‘Superman’ actor loves Iowa caucuses

The Iowa native knows plenty about politics, and more specifically, about caucusing.

Routh was in Washington this week to present his home-state senator, Tom Harkin (D) with a lifetime leadership award from the Voices for National Service, a coalition of community service groups. 

{mosads}Harkin and Routh have even done community service together before, Routh said, at a high school near Cedar Rapids. 

“My parents go way back with helping out with Harkin’s reelection campaigns,” he told ITK. But these days, Routh said, they’re gearing up for the big Republican caucuses next year.

“[My parents] worked the polls in 2008, [which] was my first actual caucus. Unfortunately, I was a California resident at the time, so I couldn’t cast a vote, but the caucus system is amazing!”

A wide-eyed Routh explained what’s so darn cool about the caucus system. 

“You can literally sway people in the room, and that happened while I was there. Nothing is blind or behind closed doors, everything’s out there in the open, and it’s kind of an exciting, and you know, ballsy thing.” 

Routh, 31, was volunteering on then-Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) campaign in 2008, and he did his best to sway his parents to vote for the first-term senator. 

“We’ll never really know if I was successful,” he laughed, “but I think I convinced my dad, at least in his heart.”

Routh appeared most recently in the film “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” alongside Michael Cera.