Reality stings Beto after the coup de send

DES MOINES, Iowa – Between the promise of a young admirer, the long lines of photos and the conservative tracker who recorded each of his words, Beto O'Rourke had all the characteristics of a leading candidate at his last visit to Iowa.

However, by the time he left the state on Sunday, it was also clear that the euphoria that had greeted O'Rourke's entry into the race three weeks earlier had begun to subside. The inevitable slogan of competition in an overflowing Democratic primary is ongoing, and O'Rourke has not yet drawn the wave of national adulation from the left that his Senate against the Ted Cruz had received last year.

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"He's going to have to do the work," said Scott Brennan, a member of the Democratic National Committee of Iowa and former state party chairman. "And it's not quite breathless, the crowd of 300 people."

O'Rourke has not changed much in the polls since his announcement. He has achieved an impressive number of fundraisers for the first quarter of the year, without becoming the first of its kind. Another relatively inexperienced young politician, Pete Buttigieg, emerged as the democratic leader of the moment.

And while O'Rourke ran from college campuses and cafes to organize parties throughout Iowa, a more established competitor, Bernie Sanders, was attracting an even larger audience here.

Sanders – and not O'Rourke – stay ahead of polls and fundraisers early in the Democrats nomination contest, as predicted runner-up, former Vice President Joe Biden, begins run.

O'Rourke is barely faltering, with a list of national donors, a sustained media interest and the ability to fill rooms. But his crowds were rarely so overwhelming that O 'Rourke felt compelled to stand on counters or bars, as he had done during his first visit to the state on last month. Once he did, speaking of a tree stump at Marshalltown, he appeared largely as a tribute to the meme.

"You know I'm happy to be on this stump and deliver this speech from this tree trunk," O'Rourke told an informed crowd. "OK, very quickly. Why not."

O'Rourke's advisers expected the fundraiser to stabilize after its first 24-hour fundraising period, and few campaigns were too concerned about the first national polls.

O & # 39; Rourke began work last week. While his campaign opened an office in Des Moines and began hiring staff, O'Rourke adapted his populist message to a tavern in a small town in rural Carroll, deploring the fact that Democrats "Was the party for rural America."

He called for federal investment programs similar to the 1936 Rural Electrification Act, which allowed federal loans to improve electricity service in rural areas. And in a county where signs protesting against prominent figures strewed roads, O'Rourke pointed out that the border wall proposed by President Donald Trump would require a land take by the federal government.

He went on in Trump for "foolish" trade wars, telling Democrats in a Storm Lake cafe: "It's the farmer here in Iowa," he said. Texas rancher taking it to the chin. "And in an aging dinner in Denison, O. Rourke said his favorite president "by far" was, as audiences in his audience, a Midwestern member, Abraham Lincoln.

City Mayor Jared Beymer said the crowd of about 80 people was a "crowd of 1,000 people for Denison … For noon, a day of work is absurd."

O'Rourke's operation matures quickly. The standard equipment for television and radio has materialized. The candidate answered reporters' questions at almost every campaign stop. When the events were recorded, O'Rourke's campaign began to engage his supporters in his caucus next year. At least 11 people have registered in Denison. And O 'Rourke was striving to increase this number, anxious not only to wear the caps of local baseball teams at his events, but also to recognize local officials in the crowd.

When a Sioux City student waved a sign asking him to go to the ball with her, O'Rourke said, "First of all, as a person who did not go to the ball because nobody asked, I'm really touched. It means more to me than you know.

Then, waving a printed sign in his hand, he added, "But someone spoke to me about your sign and so we proposed a counter-proposal … Would you like me to be a caucus member?"

The next day, Mr. O. Rourke was conciliatory after a Grinnell viewer questioned his record on climate change in the House, acknowledging that there were "some votes that I would rethink or that I might put in a different direction. "

Asked about the votes he would reconsider, O'Rourke told reporters, "I'll try to give you a more comprehensive answer in the future, because I'll need to take a look at those votes. I did not memorize them all. "

O'Rourke entered the presidential race a few weeks later than many of his competitors; he hired a campaign director only at the end of March. But he plans to launch a national program of contacts with voters this weekend, asking supporters to organize door-to-door events in their neighborhoods.

For any candidate, a solicitation program held as early in an election cycle is generally designed more to keep the volunteers engaged in a campaign than to influence potential voters. But its development is significant for O'Rourke, whose electoral experience is limited to Texas.

Sanders, with its supporters base of 2016, announced last week that more than a million people have volunteered for his campaign. He plans to launch his 2020 organizational program later this month.

Mr O'Rourke nevertheless told the press after an event at Iowa State University last week: "We are striving to do nothing until we launch the biggest popular campaign in the history of this country."

O'Rourke has a national survey of 8%, almost tied with Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) And Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), And far behind Sanders and Biden, according to the latest Morning Consult survey. He also remains behind Sanders and Harris in fundraising, after raising $ 9.4 million in the first quarter of the year.

Although Mr. O. Rourke had only 18 days to raise funds during this period – he collected most of it in the first 24 hours – the newspaper from his home town, El Paso Times, bore the title: "Is $ 9.4 Million from Beto O 'Rourke in donations a hit? Analysts differ in terms of campaign impact. "

O'Rourke told reporters that he was grateful for the donations and "somewhat surprised" that the majority of his donors were people who had not contributed to his campaign for the 2018 Senate in Texas.

But he said the fundraising was "nothing I can take for granted". O 'Rourke acknowledged that he did not know if he could maintain his fundraising pace of $ 520,000 a day on average – a furious clip that would be nearly impossible to make. maintain.

One of the main advantages of O'Rourke over many of its competitors is that it is not burdened with public or other responsibilities. It is expected that he will almost constantly campaign and return to South Carolina this week.

"He made a good first trip," said after speaking with O'Rourke, JD Scholten, an Iowa Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for Congress last year, said: "Now he get into the heart of the matter ".