Shane Goldmacher and Maddie McGarvey

“I can also flip Republicans,” she grinned while gripping a metal spatula.

As Harris trundles her way across Iowa on a five-day bus tour that is her longest trip yet to any early primary state, the California Democrat’s embrace of Iowa’s quirky political traditions has delivered the unmistakable message that the state’s kickoff caucuses are increasingly central to her 2020 calculations after months of focus on South Carolina.

By the end of her tour on Monday, Harris will have made more stops in Iowa on this trip than she did in the entire first half of 2019, according to the Des Moines Register’s candidate tracker. She did not once venture farther west than the Des Moines suburbs until July, as her one planned trip there was scratched because of Senate votes.

“You can’t fake showing up,” said Jim Eliason, the Democratic county chairman in Buena Vista in northwestern Iowa, who happily introduced himself to Harris, outside the Storm Lake taqueria Friday.

Now Harris is showing up. The giant crowd of reporters, cameras, supporters, staff and even some hecklers that shadowed her across the state fairgrounds testified to a rising presence in the state.

Her campaign boasts 50 full-time staff in Iowa, spread across seven offices. She bought her first television ad of the primary this week here, airing a minute-long introductory spot statewide. And in the latest Iowa poll, from Monmouth University, Harris had inched up to third place, at 11%, behind former Vice President Joe Biden (28%) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (19%).

Strategists for Harris say her newfound focus is a result of the surprising degree to which the race in Iowa remains wide open, despite Biden’s continued advantage in the polls and the sizable operation Warren has constructed. It is also a tacit acknowledgment of history: those outside the top-three finishers in Iowa rarely go on to capture the nomination.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/11/us/politics/kamala-harris-iowa.html" id="357fdc7f-4b28-3c75-a21c-bf30c3e39e5f">The New York Times</a>.

Kamala Harris, in a Pivot, Makes Her Play for Iowa

STORM LAKE, Iowa — Sen. Kamala Harris ordered tacos at a Mexican joint in Storm Lake. She mingled with the masses at a New York-themed bar in Sioux City. She sampled apple egg rolls and flipped pork chops at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

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Shane Goldmacher and Maddie McGarvey

Articles written by the author

Kamala Harris, in a Pivot, Makes Her Play for Iowa