By Rebecca Morin
While in Iowa’s most liberal county, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made it known she was not going to criticize her fellow Democratic candidates.
Instead, she went after the Republican Party.
“I know there aren’t too many Republicans in Iowa City,” she said, noting that the Republican Party is an “evidence-free zone” by not backing up their “facts.:
Nearly 400 attendees packed into Old Brick, 26. E. Market St., on Wednesday afternoon, where Clinton spent most of her times taking questions from the audience after giving only a 15-minute speech.
There are more than 37,600 registered Democratic voters in the county, compared with the nearly 17,500 registered Republicans, as of December, according to the Iowa Secretary of State Office’s website.
There are around 31,200 independent registered voters in the county.
This was Clinton’s second visit to Iowa City since announcing her presidential campaign. Her first visit following her campaign announcement was in July at the Iowa City Public Library.
Clinton, who spent 15 minutes speaking before switching over to a nearly 30-minute Q&A session, touched on vowing to stop Social Security from becoming privatized, increasing taxes for the wealthy, and stopping ISIS and Islamophobic rhetoric — even naming Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump for fueling anti-Muslim discussions.
“We need Muslim majority nations, and we need Muslim Americans to work with us,” Clinton said.
University of Iowa freshmen Lauren Bisgard, Madison Davenport, and Herbert Meisner said they came out Wednesday afternoon because they are between candidates and wanted to see if they could be swayed by Clinton.
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All three described themselves as left-leaning and are still deciding whether they will vote for Clinton or Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Davenport said she likes how consistent Sanders has been on his views compared with Clinton, who has changed her views, which Davenport said “is not necessarily a bad thing.”
“I think I’m still concerned on Sen. Sanders being able to get the vote and become the candidate, and if he is, getting enough people to win,” she said. “I would rather have the party have the best opportunity than necessarily go with the person I like the most.”
According to a Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Poll released Monday, 48 percent of Democratic likely caucus-goers said Clinton would be their first choice. Sen. Sanders came in next at 39 percent.
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley stayed in the single digits with 4 percent.
With 404 Democratic likely caucus-goers surveyed, there is a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.
Ilya Gurevic, a graduate student in the UI Chemistry Department, said Clinton has been the first presidential candidate he has seen in person.
Gurevic, who was born in Russia but has been living in Madison, Wisconsin, since he was 3, will vote as a Democrat, and he said he will probably vote for Clinton.
Clinton did not surprise Gurevic with her answers at the Iowa City event, he said, noting, “She is what she advertises herself to be.”
“She is most electable,” the 29-year-old said. “She is further to the center than Bernie Sanders, which means I believe she will appeal to some independents, moderates, and even a few Republicans.”
