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

There is definitely a sense of weariness among the caucusgoers I’ve talked to. When I walked up to one woman at the caucus tonight, she said, “All you need to know about me is that I’ll be so excited when this is over.” But her friend jumped in and said she appreciates the caucuses because everyone is so engaged with the political process. Iowa voters take their first-in-the-nation status very seriously — but it’s been a long, long year of campaigning.

Well, Amelia, based on the 2016 caucus attendance numbers, 759 people participated at the Iowa City 21 precinct last time around, so they may outpace that in 2020.

Amelia’s anecdote about the University of Iowa students who said they’d been contacted by Buttigieg’s volunteers led me to dive into the data: Johnson County, home to Iowa City, is the only county besides Polk (Des Moines) to have a field office opened by every candidate — even Michael Bennet, who has only two in the state. Even in counties where everyone is competing, some campaigns may be able to find an edge tonight.