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

Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux

Pro tip: If you have ever wanted to be the most popular person in the room, try being an undecided voter in an Iowa caucus. For 15 glorious minutes, you’ll be the belle of the ball.

Laura Bronner

9:32 pm

This is not — so far — what the FiveThirtyEight newsroom is drinking, but maybe we should reconsider?

As he waits for the State of the State to begin, Rep. Kent Calfee takes a swig of from his Hershey’s chocolate syrup bottle, as he often does during #tnleg session. Photo by @Tennessean’s @GeorgeWalkerIV. pic.twitter.com/TWPZ8yxbM9
— Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) February 3, 2020

Geoffrey Skelley

9:30 pm

Just an update that Trump is at 97 percent in the GOP caucuses with more than half of precincts reporting. It’s unusual for a party with an essentially unopposed nominee — sorry, Bill Weld and Joe Walsh — to hold caucuses. But the Republican Party of Iowa is worried about Iowa’s place in the process, as no eventual GOP nominee has won the state since George W. Bush in 2000, so holding a perfunctory vote for Trump was seen as a good way to help maintain Iowa’s spot.

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