Fact Checker: O’Malley’s Iowa campaign stops

Introduction

'I have now visited 19 of your 99 counties in 40 days as a presidential candidate. I think I have spent more time here than any of the other candidates in my party.'

Source of claim: Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, on July 24 during the Caucus Candidate Forum Series in the Des Moines State Historical Society Building.

Analysis

We're measuring two of his claims: That he visited 19 Iowa counties in 40 days, and that he has visited Iowa more than any other 2016 Democratic presidential candidate.

Using an itinerary provided by O'Malley's campaign, a look at the numbers shows the former governor's claim of visiting 19 Iowa counties in 40 days from the time he made that statement — from June 14 through July 24 — was slightly off. According to the itinerary, O'Malley visited 17 counties in that time. He reached 19 counties if we look back 43 days.

To check the second part of O'Malley's claim, we kept a consistent 40-day time frame for all Democratic candidates and counted their visits to Iowa.

Other than O'Malley, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb was the only other candidate whose campaign provided a list of Iowa stops, Lists for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee were not made available by their campaigns.

By cross checking information with Gazette archives, data on Democracy in Action's 2016 website and a presidential candidate travel tracker tool created by the National Journal, we were able to verify when and where each candidate made an Iowa campaign visit within that time frame:

• O'Malley visited Iowa on seven days and stopped in 21 communities.

• Sanders stopped in 14 cities over six days.

• Webb visited Iowa on five days and made stops in six cities.

• Chafee spent three days in Iowa and visited three communities.

• Clinton stopped in three Iowa cities during her two days in Iowa.

Almost every candidate made repeat stops in certain cities during their Iowa visits in the 40 days checked.

By looking back even further than the 40-day period, O'Malley maintains his lead among Democratic candidates for Iowa visits.

Conclusion

O'Malley's claim that he visited 19 Iowa counties in 40 days was off by three days. We grade it a B.

By checking each Democratic candidate's campaign stops, it's easy to see that O'Malley was accurate to say he spent more time in Iowa than any other Democratic candidate, even when looking beyond a 40-day period. We grade this claim an A.

The Fact Checker team checks statements made by an Iowa political candidate/office holder or by a national candidate/office holder about Iowa, or in advertisements that appear in our local market. Claims must be independently verifiable. We give statements grades from A to F based on the accuracy and context.

If you spot a claim you think needs checking, email us at factchecker@sourcemedia.net.

This Fact Checker was researched and reported by Mitchell Schmidt.