Why some Iowans think Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris are slipping

The campaigns for Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) are in trouble, but some folks in Iowa have a few suggestions for how they could them around.

As things stand, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is stealing Sanders' thunder in Iowa. Sanders trailed both Warren and Biden in the latest Des Moines Register poll, and Warren was also defeating Sanders among young voters and those who caucused for him in 2016.

Indeed, Bob Handel, a volunteer for Sanders in Iowa, said three of his friends who supported Sanders three years ago have flipped to Warren. Handel suggested Sanders needs to differentiate from Warren more — and maybe even be a little harsher toward his old friend and frequent ideological ally. "He can say to the public, 'She's a good friend of mine, I have no ill will toward her, but we just have a different view of how we want to address the issues with the country," Handel told Politico.

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As for Harris, who was polling at just 6 percent in the same Des Moine Register survey, some Iowans think she's drifting too far away from her prosecutorial side, Buzzfeed News reports. The senator has received some criticism for being too tough on crime during her days as a district attorney for San Francisco and California's attorney general, but as she's tried to change course, her campaign reportedly feels a little harder to pin down for some voters. "The first time I saw her was before she was going to run, when she was asking questions in a hearing. And she was so powerful, I said, 'I want that woman to run!,'" Berleen Wobeter, a former educator, said. Whatever "brings that prosecutor out in her," Wobeter said, "I'd like to see that." Read more about Sanders at Politico and BuzzFeed News.