One Person Showed Up To Martin O’Malley Rally — And He Doesn’t Even Support The Candidate

Compared to Clinton and Sanders, Martin O’Malley isn’t exactly a front-runner for the Democratic nomination for President, but that doesn’t mean the governor doesn’t have a fair bit of support. Even so, the number of people who showed up for Martin O’Malley’s Iowa rally this Monday might make it seem like nobody’s ever heard of him.

According to the Guardian, only one person showed up to see Martin O’Malley for his last event in Iowa. But it wasn’t a lack of a following that resulted in the terrible attendance so much as the terrible weather. All the other candidates who were scheduled to campaign in Iowa canceled their events, but Martin O’Malley followed through despite many inches of snow.

“The very last event of the night, we actually had a whopping total of one person show up, but by God, he was glad to see me. So we spent the time with him,” Martin O’Malley said to MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday.

Despite the perseverance of that single audience member, O’Malley couldn’t get the man to agree to caucus in support of the governor when it comes time in February, according to Politico. That one person has been identified only as Kenneth; a white man who sports a full beard. One of the reporters who braved the snow to cover the Martin O’Malley rally, Sarah Beckman posted a tweet with a photo showing the governor trying to win over support from Kenneth.

Beckman also gave a pretty good explanation for why only one person showed up to the rally, stating that she saw “13 cars in the ditch along I-80.”

Kenneth braved the snow storm to meet with @MartinOMalley in Tama. #iawx#iacaucuspic.twitter.com/xvB9S8hDwh

— Sarah Beckman (@SarahBeckman3) December 29, 2015

Of the exchange, Martin O’Malley claimed that he was “working on” Kenneth, but that the man was waiting to see how far the campaign gets before he places his full trust in the Maryland governor. Among the things the two discussed were the Syrian refugee crisis and O’Malley’s policy on prison reform.

“He claims he’s still uncommitted. You know, it’s Iowa – people wait here until the last two weeks, they want to see the whole campaign play out. So I wasn’t surprised that he was uncommitted. But I was glad he took the time to come out in the snow to see me. We almost canceled that last event but we were out there anyway, so we plowed through.”

While the one person who showed up hasn’t been completely swayed, Kenneth claims he’s most impressed by Martin O’Malley’s strong “résumé” over the other two Democratic candidates, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

“I give you a lot of credit for coming out here,” Kenneth said to Martin O’Malley. “I think you have a great platform to be running, and I think you have a great future here in Iowa. I wish you well. On paper, if I were to look at just the résumés, you would have the strongest résumé in my mind. But then all this other stuff … I think those two other candidates, there are problems with both of them. I don’t think Sanders would be easily electable. So don’t underestimate the fact that Iowa will turn out differently.”

The other candidates who had scheduled an event in Iowa before the snow hit, Chris Christie and Marco Rubio, are planning to postpone their campaign appearances to another date.

Do you support Martin O’Malley?

For more on the 2016 race, read about how Joe Biden has shown support of Bernie Sanders, or how Olivia Wilde believes those who attack Hillary Clinton are sexist.

[Photo by AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall]