Posted by student JAMES MITCHELL- Micah Hammac runs the Shaky Tree Coffee Shop in Spencer, Iowa. A transplant from Portland, Oregon, Micah admitted that he was confused and intimidated by the Democratic caucus system when he arrived in Iowa: “It’s a little confusing you know. I wanted to go but I didn’t want to look like I didn’t know what was going on.”
What Micah found was that many people in Spencer felt the same way: “I talked to people that thought if you go caucus you have to give a speech in front of a crowd or that it takes three hours. Lots of people were uncomfortable with how the process worked.”
So Hammac hosted a coffee caucus party at his downtown store. He said, “It was a completely non-political event designed to let people see how the caucus system works.”
The participants at the coffee caucus each chose to support a different drink: regular coffee, regular tea, chai, or lattes. The group gathered into whichever corner of the coffee shop that had been designated for their preferred drink.
The crowd then talked through the process of caucusing while enjoying their chosen drink.
Hammac told me that “It was just a way to get people comfortable with the process outside of a political atmosphere. You know, being a newcomer here I get to see the caucus system as an outsider and really see how amazing of an opportunity it is to come together and talk about what we believe in.”
James Mitchell is a Clinton School student covering the Iowa Caucuses for the Clinton School Blog.
Responses