The FiveThirtyEight Team Goes To Iowa

We’re getting set up to cover the GOP debates airing tonight on Fox Business Network — starting with the undercard event. Yes, the debates are taking place in South Carolina and most of our politics team is in Iowa, but we’ll be interested to see how the candidates’ performances tonight play among voters here. Follow along with our live blog or on Twitter.

DES MOINES — Earlier this week, I wrote about the Ted Cruz campaign’s semi-fancy phone system, which lets volunteers log voter information directly into a database when they reach possible caucus-goers at home. Last night, Nate, Harry and I visited Hillary Clinton’s field office in Davenport, where we saw how her campaign is building on the lessons of the Obama efforts in 2008. Her volunteers are focusing on reaching key voters multiple times; they log each interaction on paper to make sure possible Clinton supporters become a little more informed and a little more committed each time — all culminating on caucus night. In their own ways, both operations impressed. But it’s worth remembering that data-driven political targeting isn’t a recent development. In fact, as early as the 1890s candidates were compiling pretty detailed information on their constituents and using that information to send targeted mailings. On this week’s episode of our podcast What’s The Point, I got a primer on the history of political data from Daniel Kriess of the University of North Carolina. Take a listen below, where you’ll finally get to hear that outro I recorded on Monday at the airport. You can also read more on the site or find the podcast in iTunes or your favorite podcast app. On next week’s show, I’ll continue the conversation with Kreiss and incorporate some of what I learned here in Iowa.

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