Blacks in Iowa poised to wield significant sway in 2020 campaign

DES MOINES, Iowa — In Iowa, one of the whitest states in the nation, more than 100 black Democrats who expect to attend the 2020 caucuses crammed into a tiny community center in the capital city to position themselves as a force in the most wide-open presidential campaign in a generation.

“There is hope! There is hope, I tell you, the same hope that Barack Obama brought us,” Jamie Woods, former chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Black Caucus, told the cheering group last month.

In the state where Obama’s 2008 candidacy cleared its first important hurdle, black Democrats are energized, in part motivated by overwhelming dissatisfaction with President Trump. That enthusiasm could make a difference in a state that holds a presidential caucus, which, unlike an open primary, attracts only the most motivated voters. A candidate who can rally more black voters in the caucuses can gain an outsize advantage, even though African Americans make up only 2% of Iowa’s population.

Iowa’s caucus, coming in February as the first event in the Democratic Party’s presidential nominating contest, is an early test of how voters are going to respond to two dozen candidates and could be a harbinger of the primary a few weeks later in South Carolina, where African Americans comprise most of the Democratic primary electorate.

“They’re realizing that their voice needs to be heard,” said Deidre DeJear, the first African American to win a primary for statewide office in Iowa and now state chairwoman for California Sen. Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign. “And they are using the platform they have whether they’re elected or whether just a regular voter.”

Candidates are looking to harness that energy. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a 2020 presidential candidate and former mayor of Newark, N.J., has convened city...