Biden and Sanders, the favorites to test the vote in Iowa

"Welcome to the political revolution". "Biden work for America": these are the slogans at the entrance to the headquarters of Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden in Des Moines, the capital of Iowa, the rural state of the Midwest which will kick off with its long night of caucuses the long democratic primary for the White House.

After months of rallies, TV debates, commercials, endorsements, fundraisers and many controversies, it will be the first test of the vote for the two frontrunners. A vote that generally crowns the future nomination winner. Even the latest CBS poll, after stopping the highly anticipated Des Moines Register-Cnn for the exclusion from the list of preferences of the former Mayor of South Bend Pete Buttigieg, confirms that they are always the favorites: the socialist senator from Vermont and the former vice president, head to head with 25% each. Buttigieg was third, with 21%, followed by progressive senator Elizabeth Warren (16%). Her colleague Amy Klobuchar is stuck at 5%, while the other five candidates are below this threshold. For now, the billionaire Michael Bloomberg is out of competition, taking the field directly on the Super Tuesday of March 3.

From the caucuses in Iowa a first response from the democratic base will emerge on the opposition between progressive candidates such as Sanders and Warren, who shake the fans promising the "revolution" or "structural changes", and the moderate ones, convinced that a radical platform is a loser in the general elections especially in the Midwest. The vote will also indicate who, in the two camps, has the most consensus. Despite leading the polls, Biden continues to raise less money than his rivals and to attract a few dozen people to the rallies, mostly older.

Even its headquarters are not teeming with people. On the first attempt the press is rejected, the next day someone agrees to speak. "We focused on the small rural towns of Iowa and the more industrialized ones in the eastern end of the state," explains one executive. "We have focused on the working class, on non-graduate voters, on moderate Catholics and on small but growing minorities, as well as disappointed independents and Republicans," he adds.

Instead, the crowds continue for Sanders, who defeated all rivals in Iowa by recording a record number of 3000 people on Saturday night in Cedars Rapids in a rally with a Vampire Weekend concert. In its headquarters there are volunteers of all sorts, who represent a cross-section of diversity but also of the rigidity and radicality of its base.
"If you want to defeat not only Trump but Trumpism, you have to go left," explains James, 33, a freelance journalist from New York who is now a volunteer. "The challenge is to make a political revolution, socialism, which allows you to solve problems such as immigration, free healthcare and university", echoes another volunteer, Diego, 22, the son of Mexican immigrants. "Vote for Warren if Bernie loses? Never, too Machiavellian and without Sanders' integrity. Or him or anyone else," he swears. A position that seems widespread among the 'sanderisti' here and which risks further dividing the dem base by weakening the future nominee.