Iowa caucus held in Phoenix-area movie theater delivers results

PHOENIX – While the Iowa Democratic Party ran into major problems tallying the results from Monday’s presidential nominating caucuses, a gathering of Hawkeye State voters in a metro Phoenix movie theater made Sen. Amy Klobuchar an early winner.

Klobuchar picked up three Iowa delegates at the Queen Creek satellite caucus, with two delegates each going to former Vice President Joe Biden, South Bend (Indiana) Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

That’s just a drop in the bucket of Iowa’s 1,700-some Democratic caucuses, including more than two dozen held outside the state.

Joan Koenigs, 83, originally volunteered to host the Valley event in her San Tan Valley home, which had space for about 20 people. But as more Arizona Iowans signed up to participate, she needed a new plan.

Here’s an @ASU student from Iowa asking her colleagues in Queen Creek’s #IowaCaucusAZ to support @PeteButtigieg. @KTAR923 pic.twitter.com/sfYRUhyakI

— Peter Samore (@ktarpetersamore) February 3, 2020

She responded to an advertisement at the Queen Creek Harkins theater for meeting space, and her problem was solved in a creative way.

“Even Harkins asked why I got the idea. So I said, ‘You advertised it,” Koenigs said with a laugh.

By the Jan. 17 sign-up deadline, 162 people were registered for the Queen Creek event.

Expecting an older crowd, Koenig scheduled the event to start at 3:30 p.m. Arizona time, 2½ hours before most of the caucuses in Iowa began.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Peter Samore contributed to this report.

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