Shane Goldmacher, Weiyi Cai and Jugal K. Patel

The New York Times tracked the public appearances of eight Democrats for the month of March, as well as those private fundraising events that could be found, to try to illuminate how they are spending their most precious resource: their time.

The results reveal the often-opposing imperatives of running for president in 2020: fundraising where the wealthiest Democrats live (chiefly in California and New York) vs. visiting the crucial early primary states; casting votes in Congress vs. introducing themselves to voters beyond the usual stamping grounds of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

As ever, Iowa, the first state to vote, remains the political and physical epicenter of the nomination process. But the candidates visited no fewer than 20 states in March as the geography of running for president has widened in search of money, votes and support.

For Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who caucuses with the Democrats, the contest so far has involved the same kind of big rallies and speeches that defined his 2016 run. Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas has done the opposite: a flurry of voter interactions in smaller settings, hopping on cars in Nevada and coffee shop counters in Iowa, often driving himself between events.

O’Rourke’s dizzying itinerary appears an effort, in part, to emphasize his relative youth (he’s 46). But it also displays an unusual potential advantage: being unemployed.

Those who serve in Congress must fly back to Washington for votes, and other candidates must manage a city or a state. The travel patterns make plain just how much a constraint serving in the Senate can be, keeping candidates off the trail and confined to Washington for as many as four days a week.

Several of the senators are also spending significant time at private fundraisers. In March, Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kamala Harris of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota all devoted days to such events, including time-consuming cross-country travel.

But Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has made her refusal to attend private fundraisers a core part of her message about a broken political system. Sanders avoids the fundraising circuit, too. O’Rourke did so in his first 17 days, though he has not ruled out attending high-dollar events later.

The itineraries also show just how many candidates appear to be banking on a lift from a strong showing in Iowa.

Warren began and ended March in Iowa, with a total of nine events there, the most she held in any state. Iowa was also the most popular destination for Klobuchar, who hails from neighboring Minnesota. Of the eight candidates, only Harris, who held among the fewest public campaign events, did not visit Iowa in March, though she did go in February.

Here are the candidates’ travels, excluding trips to and from Washington for official duties:

— Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.: 28 cities visited by March 30. If most candidates seemed particularly focused on Iowa, Booker’s three trips to the early primary state of South Carolina made plain its importance in his political strategy. He kept up a busy schedule of fundraisers and public appearances, also traveling twice to California while stopping through Iowa and New Hampshire.

— Julián Castro, former housing secretary: 18 cities visited by March 31. Like O’Rourke, Julián Castro, the former federal housing secretary during the Obama administration, does not bear the burden of a day job. He made stops in the first four states, but he also held events in Texas, where his campaign is based, and in California — two of the biggest prizes of the primary that will vote on the same day in March 2020.

— Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.: 17 cities visited by March 31. Gillibrand visited the first two states to vote — Iowa and New Hampshire — the most. She also held a kickoff rally in Manhattan and a televised town hall-style event in Michigan. She carved out time for a weekend of fundraisers in both New York and California while balancing the need to be in Washington for Senate business.

— Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.: 13 cities visited by March 30. Harris mixed fundraisers on both coasts with early-state appearances, though she forged a different travel path than others in March. She went to Florida to raise money. She was the only candidate with a public event in Georgia. And she was the only candidate included in the analysis not to appear in New Hampshire or Iowa in March.

— Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.: 25 cities visited by March 31. Klobuchar made two trips to Iowa, touching down from Dubuque to Sioux City, and one trip to New Hampshire, as she also stopped through some of the usual destinations to raise money: New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois and California. She mixed in some public events, such as climate change round tables in Tampa and San Francisco, to her fundraising trips.

— Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas: 42 cities visited by March 30. O’Rourke joined the contest in mid-March, and he raced through his first 10-plus days (including, literally, a 5K race in Iowa, which he finished in a respectable 24:29). He drove from Iowa to New Hampshire, making stops in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania — a set of key Rust Belt states that Democrats lost in 2016. He ended the month with three kickoff rallies in Texas.

— Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.: 17 cities visited by March 24. Sanders began with rallies in Brooklyn and Chicago (where he grew up and went to college) and then methodically made his way through the first four states and California, with large-scale rallies anchoring each visit (he was not slowed by cutting his head on a glass shower door in South Carolina, which required stitches). He held no fundraisers — and no events in the last week of the month.

— Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.: 22 cities visited by March 30. The most interesting travel choice by Warren was to use a congressional recess to visit three states in the South not part of the typical political map: Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi (where she held a town hall-style event televised by CNN). She made two trips to both Iowa and New Hampshire, and none to South Carolina.

This article originally appeared in <a id="6ae92ba2-028d-4f04-8406-8474ab8cf856" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/world/europe/theresa-may-brexit-compromise.html">The New York Times</a>.

Democratic candidates visited 115 cities across 20 states in 1 month

Though the first votes are still 10 months away, Democratic candidates for president are zigzagging across the United States as if Super Tuesday is almost upon them.

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Shane Goldmacher, Weiyi Cai and Jugal K. Patel

Articles written by the author

Democratic candidates visited 115 cities across 20 states in 1 month