Watch Martin O’Malley Sing the “Iowa Waltz”

Maybe he’d do better on “The Voice.”

Martin O'Malley might have a second career option if this whole presidential run thing doesn't work out.Patrick Caldwell/Mother Jones

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


After a rally for Martin O’Malley, the long-shot Democratic presidential candidate, at Grinnell College on Wednesday evening, first-year students Wyatt Heritage and Harley Boatsman lingered around hoping they could coax a musical performance out of the former Maryland governor, a rock-and-roller who has often played in public. Though the two students plan to caucus for Sen. Bernie Sanders next week—”I support pretty much all of his social plans,” Heritage says—both students like O’Malley and wanted to catch a video of him plucking the guitar. By the time the pair worked their way through the crowd to O’Malley, the candidate’s staffers were anxiously telling him that he needed to head out to his next event. But with the days of his campaign likely nearing an end—he’s polling at 4 percent in Iowa—O’Malley couldn’t help himself. He grabbed the guitar they had brought and led the remaining crowd through a folksy Iowa-themed tune. Here it is:

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate