Martin O’Malley on Tuesday put a brave face on a chastening campaign experience, after precisely one person showed up to his final event in Iowa the day before.
“By God he was glad to see me,” O’Malley said.
All other 2016 presidential candidates who were scheduled to be in Iowa on Monday cancelled their events, as the state was hit by heavy snowfall.
“We decided to plow through,” the former Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor told MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “Quite literally, sometimes. The very last event of the night we actually had a whopping total of one person show up, but by God he was glad to see me. So we spent the time with him.”
According to Iowa TV reporter Sarah Beckman, who “after counting 13 cars in the ditch along I-80” was present at the event in Tama, O’Malley and the voter, named Kenneth, discussed the Syrian refugee crisis and prisons policy.
“I give you a lot of credit for coming out here,” said Kenneth. “I’m glad you took the time.”
O’Malley trails Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders by some distance in state and national polls concerning the three-strong Democratic field. He is polling slightly higher in Iowa (at 5.7% according to the realclearpolitics.com average) than nationally (4.6%).
On MSNBC, he was asked if he had convinced his intrepid Iowan to vote for him in the state caucus, which kicks off the 2016 presidential contest on 1 February. Despite having had such valuable face time with such a key voter, he said he had not.
“I’m working on him,” O’Malley said. “He claims he’s still uncommitted. You know, it’s Iowa – people wait here until the last two weeks, they want to see the whole campaign play out. So I wasn’t surprised he was uncommitted, but I was glad he took the time to come out in the snow and see me.”
Kenneth braved the snow storm to meet with @MartinOMalley in Tama. #iawx #iacaucus pic.twitter.com/xvB9S8hDwh
— Sarah Beckman (@SarahBeckman3) December 29, 2015
Beckman, however, reported that though Kenneth the voter did not commit to supporting O’Malley, he did say: “I think you have a great platform to be running, and I think you have a great future here in Iowa. I wish you well.
“On paper, if I were to look at just the résumés, you would have the strongest résumé in my mind. But then all this other stuff … I think those two other candidates, there are problems with both of them. I don’t think Sanders would be easily electable. So don’t underestimate the fact that Iowa will turn out differently.
“I think it will turn out differently than what the polls are showing. Jimmy Carter would not have been president if it weren’t for Iowa.”
On MSNBC, O’Malley repeated his criticism of the Democratic National Committee for its scheduling of relatively few debates in broadcast slots out of TV prime time. The Democrats are scheduled to stage six debates, the Republicans 12.
“They’re trying to circle the wagons around this year’s inevitable frontrunner, Hillary Clinton,” he said, “and I think … the party leader, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, is doing a terrible disservice to the public. Look how many debates the Republicans have had, and they schedule them on weeknights.
“We are the Democratic party, not the Undemocratic party; we should be having at least as many debates as the Republicans have had.”
O’Malley also said he had tried, to no avail, to get the Sanders campaign to agree to schedule debates independently of the DNC.
“We have one more debate coming up in South Carolina,” he added, with a promise to deliver his message that the Democratic party as well as the country needs new leadership.
In fact, the Democrats have three scheduled debates remaining: in South Carolina on 17 January, in Wisconsin on 11 February and in Miami on 9 March.
