Why this Iowa voter is serving as a captain for Elizabeth Warren on caucus night

'My family in rural Iowa is seeing [climate change] happen before their eyes'

^{Polarized is a weekly series featuring Americans from all 50 states sharing their views on the 2020 elections. Click here if you would like to be a part of this project}

Kylie Spies has a busy night on Monday.

The 36-year-old, who is currently a Master of Social Work candidate at the University of Iowa while interning with the Senate Democrats at the State House as well as a mother of two, recently became a registered Democrat so she could participate in the first-in-the-nation caucus next week.

“I felt like it was time to stop pretending I was an independent, and to actually get involved and do something,” she says.

Though it’s her first time caucusing in Iowa, the Des Moines resident has agreed to serve as a caucus math captain — an important role requiring her to show up early on caucus night and oversee the process as voters select their preferred candidates, .

In an interview with The Independent, Spies says there is one woman best suited for the job: Elizabeth Warren.

“You probably can’t write this,” she says while laughing. “At work, we call it GSD: Get Sh*t Done. She’s a GSD.”

Spies continues: “I have a sense of her as a person being someone who can get things done, based on what she has accomplished, as well as her tenure as an academic. She just knows the policies inside and out.”

(Courtesy of Kylie Spies (Courtesy of Kylie Spies)

Warren has steadily unveiled sweeping policy proposals along the campaign trail, focusing on everything from climate change — a top issue for Spies in choosing a presidential candidate — and criminal justice, to immigration reform and healthcare.

Her plans have a few common themes: rooting out corruption in federal politics; transferring power, money and opportunities back to the middle and working classes; and securing a stable economy and healthy democracy for future generations.

But Warren isn’t the only one talking the talk on progressive ideals along the campaign trail. Bernie Sanders is seen by many as the candidate most closely aligned with Warren, which may cause problems come Monday, when caucus-goers choose candidates based on viability as well as personal preference.

“I feel like every year I wake up, turn on NPR and it’s not the person I thought was going to win,” Spies says of the Iowa caucus when asked who she thinks has the best shot at victory. “I couldn’t even make a guess right now. My gut kind of says that Sanders is going to take it, but I don’t know … I don’t have any reason to think Warren wouldn’t be viable, but if she isn’t, that’s where I would go.”

Spies says she prefers Warren over Sanders for president because Warren knows how to “work within the system to make big, structural changes,” while Sanders has “changed the conversation” throughout his career by “hovering on the edge” and demanding radical change from others.

Sanders is “out there shouting and waving his fist, and I think that’s awesome,” she adds. “He’s done so much.”

Democratic presidential candidate, US Senator Elizabeth Warren, addresses supporters during her campaign event (EPA)

Regardless of who wins the Democratic nomination, Spies says she sees an uphill battle for anyone able to successfully beat Donald Trump out of the White House.

She says Republicans “will continue to dismantle every single idea that a Democrat comes in with,” the same way they did under Barack Obama.

“I would like to think that the party learned something from the Obama years, when they came in with all these big ideals and they kind of just got whittled away … and I really believe there was a lot of racism with that,” Spies says. “But it’s not going to stop if it’s a woman. It’s not going to stop if it’s a Democratic socialist.”

Like Warren, Spies used to be a teacher, though she most recently worked in refugee services.

“I saw the ways that people interact with the system and the challenges that they have, and it kind of drove to me to work in policy,” she says. “I want to be able to change those systems upstream to make people’s lives easier.”

Spies just recently left her role at the refugee center in order to take on that internship at the State House for her Master of Social Work, though she says she'd been involved with the center ever since the 2016 election.

“I talked to people every day who were impacted by it,” she adds, recalling family members who — despite being eligible for resettlement — were not permitted into the country. “Our refugee cap has gone down so low that we have no new families coming in. We have all these people with family members in camps in Africa waiting to come in and they can’t … I take that personally.”

Spies describes the Trump presidency as “horrifying,” saying the US is “losing allies all over the world” as the administration is “making the Earth dirtier.”

The next election is absolutely crucial in determining the fate of the country, she says, adding that it's especially important in regards to the climate. Spies adds that she voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and will ultimately vote for whichever Democrat goes up against the Republican incumbent come November.

Still, whether a more centrist candidate like Joe Biden or Pete Buttigieg — who Spies notes have “carved out lanes” in Iowa among older, more establishment-minded Democrat voters — or someone like Sanders or Warren takes the nomination, she hopes the level of grassroots activism behind those progressive candidates continues after the 2020 elections.

“Everyone has climate change in their platform, and that’s not a thing that was true 10 years ago, so that gives me hope,” she says. “My family in rural Iowa is seeing it happen before their eyes: the climate is so erratic, you can’t count on harvesting or planting at the time that you would before, the rainfall is unpredictable, we had huge floods last year, droughts the year before that.”

“People are talking about it,” she concludes. “Even lifelong Republicans. Something is happening here.”