ANKENY, Iowa — During a Vivek Ramaswamy campaign event at a pizzeria here, Kathleen Jorgensen enthusiastically chanted along with the businessman’s stump speech and wafted a “Ramaswamy Tsunami” poster.
She is a mother of three children, ages 26, 22 and 15. “They have no future. This is it,” she said in an interview. “This election is our future.”
Monday’s Iowa Caucus was America’s first chance to weigh in on the Republican nomination. Conversations with attendees across four campaign events in the blizzard-stricken state revealed parent voters worry about their children’s future quality of life in America.
“A lot of my decisions as a mom are made because I think of my kids and what their future is,” Jorgensen said. “I really believe that’s why I was so passionate about Vivek Ramaswamy.”
She said Ramaswamy won’t engage in foreign wars that have “no purpose for American interests.”
“My 15-year-old is a son,” Jorgensen said. “And I’m looking at candidates who are flirting with attacking Iran? Are you serious?”
Jorgensen also points to $34 trillion in national debt. She said people under the age of 40 are strapped with over $200,000 in debt “just for being born.”
Jorgensen was a Ramaswamy caucus captain in the Beaverdale township, what she describes as the “bluest area” in populous Polk County, which includes the state capital of Des Moines.
She ended up being one of the only 10 Ramaswamy voters in her precinct. Those results held true for the rest of the state, and the candidate suspended his bid and endorsed former President Donald Trump late Monday night after a weak caucus showing.
Jorgensen said that following the caucus vote on Monday, she was voted out of her leadership position in the Republican Central Committee because of her outward support for Ramaswamy. She said her local party voted in a Nikki Haley supporter instead, in line with what she described as a Democratic activist movement in her area.
Kristie Wagner is the mother of a 25-year-old son who lives at home. She said her son cannot afford to buy a house and that the quality of life for young people is going down.
“I can see the middle class falling and falling,” she said in an interview during a Trump event at Simpson College in Indianola on Sunday. Wagner, committed to caucus for Trump, added that the middle class is stuck with taxes and inflation, which she identified as some of her core policy issues along with election interference, the border and Hunter Biden’s legal issues.
Heather Beener’s two young children scurried around her and played with a Trump 2024 yard sign at the event in Indianola, which was so overcrowded the fire marshal stopped letting people in the doors. Her husband only chimed in once, as the conversation was primarily dominated by Beener’s enthusiasm for being selected to be a Trump caucus captain in the Squaw Creek township.
She said this is not her first time participating in political events. In the Hawkeye state, residents have a history of prioritizing grassroots campaigning. The top three Republican candidates spent a collective $123 million in advertising to convince voters to commit to their campaign this election cycle.
She said she worries about a worse quality of life for her children because of the national debt. But, she also fears that America, a “country of rights,” could be lost to communism.
Shawn Stout, a Des Moines resident, brought his two 16-year-old sons to the Indianola rally. He said he fears the future quality of life for his sons because prices are increasing and big companies care about making profits rather than helping people.
“Our world is falling apart faster than we are fixing it,” Stout said.
He said he likes Trump’s out-of-the-box strategy and doesn’t think any other candidates have a chance. Stout had not yet committed to caucus on Sunday, but mentioned his sons favor the former president. They were holding Trump 2024 yard signs in Indianola.
Voices of opposition worry about climate
At the same time parents fretted over their kids’ futures, college-age Iowans flocked to caucus events that usually draw middle-aged and retired attendees.
Two students attending a Haley event in Adel felt shut out of the discussion.
Haley’s caucus-eve event Sunday evening at the Country Lane Lodge was positioned on a snow-covered hill and beaming with energized volunteers at the door.
Aaron Park, 19, and Anna Smith, 18, drove 45 minutes from West Des Moines to hear Haley’s stump. They were inside of the building when a staffer told them they would have to leave immediately or be arrested for trespassing, according to Smith.
The students were then ushered outside in -10 degree temperatures. A reporter observed a staffer tell the students that Haley’s head of security set a ban on college students for this event. Park confirmed this and added he was frustrated over being thrown out of the event.
“I mean, college students vote,” he said, as the two students were laughing. “They say they’re concerned about winning the youth vote, but don’t let youth into their events,” Smith said.
Smith is a high school student in West Des Moines and Park attends the University of Iowa.
“It feels like she doesn’t really want our vote and she just wants to go talk to the media,” Park said.
Park said he was undecided ahead of the caucus, but that being thrown out would probably influence his decision.
It is unclear if the ban on college-age attendees was related to a series of attempts to disrupt caucus events by the Sunrise Movement, a climate change coalition led by youth under 35 across America.
In many of the events leading up to caucus day, Sunrise Movement activists orchestrated planned disruptions. The coalition campaigns around keeping candidates out of office who take oil money and expand fossil fuel use.
“I am a young voter that is concerned about our future and Trump is a politician that has taken millions of dollars in fossil fuel money,” said Noah Sebastian, 28, who attended the Simpson College Trump event Sunday. “Trump getting elected would sell out the future that young people are owed.”
He said the coalition’s goal is not to persuade caucusgoers to vote differently, but to show young Americans the stakes of the climate crisis and that “serious, drastic” action is needed for a liveable future.
Another protester in Indianola stormed the building chanting “criminal, climate” while waving a yellow banner that read “Trump: Climate Criminal.” This protestor was escorted out by security. On Jan. 11, three hecklers from the Sunrise Movement disrupted a Ron DeSantis caucus event in Ames.
Sebastian wore a commited-to-caucus Trump sticker on his shirt and said it helped him appear as a supporter to blend in. He pointed to specific climate challenges in Iowa: farmers are facing crop failures, the freezing temperatures are evident of a polar vortex caused by climate change and his parent’s home was almost lost to a forest fire, he said.
Laela Zaidi, 27, is a leader and organizer in the Kansas City, Missouri chapter of the Sunrise Movement. She said she was a part of actions at events hosted by all of the candidates.
Zaidi said young people are feeling anxious that the “system can’t change” and that the future president won’t fight for youth.
“Our goal is to confront these politicians that are bought by oil and gas millionaires and ask them to pick a side,” she said in a phone interview. “Are they going to choose everyday people or are they going to choose the millionaires who are digging our graves, who are burying our futures into the ground?”