De Blasio Learns 'Con Don' Plays Better In Iowa Than South Carolina

Democratic presidential candidate New York Mayor Bill de Blasio talks with George Naylor, right, after a meeting with Greene County small family farmers, in Churdan, Iowa

Mayor Bill de Blasio wrapped up his first road trip as an official presidential candidate on Sunday—a 3,000 mile whirlwind with eight campaign stops in Iowa and South Carolina. Along the way, he field-tested his stump speech, ramped up his attacks on President Trump and even showed off a new campaign casual wardrobe.

For the newest entrant among two dozen Democratic candidates seeking the 2020 nomination, de Blasio spent most of his time in small settings listening to voters and benefiting from the built-in media coverage that comes with being the mayor of America’s largest city.

“It was very patient, it was very grassroots,” de Blasio said at the end of the weekend. “Lot of listening to people, lot of connecting on their issues, finding new friends a supporters and building consistently. That's how I've done it before and I believe that works.”

He made no major gaffes, but the trip also highlighted the challenges his nascent campaign faces if he’s to move from underdog status to contender.

Listen to Brigid Bergin discuss Mayor de Blasio's campaign swings in Iowa and South Carolina on WNYC:

De Blasio kicked things off traveling straight to the heartland. He zig-zagged across Iowa, touring an ethanol plant and bio-refinery in the middle of a vast field of farmland, before finding a welcome audience at the home of George and Patti Naylor, organic farmers who are both active in the sustainable agriculture movement. The setting looked tailor-made for the mayor, with a book about Nicaragua on the couple’s coffee table, along with a mug from Zabar’s they picked up on a recent trip to the city. The Naylors supported Senator Bernie Sanders in 2016 and introduced him at recent rally this cycle—but they’re still shopping for a candidate and using their first caucus state advantage to bring visibility to agriculture policy.

Farmers at the meeting gave the mayor high marks for trying to learn the issues facing rural America.

“I thought that he was very engaged in what we had to say, that he asked a lot of good questions, that he listened well, which is important for a city boy,” said Barbara Kalbach, who farms corn and soybeans in Adair County with her husband on 600 acres—half the size of what they used have when they still raised cattle, hogs and sheep. They scaled back, she said, because they couldn’t afford to compete with corporate farms three times their size.

The mayor’s central theme, focused on how the government can do more to lift the burdens on working people, resonated with the farmers struggling to hold on their land in Iowa as much as it did with residents trying to hold on to their homes in South Carolina. “We can’t afford to live,” said Aysa Marshall, who was part of meeting with the mayor about affordable housing. She’s a resident of Apple Valley, a neighborhood of largely low income tenants in Columbia, S.C.

But his evolving campaign style, including aggressively calling out Trump as a bully and flipping the script by giving him a nickname, garnered mixed results on the trail.

A group of roughly 20 local Democrats at a dinner in Sioux City, IA greeted the mayor’s “Con Don” label for the president with enough laughter and applause that de Blasio’s skeleton campaign staff made posters and offered people a chance to snap a photo with the mayor holding one. While in South Carolina, people repeatedly urged de Blasio to drop the Trumpian tactic. At a meeting with the Black Caucus of the Richland County Democrats, one woman raised her hand to offer the mayor some unsolicited advice.

Beverly Frierson speaking to Mayor de Blasio in South Carolina on Saturday. (Brigid Bergin / WNYC)

“I know you can’t be afraid to take it to him,” said Beverly Frierson, referring to Trump, “but I don’t respect the tit for tat and I don’t want our [political] system this time to become a sideshow,” she added.

Joyce Dickerson, a Richland County Councilwoman, also urged the mayor to cut the name-calling and focus on the issues that matter to her constituents. “When they can't stay in their homes, their water bills—these are the kind of things that are important to the voters.”

At his final stop in South Carolina at an historic African American church on Sunday, he never once used his “Con Don” line.

The first hurdle for the campaign comes up quickly. The first Democratic debate is set for two nights on June 26th and 27th in Miami, FL and only 10 of the 23 Democrats running for president will make the stage each night.

The Democratic National Committee created two sets of criteria for candidates to qualify: either a candidate needed to poll 1 percent or more in three qualifying polls or raise money from at least 65,000 supporters across 20 states. Candidates must submit their strongest poll numbers and fundraising details to the DNC by June 13.

While it’s not clear if de Blasio would clear both hurdles (some polls show him with 1 percent, but his campaign has not released any fundraising numbers), the mayor brushed off any suggestion that his campaign was getting a late start.

“The first voting doesn't happen until February. We've got to go through the rest of the spring. Then the whole summer, then the whole fall, then the whole winter. And then people are voting,” de Blasio said. “You have to see it in the perspective of real people.”

Brigid Bergin is the City Hall and politics reporter for WNYC. You can follow her on Twitter at @brigidbergin.