Iowans Think de Blasio Is the Guy Who ‘Outlawed the Large Sodas’

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks at a press conference after witnessing police being retrained with new guidelines at the Police Academy on December 4, 2014 in the College Point neighborhood of the Queens borough of in New York City.
Photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio embarked on a trip to the midwest this week on a mission to “lead the nation leftward.” That’s a very noble goal and all, but unfortunately for Bill, nobody in Iowa seems to know who he is.

Was he the one who outlawed the large sodas?” one 27-year-old Iowan wondered when asked about de Blasio. He wasn’t alone; according to The Wall Street Journal, many Iowa residents they spoke with thought the New York City mayor was still Michael Bloomberg, and one woman even thought Rudy Giuliani was still running the city.

Without their own personal experience with de Blasio’s policies to draw from, Iowans resorted to second-hand opinions. “I have a friend in New York who doesn’t like him,” one said.

Welcome to #deblasiosmidwest.

Iowans Don’t Know Who Bill de Blasio Is