Martin O'Malley
Related: About this forumO'Malley gains, Clinton warms, some in Iowa focus group say.
Democratic presidential candidate Martin OMalleys performance in Saturdays debate convinced a handful of longtime Democratic voters to give the former governor a more serious look this caucus season.
During a focus group hosted and organized by KCCI-TV, 17 voters, nine of them Drake University students, watched the debate and provided their opinions on the evenings happenings. Before show time, only two people raised their hands as possible OMalley voters, but after the debate, five people said they were leaning toward OMalley.
OMalley seemed a more realistic candidate than he ever has, said Ryan Tunink, 20, a Drake student.
The former Maryland governor did what he needed to do to get noticed, said Michael Schrodt, 32, an OMalley supporter before the debate.
He made some strong hits against the other candidates, Schrodt said. He referred back to his experience and kept reminding people that hed done what he talks about on the campaign trial. He threw some slight jabs in his closing statements regarding divisive personalities of the past and him being part of a new generation of Democrats, which I believe he is.
For Benjamin Verhasselt, 21, who was leaning toward Sen. Bernie Sanders before the debate, OMalley came out on top because he highlighted his role as a new and different leader in the party.
I think he did a good job of emphasizing himself as an outsider, something we have seen Republicans do effectively, he said. His strongest argument is that, look, they have lived this for 30 or 40 years and Im not an establishment candidate. He hasnt been around all that time, but he still has experience.
Verhasselt also liked that OMalley used some of his response time early on to reference causes important to voting youth.
He went right into the DREAM Act as well as the Black Lives Matter movement and those two together for a lot of black Iowans and Latino Iowans are very important, Verhasselt continued. There is a tremendous amount of momentum and support behind those causes and that is what OMalley needs a lot of to move forward. >>>
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2015/11/15/martin-omalley-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-kcci-focus-group-iowa-voters/75828476/
RandySF
(70,624 posts)but I think he's positioned to pull from BOTH, part of the reason, imo, there's been so little/no demand for MORE debates; neither of them want him to be exposed to the prying eyes of the electorate.
askew
(1,464 posts)There's a reason Sanders didn't press harder for more debates.
madinmaryland
(65,154 posts)elleng
(136,049 posts)Hi, mad!
Recursion
(56,582 posts)I really hope this starts to show in the polling, since sadly that becomes a story in itself.