c-span, your unfiltered view of government. brought to you today by your television provider. evening, in what began as a record democratic field, tonight voters will have their say in the presidential campaign. we are live in west des moines, high school -- westothis is a suburban district representing a real mex of democratic voters. the caucus is getting underway at the top of the hour, 7:00 p.m. local time in iowa. and past indianola, we are in -- caucus the back to milo indian tribes. .e are lies on c-span be awardeds will tonight. through the course of the evening we will take you through the caucuses 8:00 eastern and later tonight, the results. the senators earlier today getting back in iowa and on to new hampshire for tomorrow. brett connolly is joining us from west des moines iowa. thanks for spending a couple of minutes for us. >> not quite sure what the , 327ut is going to be participants in our caucus. .e will get a mixed here the north side is predominately apartment buildings whereas woodland avenue, the south side single-familyly homes, so you will get a mix of young and old here. expect tonight? people, everyone has to be registered. captain has a minute to give us their elevator speech and then we will break into preference groups after we determine how many people are since wecaucusing and have 11 delegates to come out here, our threshold to be soevant is 15% of the whole, they 400 people here, you would be 60 people in your group to be able to keep going and qualify for delegate. if you don't have that, you will be given an opportunity to find relevant.at is the changes this year is that everybody has relevant. got a preference trailso we have a paper for your first and second choices. that is a big change for us this time around. >> in already sounds loud in their. how do you keep organized the midst all the chaos? the high school is kind enough to let us use their pa system. this is a gorgeous school. >> there are 1600 caucuses across the state and this is the first step in the process of awarding delegates that will ramp up until may or june, correct? >> right. delegatest step is 11 that we elect as a whole will go on to county convention and then from there, they go to the district convention and the state convention. that narrows down quite a bit. >> tell us about why you are involved in democratic party politics. >> i have a degree from iowa state university a long time ago and i was still in college when 1972 andunteering in 1974, hean again in ran again in 1974, works full-time on that campaign and when tom won us the election and spent a couple years on his congressional step, got a big head and ran for office. i got in the paper business and did that for 37 years. i have been on an off with local races for quite a while, mainly in iowa. other states i got transferred to and i think this is an important thing to do. >> you are an important person so a lot of people coming up to talk to you. i wonder if you could give our audience a sense of what it has been like in iowa over the last year? a record number of democrats crisscrossing in youth had a front row to all of it. what are your thoughts in general? >> it is cool because the thing , but all theyear candidates came and they went to the state fair, got their pictures taken out there quite a and ifipped to porkchops andare a citizen of i was have not run into two or three presidential candidates, you are living in a cave somewhere. these people have all kinds of access to political candidates. question before we let you go, this is all about organization, so how does the campaign organize in iowa? what is at stake and what is at play? --the organization organizing is an important part , at least theign ones that will be viable, they have a cap -- candidate captain in iowa so it is an amazing amount of organizing and there are people everywhere on this campaign. organizer, you are a busy individual, we will follow you during the course of the evening. thank you for spending a few minutes with us. >> if you are interested in a more rural caucus, you can turn it over to c-span2. havedes moines expected to 500 or 600 people. there are actually two caucuses going on. centerat the community and again, that is live on c-span2. want to share with you this headline from the washington post, the d&c headed to iowa to help protect from digital attacks. we have more on the rapid-response team on the ground. what can you tell us? essentially, this is the biggest challenge that thecratic party space when election was thrown into chaos. with the d&c wants to do is ensure this does not have been again. we don't know harmony many people, probably a couple dozen embedded, looking for any kind disinformation either towards candidates or spreading and they information are looking for any sense that .echnology is being used checking to make sure that nothing goes wrong with that. first ofs really the what we will be seeing in new hampshire and other primaries, so just the beginning. >> a lot of focus on the general election, but it will be a long process here. ors something goes wrong adversaries conserved out, that can have an effect. >> what are the lessons of 2016? what are the mistakes? >> people have not paid a whole lot of attention to the extent which voting technology, which is largely run at the state level is not secure against attacking to the extent that social media was not prepared for massive disinformation campaign and since then, it has been a huge effort by the federal government to put a lot of money into this, upgrade haveg technology and a now sensors on election systems in and theirle county working with a social media .ompany this is one of the first real test of how this is working. >> what outside forces, whether it is countries or outside organizations, what you hearing? the 2015 was behind operations for intelligence agencies say they are likely to try something again, but they also warned that some of the other digital adversaries, people a possibility of who just want to sow chaos and with thisbecause information, it is not take a infrastructure that you don't actually change votes, but sometimes it is just as good. >> they essentially, the d&c has a war room of sorts? essentially. they're betting on the democratic party which is responsible for a lot of it. they are going to keep doing all the primaries and caucuses, social media companies in the sopaign and what the party, those are some of the main operations happening. >> protecting from digital attacks, joseph marx is available online at washington post.com. more and what to expect again. we are at valley high school south of des moines on c-span two. you can see a much smaller group . this is a moxie at its best and over 1600 locations across iowa. the washington post put together this brief video on how a caucus works. it explains what to look for tonight. >> after months of debate, it is time for voters to take part in the 2020 primary season. first up, the iowa caucuses. the results help candidates know where to stand. caucusing in a midwestern state is a lot more complicated than a primary. first, the candidates or representatives make their case to everyone present. let's say there are 30 people, aucus-goers moved to candidates physical designated space and they have the option to remove to the uncommitted space. 15%ndidate must amount to of the participant totals to be viable. some have higher thresholds, but none are less than 15%. unviable groups may join, per attempt to persuade folks in order to reach the threshold towards an uncommitted group porches to sit out. then, one more count. nine finally, the iowa democratic party accounts for all the delegate equivalents for all occasions. democratices who the nominee is and that person is considered the winner. a new, i will make the totals available. things can get confusing about who can be the winner. a caucus allows for open discourse on the candidate. viable inurse can be a state like iowa. according to a poll, only 40% said their mind is made up. does not always translate to winning a party nomination. but because the state is home to the first true vote in 2020, the -- the top candidates in momentum for the long route ahead. >> that from the washington post and you can see democratic party in dests began gathering moines iowa. it is scheduled to get underway 7:00 local time, 8:00 here on the east. pulp county, a population of over 40,000. back in 2016, it went for hillary clinton with just over 52% of the vote. donald trump in warren county where my luck is located. we are going to get you inside the room to give you a sense of what is happening. we will be back in just a moment. [inaudible] >> our goal was to get this thing started at 7:00 and tried to run as smoothly as possible. however, anyone that is in line to register or to sign in, they are eligible. we have to wait to start the program. >> you will be hearing a lot from brian connolly. he is the caucus chair. in case you are wondering, c-span collectivist this because it is a competitive caucus location. admixture of suburban and city residents. out that also point there are caucuses outside of iowa, including one in washington and caucuses across europe. the second caucus we chose to give you a sense of how a more rural part of the state plays out, you can see the crowd is beginning to increase. this is just south, a little less than an hour from downtown des moines where agriculture is a big issue. areacounty, that is the where hillary clinton one. coming up in just a couple minutes, a chance for you to watch the caucus here on c-span and c-span2. we will have the candidate speeches later in the evening. >> if there is anyone here that is caucusing that does not have the presidential reference card, please come up to the front and get it. it is pretty important if you want to have your course -- your voice heard. >> [chanting] " i am a war and democrat -- warren democrat" [applause] >> as the campuses get ready for the caucuses, we want to spend a moment to talk to judy downes. a simple question, we see these results coming in. explain why there will be two sets of numbers tonight? more give them transparency on what happens inside the room caucus night. how many people stood up to whoort each candidate and their candidate will be. >> some people wondering if it will be confusing. how do you does all that? >> i would say it is not confusing. it gives a clear picture on what happens inside the caucus. the raw numbers from canada site amy klobuchar and andrew yang paints a really clear picture. >> finally, if you could explain the 50% threshold. the threshold,et what does that mean for the campaigns? >> they have two options. one, they can line up with a viable the threshold, what does that mean for the campaigns? candidate -- 15% threshold. >> they have two options. they can line up with a viable candidate for come together and create a strong alliance. next a very busy evening for you. thank you for that explanation. we appreciate it. >> we will take it now to valley high school as the last-minute registration continues. the campaigns trying to make sure their supporters are ready to go. >> chanting "u-s-a" [inaudible] [inaudible] --[chanting in discernibly indiscernible] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> can i get your attention? we are going to get the caucus started. everyone is signed in, ready to go. did you guys find a chair? -- could you guys find a chair? everyone who is caucusing have a presidential preference card? don't ride on it until we tell you. if you don't, come up and get one. first off, i want to thank all the volunteers who helped sign u.n. -- you in. we did not valley high school -- we did not know valley high school would let us use their sound system. luckily -- donated a couple of hundred pages that should be passed around, so like to thank those people. as your temporary caucus chair, calling this caucus to order. , i first order of business am the temporary chair and stephanie is the secretary. we need to find the chairman of the caucus. since i am the temporary one, i am automatically nominated and to do that, we had to go through caucus training and get certified by the iowa democratic party, so i'm going to open it up for nominations. are there any nominations for permanent caucus chair? you. >> [laughter] it was fun last time. there is one caucus chair and that would be me. all in favor continuing for me to do this, say i? . stephanie, same thing applies. --phanie is our temporary anyone else want to the secretary? i do not think so. >> all in favor of having stephanie has permanent -- permanent caucus secretary, say i. done, we have, it if everyone has a card, there are 329 people that are caucusing with us tonight. thank god we have a better space than we did four years ago three that was a nightmare. they were standing for five deep. or five deep. the first thing we are going to do is great -- break into preference groups. we have 330. to be viable, you would need 15 members of your group. have alreadygroups staked out their area. let's let up and -- wait a minute, i have not given you got the chance. is an indianus term that means gather and discuss. i would like to give each candidate's representative one minute to give us their elevator speech and tell us why their guy or gal is the best one and i think the best way to do that is to go alphabetical order. do i have anyone here for then it, who wants to speak for bennett? how about bloomberg? do we have a spokesperson for biden? >> good evening, thank you so much. i am the captain here for jill biden. the election is about character. has greatn the room character and that means all of our candidates tonight have great character. the character problem is in the white house. that is the character problem. a presidential candidate that can win back the white house, when back the 50 states and it is not just the 50 states when it comes to electing a democratic president, it is protecttates we need to in the rest of the planet. it is the 50 states for ever body in this united states to think about who is in the white house and who can take back the white house for us. character is it huge issue. it is also about the soul of america and joe biden's campaign is about the soul of america and it is to find the deep ones that we have. they are incredibly important for our country to come together and to be a country where he respect each other and talk to each other and really get back on track. joe biden is going to get us back on track and the third reason is that he is going to be donald trump -- beats donald trump like a drum. if he is your candidate and if you want to help us be donald trump,-- beats donald then vote tonight for joe biden. it is not just about past, it is about obamacare, the recovery act, the violence against women act and assault weapons act -- assault weapons ban. >> thanks for coming out. >> do we have someone for mayor pete? >> as you walked in, we handed out pieces of candy terrific going to tell you about my favorite rule. [inaudible] not quite sure he would be able to -- [indiscernible] his response to the strategies, he wrote a letter, a paragraph -- i wishetter states to tell you not only that you are loved, but that you are also needed. you helped to demonstrate the value and desires we all have. you are exercising your right. this has led me to believe through this work, i think he is the person to lead us into a new error. >> anybody for gabbard? >> amy klobuchar? i am chris and i am representing amy klobuchar's campaign. we all want to defeat donald trump in november. i firmly believe that amy klobuchar is the only candidate in the race who can actually do it. she has a proven track record of beating republicans. she has won the senate the multiple times. in the last election, see clips 42 counties that donald trump one in 2016. she knows how to work across the aisle, knows how to bring people with her, how to bring americans together and the only way we are going to bring democrats into the white house is if we win the midwest. she can win in minnesota, when in wisconsin and weight in michigan and when in ohio and iowa.ven thank you. [applause] >> who we have iowa. next -- could we have next -- who do we have next? .> bernie sanders >> hello and welcome to the political revolution. i see so many people in front of my eyes and we are all encouraging and all willing to defeat donald trump and we are all here today. what i'm telling you here today the one man to do that is bernie sanders. he has the progressive grassroots movement to bring the country up through the progressive society to make the american dream possible. a recently read article read that the prime minister of norway said the american dream is more people in nordic countries and i think we can that everybody should have their fight, equal pay for their future will be allowed. we have people fighting corporate billionaires fighting against us and we need to have a grassroots campaign to bring back the senate and stop donald trump from perverting our democracy. stier -- tom steyer? elizabeth warren? are we ready to make history? elizabeth warren has a plan to fight corruption, make big structural change and saturday last ceiling once and for all. universalget childcare, universal pre-k, spencer -- cancel student loan debt, provide free college tuition and to end gerrymandering, in citizens united once and for all. our democracy should not be for sale or anybody else and elizabeth warren has the phrase and energy to fight and win. we welcome you all to join elizabeth warren tonight. >> the last to be heard from is andrew yang. >> i'm here with the yang campaign. for theeen volunteering better half of the last year for discoveredgn and i yang in a contest and a longtime nobody knew who he was. i'm hoping by now all of you have a lease heard from whom he has and how he wants to put pocketn every americans at the age of 18. -- i havenk it is a been fighting for this from the very first day i heard it and i was not a democrat in the last are not thele and only one. i have met so many others like me that have been here knocking doors, volunteering. i have heard everyone say something about beating donald trump. as far as i can see, people across the aisles support yang and they have been doing that all across the whole state and have been doing it across the country. we have the liberal side of the party and we have the more traditional side of the party, but it is all about getting more money in the working-class and average people and getting more money in our pockets so we have the power. i hope you consider andrew yang tonight. >> before we go into preference groups, a couple of other things. primaries and general elections are paid for by county and the government. caucuses are paid for by the parties -- the county parties and the iowa democratic party's have to pay the expense to put the caucuses on and they have sent me envelopes to get you guys up for donation. i will send around the paul county democrat donations. i will go first and then we will deal with the iowa democratic party's. while we are doing these, i have a couple things i am supposed to read to the caucus as a whole and we will do that next. along.o pass these this is to be read with all of our groups. all public meetings and levels shall be open to all members of the democratic party regardless of race, sex, color, national , sexualidentity orientation, gender, economic status or disability. in order that the democratic party at all levels, which includes rather than a loose people from precipitation -- participation. discrimination on the basis of i wouldn the conduct of democratic party's is prohibited. also, as you wander out there, there are candidates need to and sign their petition mik