On July 5 Dick Gephardt officially endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. I assume that he will be campaigning for her in Iowa, since he won the caucuses in 1988 and had a fair amount of support here even in his disappointing fourth-place finish last cycle.
My question to Bleeding Heartland readers is, how much does this help Hillary? Gephardt was not viable in my precinct in either 1988 or 2004, and I don't know a lot of people who backed him. I know that he had a lot of support from organized labor. Will they care that he is endorsing Hillary?
Speaking as someone who worked her butt off for Kerry before the last Iowa caucuses, if Kerry came out and endorsed one of the other presidential candidates, I wouldn't even consider rethinking my choice. Kerry's preference among the current Democratic field is totally irrelevant to me.
Will Gephardt's backing carry more weight with the people who supported him?
2 Comments
Gephardt won my precinct
Over on the north side of Des Moines, Gephardt won my precinct in 2004. Edwards came in second, with the Undecided (Kerry) group third. That’s largely because of the support of the steelworkers in the area, and their work at Firestone. I don’t necessarily think that labor will come to Clinton like it did to Gephardt, who had been loyal to the Steelworkers for several years while in the House.
Right now, the only labor group I know that seems to be working hard for Clinton (or at least looking to support her) are the Firefighters (that’s what I’ve heard, at least).
So, we’ll see if it matters. Surely his 4th place finish in 2004 can’t mean that much. If anything, his support means that Terry McAuliffe and others will be fundraising big time for Clinton.
chris-woods Mon 9 Jul 11:37 PM
No
These sort of endorsements usually carry little weight, but I think in this case it could even hurt. Hillary's problem is that she is the establishment candidate, and a lot of Iowa activists would like to do better. Gephardt is about as old-school/establishment as you can get.
tom Tue 10 Jul 10:24 PM