The Democratic Party is not planning any presidential candidate debates ahead of the 2024 primary season, but two candidates were at the Iowa State Fair Saturday looking for voters’ support.
Environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and self-help author Marianne Williamson each took a turn Saturday on the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox stage on Saturday. They both called for canceling student loan debt and doing more to help people meet basic needs.
“We have a lot of money when we need it for the bankers or need it for the war machine,” Kennedy said. “But we don’t have it when we need it for regular Americans.”
Kennedy says he wants to return the country to the era of middle class prosperity he grew up in.
Williamson says the economy is just one threat facing the U.S. – that the country also faces urgent security and climate threats, and the Democratic Party should look beyond its current leaders to get the country out of the ditch she says it’s in.
“The idea that the only people qualified to drive us out of this ditch are people who know how to maintain and perpetuate the system that drove us into this ditch is increasingly absurd,“ Willliamson said.
Kennedy also says he opposes the carbon capture pipeline projects proposed for Iowa and several nearby states. He calls them just another subsidy for the carbon industry, and says the possible use of eminent domain for those projects goes against the purpose of eminent domain.
“And they can only take it… they can only take it for a public purpose. But this is not a public purpose. This is a private, profit-making purpose,” he said.
The Democratic Party has said it has no plans to stage debates ahead of the 2024 primary season. Real Clear Politics’ average of polls shows Kennedy with roughly 15% support among likely voters, and Williamson in single digits.
