What Did — And Didn’t — Go Down In The Iowa Caucuses

I had a striking conversation with a woman at a satellite caucus earlier, Nathaniel, who said that she really, really hates caucuses because they make her feel so exposed. She doesn’t enjoy the feeling of being scrutinized by her neighbors and friends while she votes. And it’s an understandable perspective! Lots of people clearly arrived here with their friends and sat in candidate groups together. Hard to be the odd person out in that social context.

Nathaniel, that’s true about the lack of anonymity being a sticking point for people who want to do away with caucuses altogether. But the lack of a secret ballot is also the reason why caucuses might be the only kind of election where a secure online vote would be possible, as I wrote earlier today

A little anecdote from the caucus showing how ground game can matter — I talked to two University of Iowa juniors in the Buttigieg section who said they decided to support him just today. I asked them which other candidates they were considering, and they told me that they had chosen Buttigieg mostly because he was moderate and his volunteers had reached out to them. They hadn’t considered Klobuchar at all — despite the fact that she’s also moderate — for that reason. Those kinds of connections can be really important, especially in a state like Iowa!