PBS and NPR for Southwest Florida
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Iowa Democratic Party Holds Presidential Candidate Caucus in Port Charlotte

Andrea Perdomo
/
WGCU
Iowans raise their hands and wait to be counted during the Iowa Democratic party's Port Charlotte satellite caucus.

For the first time in its history, the Iowa Democratic Party held satellite events across the globe to allow Iowans outside the state to caucus for the state’s Democratic presidential nominee. Four events in Florida were held Monday.

Margaret Torrie of Ames, Iowa spends the winter months in Southwest Florida, and said when the Iowa Democratic party started taking applications to host satellite caucus events, she jumped at the opportunity to bring a caucus to Port Charlotte.

"We were advised that we should have at least 10 participants and this is overwhelming.  It’s absolutely wonderful," Torrie said.  "And it tells everyone that Iowans take caucusing very seriously."

Campaigners of the various Democratic candidates greeted the 135 Iowans that entered the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Church to participate in the caucus.  

Thomas Andre, served as the satellite chair and explained the ground rules to the crowd.

"What we will do is we will get into our first alignment group, we’ll count the number of people in the group," Andre said. "To be viable, a group has to have 15% of the people in the room."  

Participants gathered under signs with the name of their preferred candidate, and waited to be counted. To be viable, a candidate needed to have at least 20 supporters.

The candidates with the most supporters in the first round were Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar.

Supporters of all the other candidates needed to realign themselves and join one the groups for those top three candidates. Members of the majority groups were allowed to lobby those individuals.

Participant Pat Timmons, of Urbandale, Iowa, was surprised candidate Elizabeth Warren's group was not viable.

"But I think that’s only because this was a satellite," Timmons said.  "I think if we would be back home tonight caucusing then [Warren's] group would be viable."

In the end, Amy Klobuchar gained four delegates, followed by Buttigieg with three and Biden with two. The results were submitted via an app to the Iowa Democratic party.

Monday night’s caucus faced some technical issues including problems with the app used submit results. As of Tuesday morning, no results had been declared.

Andrea Perdomo is a reporter for WGCU News. She started her career in public radio as an intern for the Miami-based NPR station, WLRN. Andrea graduated from Florida International University, where she was a contributing writer for the student-run newspaper, The Panther Press, and was also a member of the university's Society of Professional Journalists chapter.