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Here's How Young Voters in Des Moines Are Getting Ready for the Iowa Caucuses

In the 2012 election, the voting rate for 18 to 29-year-olds in Iowa was more than 57 percent — the fifth-highest in the United States. VICE News visited the growing hipster enclave of Des Moines to see what motivates them.
Photo by Michael Hopper/VICE News

The Des Moines Social Club might sound like a place where retired ladies spend their weeknights playing bridge, but the reality couldn't be more different. The downtown space is a combination socialist collective, experimental theater, and coffee shop for the city's growing crowd of young hipsters. Because this is Iowa and it's caucus season, the club held caucus-themed events the entire weekend, concluding Sunday night with a political fashion show featuring local artists and designers.

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About a hundred people crammed into the theater space, which had been reconfigured with a runway down the center. A tattooed DJ was spinning in the back alongaside a cash bar serving locally brewed beer and a food vendor selling gastropub fare.

Models strutted down the runway wearing outfits inspired by various former presidents or periods of political history. Women with their heads half-shaved modeled dresses in the style of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, followed by bearded and mohawked men showing off a Teddy Roosevelt-inspired menswear collection. The finale consisted of models carrying masks featuring each of the 2016 presidential candidates. Ted Cruz's model twerked on the platform.

An outfit inspired by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

After the show, the models, most of whom were under the age of thirty, were busily preparing for the after party.

Mallory Weiser, a law student at nearby Drake University, said she was supporting Marco Rubio. Many of her friends in the area were interested in Bernie Sanders, but plenty more were supporting conservative candidates as well. The one thing they all had in common, Weiser said, is that they were "definitely" planning on caucusing on Monday.

Weiser and her friends' active voter participation demonstrates how seriously Iowa's young voters take their civic duty. Nationally, young people consistently have the lowest rate of voter turnout among different age groups — in 2012, the national voter participation rate for people aged 18 to 29 was 45 percent, according to US census data. But here in Iowa, the voting rate for 18 to 29-year-olds was more than 57 percent, the fifth-highest in the country.

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Van Holmgren, a 33-year-old artist, and CJ Louis, a 26-year-old writer, were drinking cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon after the fashion show. When asked if they were planning on caucusing, they were surprised it was even a question.

"Of course!" Holmgren answered. "It's quite the scene. How could you miss it?"

Both said they were planning on caucusing for Sanders.

Van Holmgren is the artist who made the candidate heads for the fashion show. He plans to caucus for Bernie Sanders on Monday. 

Mobilizing the youth vote is a key element of any successful campaign, but perhaps nowhere is this as true as it is in Iowa. The nature of the state's caucuses relies on a well-organized "ground game" in order for a campaign to get first-time voters to come out and spend three hours of their free time debating politics in a public gymnasium on a frigid Monday evening.

In 2008, Barack Obama's huge and unexpected victory in Iowa was largely credited with the hordes of young people, many of whom were first-time caucusgoers, that came out to support him. The Sanders campaign has been trying to copy that strategy, with an impressive army of young volunteers engaging their peers — and judging by the bearded and tattooed fellows filling the Des Moines Social Club, it appears to be working.

Tayler Frame, the 23-year-old model who twerked as Ted Cruz, said that he will caucus for Sanders.

"You go around the east village here," he said, referring to a popular Des Moines neighborhood, "and it's hard to avoid seeing Bernie signs in everyone's windows."

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But not all of the young people in Des Moines are feeling the Bern.

Scott Siepker, who MC'd the event and identifies as an independent, said that he's drawn toward former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, but hasn't completely decided if he'll caucus for him. Siepker has caucused with Republicans (on behalf of John McCain in 2008) and Democrats (on behalf of John Edwards in 2004) in previous election cycles, and said that he wants to see each candidate as much as possible before he makes up his mind.

"I'm an evidence-based guy," he remarked.

A version of Iowa's straw poll at the Des Moines Social Club. 

The active participation of young people in the Iowa caucuses corresponds with the fact that more and more of them are concentrated in Des Moines. In recent years, the city has solidified its status as a small hipster enclave in the Midwest thanks to a growing influx of youth drawn by affordable housing. Between 2006 and 2013, the population of millennials in Des Moines grew at twice the average national rate, according to the Atlantic magazine.

The city's residents know it still doesn't quite have the same hipster reputation as Williamsburg in Brooklyn or Portland, Oregon, but that might be changing soon.

"Five years ago, Des Moines kind of sucked," said the barista at the Des Moines Social Club. "But now there's tons of these kinds of events," he added, gesturing toward the fashion show.

Sixty percent of those who took out a mortgage to buy a home in Des Moines in the first half of last year were between the ages of 25 and 34, according to real estate data compiled by Bloomberg. This was the highest rate in the United States, prompting Bloomberg to label Des Moines the most millennial-friendly city in the country.

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Many of the young people pouring into Des Moines are creative professionals that are attracted to the low-cost of living that makes it possible to live comfortably as an artist.

Siepker, who is a professional actor, said that people laugh at him when he tells them he's a working actor in Des Moines. But he loves the city in part because he can make a living doing what he wants.

"If Iowa wants to be a first-rate state, it needs to attract more artists and young people," he declared.

The caucuses bring the national spotlight — in addition to gawking outsiders — to the city every four years. The attention and tourist boom from the caucuses "are fun," said Frame, who works as the manager of a nearby Raygun clothing store that has become famous for its amusing, politically-themed shirts. "I'd be happy with a caucus every year!"

After the final round of models left the stage, Siepker took the microphone to close the fashion show. The pride for his home state reverberated throughout the packed room.

"People on the coasts say a lot of things," Siepker yelled. "But I'll tell you one thing: Iowa is rising! And so are the sea levels — so they'll have to move here eventually!"

Follow Olivia Becker on Twitter: @obecker928

All photos by Michael Hopper/VICE News