Caucus Season Reflection

This caucus season was overwhelming.

I saw every presidential candidate face-to-face. I was on C-SPAN, the TODAY Show, and Fox News, and I saw a taping of Meet the Press.

I had the opportunity to experience the caucus as an intern at the Republican Party of Iowa, along with reporting results for my caucus precinct (got a high five from my area’s RNC representative because my precinct was the first to report in Polk County, no big deal).

The caucus process and the courting of Iowa voters began this summer when I was living in Washington, D.C., as an intern for Gov. Terry Branstad’s state-federal relations office. As the summer drew to a close, I was watching candidates speak in Des Moines on a livestream because I couldn’t be there, which had a sad and funny irony for me: I was spending the summer living blocks from the U.S. Capitol, a hop and a skip from the Supreme Court, and my peers at home got infinitely more time with presidential candidates than I did.

I got home in the middle of the state fair and watched a few stump speeches on the Des Moines Register’s State Fair Soapbox. Went to several cattle call dinners and events for the Family Leader and the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition in September, October, and November. I can’t remember when I marked every candidate off of my “To-See” list, including the Democratic candidates.

In December, I was elected chair of the campus Republicans. I have been incredibly lucky to also be a member of the John C. Culver Public Policy Center and Simpson Votes, two organizations that helped shape the caucus experience at Simpson College.

LS2group was also instrumental. My internship there during the Fall semester helped give me opportunities to attend events I never would have been able to go to without them.

This whole process has been crazy, amazing, tiring… incredible.

Thank you also to the Our Caucus team for letting me be a part of this program! I’ve loved documenting my experience.