Des Moines, Iowa, Feb 3, 2020 / 17:35 pm
As Iowa becomes the first state to kickoff the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, Catholic voters could help decide the winner.
The Iowa Democratic caucuses began on Monday, with registered Democratic voters reporting to their local precincts and "caucusing," or showing their official support, for their preferred presidential candidate.
Among the Democratic presidential front-runners, former vice president Joe Biden is a Catholic who in recent days has been actively courting Catholic voters, concentrated in the eastern edge of the state along the Mississippi River. Staff were reportedly sending out "Catholics for Biden" letters to certain households, and even asking convents of nuns to join in sending letters in support of the candidate.
Biden was notably denied Holy Communion-according to the policy of the Diocese of Charleston-when he presented himself for Communion at a Sunday Mass in South Carolina, in October.