Des Moines Register Endorses Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio For Iowa Caucuses

With the Iowa caucuses only eight days away, local newspaper the Des Moines Register endorsed two candidates: Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Marco Rubio.

Rubio “has the potential to chart a new direction for the party, and perhaps the nation, with his message of restoring the American dream”, the paper wrote.

The paper’s editorial board focused on Clinton’s resume in its endorsement, highlighting her experience, knowledge and skills as reasons why she is the “one outstanding candidate deserving of [Democrats’] support”.

While the Register noted trepidations with Rubio – his spotty Senate attendance record, his relative inexperience compared to other candidates, and how he recently “pandered to a rising pessimism in his party” – it hopes he’ll take the path towards the “opportunity and optimism he so eloquently articulates”.

In endorsing Rubio, the board touts his ability to “welcome new people to the [Republican] party” and that he can “inspire the base with his ideas on improving the economy, education system and social programs”.

It’s not clear how much sway the Register’s endorsements hold among Iowans.

“The presidency is not an entry-level position”, the paper wrote.

After finishing a town hall in Ames, the Florida senator joined some Iowa State University students who were camped out in the snow for tickets to the Iowa State-Kansas basketball game.

“I’m very pleased, obviously”, she told reporters.

Full endorsements for Clinton and Rubio can be found here. Neither man won the caucus that year, nor the nomination. Bernie Sanders, the newspaper argued his own admission that his reforms would not be passed by Congress make him an unelectable candidate.

And there’s some history where a Register endorsement is used against Republican candidates for not being conservative enough, said Kedron Bardwell, a political science professor at Simpson College.

Both Clinton, the Democrat, and Rubio, the Republican, are polling behind other candidates in most recent Iowa public opinion surveys.

With neither GOP frontrunners Trump and Cruz openly courting the paper’s endorsement, any impact from the Register’s nod may be more pronounced in the race for third. Clinton leads Sanders by just two points. In 1988, it endorsed Illinois Senator Paul Simon in the Democrat caucus.

An endorsement for the Republican front-runner billionaire Donald Trump had seemed unlikely after the paper published a withering editorial last July calling on him to end his “bloviating sideshow” and drop out of the election.