In Break From Impeachment Duties, 2020 Candidates Return to Campaigning

After an abbreviated impeachment session on Saturday, Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar were scheduled to travel to Iowa to resume their courting of the state’s Democrats, who will start the nominating process on Feb. 3 with caucuses across the state. They will need to return to Washington for the resumption of the proceedings on Monday.

Sanders, of Vermont, is looking to build on his new momentum in the primary race, and appears to be in a formidable position with just over a week until the caucuses, leading the field in a New York Times/Siena College poll of likely caucusgoers released Saturday. After traveling from Washington, Sanders was scheduled to appear in Ames, Iowa, for an evening rally with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and filmmaker Michael Moore.

Sanders told CBS News on Friday that the impeachment trial had put him “at a disadvantage” because it had forced him to scale back his campaign schedule, though he said, “I am accepting my constitutional responsibility.”

In her own CBS interview on Friday, Warren, of Massachusetts, said: “Look, some things are more important than politics. I took an oath to uphold the Constitution.”

Two other leading contenders, former Vice President Joe Biden and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, were not stuck in Washington this past week. Buttigieg was scheduled to campaign in Iowa on Saturday, while Biden planned to fly there after beginning his day with an event in Salem, New Hampshire.

Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, who has struggled to gain traction in the primary race and has also been tethered to Washington because of the impeachment trial, was scheduled to travel to New Hampshire on Saturday and planned to campaign there through the weekend.

In Salem on Saturday, Biden offered a stinging critique of Trump, saying he had “diminished America on the world stage.” Speaking in an elementary school gym, Biden alluded to the impeachment trial that is playing out in Washington and reminded the crowd that he had come under relentless attack from Trump.

“My guess if you go back and turn your TV on today, you’re going to find the name Biden mentioned many, many, many times,” Biden said. “I wonder why he doesn’t want to run against me.”

Biden received a boost on Saturday when he picked up the endorsement of Rep. Cindy Axne of Iowa, a freshman Democrat who unseated a Republican incumbent. Axne hails from the kind of swing district that was key to the party’s takeover of the House in the 2018 midterm elections, and will be crucial to its continued control of the chamber.

Axne was set to appear with Biden on Saturday night when he holds an event in her district in Ankeny, a suburb of Des Moines.

“He is who I believe is the one sure bet to beat Donald Trump,” Axne said in an interview, describing him as “a person who can bridge the divisiveness in this country.”

Biden has now been endorsed by two of Iowa’s three Democrats in Congress. Rep. Abby Finkenauer, another freshman who flipped a Republican-held seat in 2018, endorsed him in early January. The state’s other House Democrat, Rep. Dave Loebsack, has endorsed Buttigieg.

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On the campaign trail, Biden stresses the importance of choosing a Democratic presidential nominee who will help candidates down the ballot, and he frequently cites his efforts campaigning for Democratic candidates in the 2018 midterm elections, when the party won control of the House.

“Who do they most want to run with?” Biden said in Claremont, New Hampshire, on Friday, noting the importance of keeping control of the House. “Who will most help them from the top of the ticket? That’s for you to decide. Obviously, I think I’m the guy.”

Axne’s district includes Iowa’s most populous city, Des Moines, and covers the southwestern corner of the state. President Barack Obama won the district in 2012, but Trump carried it in 2016. Two years later, in the midterm elections, Axne unseated a two-term Republican, David Young.

Axne said she believed that Biden would drive turnout in districts like hers, and emphasized the importance of protecting the Democratic majority in the House.

“Any message that doesn’t focus on hope and bringing this country together, that doesn’t have solid, pragmatic solutions to solve the issues that we’re seeing today, if we don’t have somebody who has that type of message, I do believe it could hurt folks like us,” she said.

She also nodded to what she suggested was Biden’s broad appeal. “I truly believe that there are Iowans that would have some difficulty with some of the positions by other people running in this party,” she said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .

In Break From Impeachment Duties, 2020 Candidates Return to Campaigning

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