Saffold’s backyard in east Waterloo, a neighborhood she and others said candidates often shy away from. That event drew many of Saffold’s fellow community members — friends and family who came not because of an interest in politics but because she invited them personally.
“They really liked it because it was more like a family barbecue, and it didn’t feel like a political thing. It was just friends getting together,” she said.
Vikki Brown, chairwoman of the Black Hawk County Democrats and also chairwoman for U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell’s presidential campaign, said it’s important that candidates have as many one-on-one interactions with minority caucusgoers as possible. That could mean fewer events that pack several hundred people, in exchange for small house parties and meet and greets that allow more time to engage with the candidates.
“Oftentimes, you have hands in the air, and over half of those people don’t get their questions addressed,” Brown said.
Candidates aim policy proposals at racial inequity
As candidates compete in Iowa and nationally for support from African Americans, they’re rolling out plans designed to combat historic racial injustices.
Several of the proposals are aimed at providing more affordable housing, ending mass incarceration and closing the racial wealth gap, like Booker’s plan to give savings accounts to all newborns at birth, or South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s proposal to reform credit scoring for black Americans.
And several candidates support studying the idea of whether reparations should be paid to people harmed by slavery and its aftereffects.
“You have individuals that are talking the language that these populations have been concerned about and fighting for over five, six, seven decades,” said Abdul-Samad, the state lawmaker.
Walker, of the Linn County Board of Supervisors, said there’s an expectation that candidates of color talk about these issues, so it’s critical for white candidates to talk about them, too.
“The way they’re going to win over black voters is not only acknowledging that these issues exist, but by putting forward policies that address these issues, and talking about them in predominantly white spaces,” Walker said.
Warren’s detailed plans, which have become a staple of her campaign, won her praise from black voters at her Waterloo event. Asked about inadequate funding for business and home loans to minorities, Warren responded with a seven-minute answer laying out her housing policy and talking about the history of redlining in the United States.
Jeanette Moore-Loggins, an IT worker who attended the event, said Warren’s answer on housing highlighted a phenomenon that the African American community in Waterloo can feel, even if they don’t have the words to describe it.
“We talk a lot about sexism. We know that exists. But we don’t want to talk about racism and how to combat that. She just gave a perfect example in the community in Waterloo of what we see happening but didn’t understand why it was happening,” she said.
Lori Gale, another Waterloo resident, attended both Warren’s house party and Harris’ church town hall, though she missed most of Harris’ event because of timing. Gale is currently undecided on who she’ll caucus for, though she wants someone who is going to protect reproductive health rights and help immigrants.
Gale also wants the candidates to return to her city so she can hear more from them.
“They need to come here,” Gale said of Waterloo, “… for black Iowans, we are the voice.”
Stephen Gruber-Miller and Barbara Rodriguez cover politics for the Register. Gruber-Miller can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Rodriguez can be reached by email at bcrodriguez@registermedia.com or by phone at 646-385-1212.
