Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, greets supporters during a visit to his Iowa campaign headquarters on June 13. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
A Colorado caravan of Bernie Sanders supporters left Friday for Iowa, ahead of the first-in-the-nation caucus Monday.
The volunteer contingent — about 35 in total — will reach out to voters in Sioux City in northwestern Iowa, according to Nita Lynch, a 73-year-old Sanders supporter from Denver. The campaign assigned different state groups to different cities.
“When we get there we will go into the campaign office … and then they’ll give us a list and we’ll knock on doors,” she said.
The former Barack Obama campaign volunteer said the energy for Sanders exceeds what she saw in the 2008 campaign. “I was really excited about (the Obama) campaign … but I’ve seen much more passion and enthusiasm about what Bernie stands for,” she said in an interview before leaving town.
In Iowa, she said, voters can register immediately before the caucus, so the Sanders volunteers will work to recruit new caucus-goers and convince others to turnout. She is excited by the number of young people traveling to Iowa from Colorado for the campaign. The group, she said, decided “we are not going to just sit here and cheer for Bernie, we have to do outreach to people.”
Lynch and some of the volunteers plan to stay through the caucus and return Tuesday.
When they do, the focus is on Colorado’s March 1 caucus. The Sanders campaign only arrived in the state recently, but Lynch and other volunteers began organizing soon after he entered the race in late April.
She predicted Sanders would win the state — “I’m seeing that degree of excitement and commitment from people,” she said.
In Denver, Sanders’ campaign organized a recent rally that drew hundreds and spraypainted a huge mural of the candidate at the corner of 20th and Sherman streets downtown.
It’s unclear if Hillary Clinton supporters are doing the same. A message to the campaign’s Colorado staff went unreturned.
Both Democratic presidential candidates plan to speak at the state party’s annual dinner Feb. 13 in Denver.
