Martin O’Malley courts young voters in Iowa City stop

IOWA CITY - Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley attempted to gather young voter support for his run for the White House Sunday afternoon, meeting and greeting with University of Iowa students at a popular local bar.

The presidential hopeful for the Democratic nomination made his last stop of the day in Iowa City at The Mill restaurant, following a visit with students at Grinnell College.

O'Malley has 3 percent support in Iowa, according to a recent Bloomberg Politics poll. He trails far behind current Democratic favorite and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with 37 percent of likely Democratic caucusgoers' support, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' 30 percent.

'I know it's a fine line between delusion and imagination when one runs for president at one percent national name recognition, but I know the people of this state give every candidate a fair shake,” O'Malley said. 'I know you expect good campaigning and good candidates to lead with ideas, so that's what we're doing.”

O'Malley touched on some of his go-to platforms, like raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, addressing climate change, finding pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and cutting youth unemployment in half.

'We should raise the minimum wage however we can, whenever we can,” O'Malley said to applause from a crowd of about 150.

He also called for 'debt-free colleges,” saying his two daughters graduated from college with mountains of debt, but gave no specifics on how he would accomplish the proposal.

O'Malley hit on other issues typically popular among young voters like climate change. He a referenced Iowa's status as third in the country when it comes to generating wind energy, behind California and Texas, which comes from a 2014 report from the Department of Energy.

With the slogan of O'Malley's campaign being rebuilding the 'American dream,” he said the next president needs to continue the work President Barack Obama did in nearly two terms with restoring the economy tarnished by his Republican predecessors.

'Many people tell me the odds of winning this election are long, and I'm up against long odds,” O'Malley said. 'You know what? There's a lot of people who will tell you the odds of passing the American dream onto your kids and grandkids face similarly long odds. Well, I like tough fights.”