Following presidential candidates and their supporters around Iowa are the reporters documenting all of it. This episode reveals why national political reporters love covering politics in Iowa and describes what it's like to chase presidential candidates through the political cornfields.

Episode 6: The Journalists

If you want to win in Iowa, it’s not enough to just run advertisements and talk in debates. You need boots on the ground, and this episode, we’ll show you why the first-in-the-nation state puts some much emphasis on grassroots, person-to-person campaigning. We talked to an expert of Iowa campaigning, the guy who invented the Full Grassley: U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Episode 7: Being There

Politicians, their staff, their fans and the reporters coming them all flock to Iowa every four years, and some Iowans are cashing in. In this episode, you get to meet some of the Midwestern entrepreneurs who see the first-in-the-nation caucuses as a business opportunity.

Episode 8: Caucus economics

Not everyone comes in from out-of-state if they want to participate in the Iowa presidential caucuses — some of them start here. Former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, who kinda-sorta killed the 1992 caucuses, talks about his time as a presidential candidate and what it means to be an Iowan in the Iowa caucus.

Episode 9: Native Iowans

Social and religious conservatives exercise significant power and influence in Iowa's Republican caucuses. Here, you’ll meet some of Iowa’s the political powerhouses who use their evangelical faith to frame politics.

Episode 10: Evangelicals and the Caucuses

So: just how have the caucuses changed since their inception in 1972? What are the ways they’ll never change? We learn about caucus history—also, Joe Trippi claims CNN is to blame for the infamous Dean Scream.

Episode 11: Change and Continuity

The presidential race is one of the most-watched and most important events in American politics. So why does the whole thing start in Iowa? If you remember the Howard Dean scream or Hillary Clinton “just chilling in Cedar Rapids,” you know how Iowa can have an outsized impact on this important national race.
Three Tickets explores the weird and surprising history of the Iowa caucus, diving into what makes our little Midwestern state pivotal every four years in the biggest election nationwide. Starting from the very first caucus in 1972 to today, from Cedar Rapids to Council Bluffs, we’re your road map for understanding and following the 2020 presidential race in Iowa.