The Iowa feeding frenzy is kicking in again – to the exclusion of other issues, and voices, that also matter
![The medias obsession with Iowa deepens the Democrats whiteness problem | Jon Allsop](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d14a85dc28ca5a1f76c72d1f118dddd98296dbb4/0_78_3555_2132/master/3555.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctb3BpbmlvbnMucG5n&enable=upscale&s=88c32ef94a46ee5cdb608c25c9d3287e)
And then there were 12. On Monday, Cory Booker, the US senator from New Jersey, became the latest contender to drop out of the
Democratic presidential primary. The field is still very big, but it has narrowed in one meaningful sense: it was once historically diverse, but with Booker out, just three candidates of color remain, only one of whom, the former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, is black.
Booker blamed the distraction of jury duty in President Trump’s impending
Senate impeachment trial for his exit, as well as his winnowing finances, exacerbated by his failure to qualify for recent Democratic debates, including tonight’s. It will take place in Iowa, which is 91% white. Every single candidate on stage will be white, too.