RACHEL PAINE CAUFIELD: So most Iowans will not support a candidate unless
they have met them personally at least once. Potentially many, many times.
We have activists who've been doing this a long time, across the state, who will say,
you know, a candidate really needs to come to my home. They need to come
to my school. They need to come to my church.
And so we expect to meet presidential candidates. We expect to shake their hands.
We expect to look them in the eye. We expect to be able to ask them the questions
that we care about.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm 82 years old.
BERNIE SANDERS: Why do you look younger than me?
[laughter]
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Because I live in Iowa.
SANDERS: All right.
JULIÁN CASTRO: Please help me welcome the next president
of the United States of America...
VICKY BRENNER: Mayor Pete Buttigieg!
CIANTI STEWART-REID: It's really incredible how close you are to the candidates.
There are a couple hundred people at some of these events in small towns, and
you are really intimate. You get to have a whole conversation with the candidate
and take pictures and they get to hear your story.
And it's never... it's not a thousand people in a debate hall, right?
So, it's really a far more intimate experience than you're ever gonna get
in other places in the country.
I don't know that I ever thought, like, it's Wednesday in the morning, like that
so many people would come to these events?
LAURA FEDERICO: The rally for me is a space to really feel like I'm being heard,
like I'm part of a community. We actually might have a chance to do something
different, which is very hard to feel when you're just watching things on TV
and listening to the news and listening to the radio. It can feel really hopeless.
CALLER: Well I'm doing very well. Better now that I'm talking to you.
[indistinct chatter]
PAINE CAUFIELD: Over the course of the year or so before a caucus,
Iowans from all across the state — in every single corner, every small town
involved in every area of life in Iowa — they will all come out to these candidate
events and they will engage in this process. It's a really unique and special environment.
JOE BIDEN: The last couple weeks here is, makes a gigantic difference.
And you going and calling these folks, knocking on doors, answering their questions,
etc., really makes it, is gonna make or break who wins this caucus.
And who comes out of this caucus, you know, you guys are the starting gate.
If in fact, you come out of here well, and then in New Hampshire, do well,
it's a pretty, you know, things move pretty rapidly.
STEWART-REID: We've seen Sanders, Biden...
FEDERICO: I think we've been to, like, maybe 15 so far?
STEWART-REID: Buttigieg, Warren...
FEDERICO: We saw AOC recently with Bernie talking about the
Green Neal Deal, which was super exciting.
STEWART-REID: Yeah, we've seen all the major candidates.
Everyone who was on the stage yesterday, also Klobuchar and Steyer.
ELIZABETH WARREN: One of the best things we can do as a nation,
make the investment to keep the door open. And just one, one more part:
cancel student loan debt for 43 million Americans.
SANDERS: What I will try to do is bring people together around our common interests.
While Trump is trying to divide us up. That's how I think we go forward.
PETE BUTTIGIEG: And if you are prepared to share the sense of hope
that is required to do anything at all in politics, I'm hoping that
we can turn to you to do that.
STEWART-REID: The people here are really dedicated, committed to making the
best decision and really open minded. I've been to a lot of these events and
people say, "I'm leaning for this person, but I want to hear what all these
different candidates have to say." And so you'll see people at multiple candidate
events, because they're really being thoughtful about who they're going to pick
and they take this responsibility seriously. And it's really encouraging
that they're really doing the hard work to vet these candidates for the rest of us.