The Secret Science of Winning the Iowa Caucuses
Brian Sikma (left) and Jeremy Carpenter, volunteers from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, phone-bank at the campaign headquarters of Ted Cruz on Jan. 22, 2016, in Urbandale, Iowa.
Photographer: Brendan Hoffman/Getty ImagesAn hour before the Jan. 14 Republican debate, 250 of Ted Cruz’s most dedicated Iowa field organizers huddled in the Heritage Assembly of God church gymnasium in Des Moines. Over a dinner of potato chips and sandwiches, they sat down for a tutorial in caucus-night tactics.
In one sense, the Iowa caucuses, held this year on Feb. 1, are a quaint, almost anachronistic tradition—an assembly of neighbors deciding the next leader of the free world in churches and libraries and school cafeterias catered with hot chocolate and homemade pastries. But they’re also among the country’s most sophisticated, even arcane, political rituals, the culmination of months of organizing. For all the intimacy and homey trappings, they can have the intensity of a high-stakes playoff game.
