Monday 1 February

It’s a polling day of a different kind. Rather than 15 hours of voting, everything is crammed into just 2 hours.
Across the state, individual caucuses will be held in an astonishing 1,681 locations. There is one caucus for every precinct (polling district) with each one requiring a chair to oversee proceedings and a speaker for each of the candidates. It requires a phenomenal level of planning and organisation by both the Democrat and Republican state parties.

I get out during the day and visit the Iowa Historical Museum with its brilliant ‘first in the nation’ exhibition, including memorabilia dating back to the first caucuses in the early 1970s. Geoff, my guide, easily wins the prize for the most overexcited Iowan of my visit so far. He can of course be excused on this, his day of days. He reels off facts and joyously regales the tale of when his neighbour offered his house as a caucus site in 2008, only for it to be overrun with voters in that record breaking turnout year. “He put the Clintons in his front room, the Edwards in his kitchen and Obamas upstairs”, he said, “he was able to fit all the Dodds and Bidens in his bathroom!”

And so caucus hour arrives at 7pm. I’m covering Polk County’s 80th precinct caucus, held in the Wright Elementary School on the south side of Des Moines. It’s a precinct in which Obama beat Romney by over 30% in 2012 so there are lots of Democratic voters for the three campaigns to haggle over.

The school cafeteria is already proving woefully inadequate to accommodate the numbers pouring in, suggesting turnout is well beyond expectations. I chat with two first time caucus goers – Jackie and Kimberley, inspired to turn out for the first time. Jackie is firmly for Hillary, Kimberley one of the precious undecideds.

The caucus starts with presentations from each of the candidates’ representatives. The Clinton speaker is up first and he is, frankly, atrocious….absolutely dreadful…so bad that others from the Clinton delegation plead with the precinct chair to allow a second speaker. The chair shows little sympathy and refuses. The O’Malley speaker gives a spirited effort but few in the room
seem bothered or pay attention. So it is left to Sanders’ speaker who gives a feisty tub thumper of an address to whoops and cheers from the sizeable crowd in support of his candidate.

The Clinton crowd sense trouble. One submits a formal motion to allow another round of speeches. One restless caucus goer responds with a grump, “I’m going to raise a motion to punch you in the face!”. No violence is required though, the additional speaker motion is overwhelmingly defeated.

So to the total count. With 259 in the room, the place erupts as the precinct chair confirms this to be an all time record, beating the previous highest total from 2008. The chair then asks folk to move into four camps, one for each candidate and one for uncommitted people like Kimberley. Massive groups emerge for Clinton and Sanders, with a handful of uncommitted and what looks like only 8 for O’Malley.

With a requirement for 15% of the total, it’s clear O’Malley is “not viable” and so begins the almighty schmooze of the O’Malley few and the uncommitteds by the two big camps. Fierce arguments are made and it’s clear the O’Malley folk relish being, all of a sudden, the centre of attention. In the end, only three of them peel off to Sanders with the remainder stubbornly refusing to budge. The seven or so uncommitteds split pretty evenly.

So, here we go, the big count. Everyone’s hands go up and each counted individually. Clinton first, she gets to 118. Folk do the maths and realise what’s coming. For Sanders, it’s 136. The Sanders crowd go wild, the Clinton crew looking totally deflated. I’m not sure this was the result either side expected when they arrived. With 11 local delegates at stake to the county convention, they’re split 6 for Sanders and 5 for Clinton.

The chair talks of “other business to follow” (choosing the specific people for the county convention etc) but folk know the important bit is done and start flocking out of the room to get their dinner and turn on their TVs to see the results from the rest of Iowa.

State wide, it’s Ted Cruz who has upset expectations and won on the Republican side. For the Democrats, it’s incredibly close between Sanders and Clinton. It seems Iowa Democrats divided 50/50 between head and heart. Whatever the final tallies, turnout has completely smashed previous records.

By pure luck, Bernie Sanders’ caucus night party is in the hotel I’m staying in. I get down to the hall just in time for his speech and another grandfather lecture. I can’t help but to (again) get caught up in the electricity of the moment as I whoop and cheer the ‘dangerous socialist.’ Even if he doesn’t get the nomination, he’s been a breath of fresh air in this contest.

The presidential circus now moves to New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, with the contests in both parties still deeply competitive. And so my time in Iowa comes to an end. Questions are often asked about whether such a small state, with its overwhelmingly white and rural population, should be afforded such importance when it is so atypical of the nation as a whole. Yet what has struck me over these last two days is the immense pride amongst Iowans over their place in the electoral calendar. This isn’t a state which boasts major tourist attractions. It has few sporting teams which make the big leagues. But they get a place in the spotlight every four years which allows them to be an international advertisement for democracy and debate. They welcome presidential candidates and much of the world’s media with warmth and good humour. It’s a pretty special thing and long may it continue.

* Kevin Lang is a Councillor for the Almond ward which George Grubb represented from 1999-2012.