Photos of the state a week out from the historically unpredictable way we start choosing a president.
As Iowa caucus day approaches, the campaigns are scrambling: Donald Trump darted from a college rally at Pella, Iowa to a high school rally and church visit in Muscatine over the weekend, while Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton sold their own messages on either side of the same town of Clinton. The urgency has only increased as healthy leads between the top two frontrunners in each party have been squeezed to just a few percentage points in the polls. Behind the strategies and the carefully scripted campaign stops, though, lurk all the human uncertainties of an event whose outcome won’t be known till tens of thousands of Iowans gather next Monday—and, given the complexity of counting, might not even be known then. (In 2012, a winner wasn't called for weeks—though this year it looks likely we'll know sometime around 10 or 11 p.m.) Politico photographer M. Scott Mahaskey has been following the Iowa campaigns to capture their less-controlled elements, the periphery of all that carefully arranged politicking—and finding in their details hints of the uncertainty that lurks just beyond January 31.
Donald Trump and Ben Carson are the only two Republican presidential candidates who have requested and received Secret Service protection (Hillary Clinton is automatically afforded it thanks to her status as former first lady). Above, Trump is escorted by Secret Services members as he departs the convention floor after an appearance at Iowa’s Annual Renewable Fuels Summit in Altoona. Seeking to bump Ted Cruz, who leads in corn-rich Iowa, Trump defended ethanol at the summit and, in particular, the Renewable Fuel Standard, a program that requires that fuel sold in the U.S. contain a minimum of renewable fuels like ethanol. Trump reportedly drew the largest crowd, but each of the four GOP candidates there struck the same tone on ethanol and renewable fuels to booming applause.
A man shows off his Rubio t-shirt ahead of a campaign stop in Decorah, Iowa. Most presidential candidates have created websites that offer everything from campaign fan apparel to plane ticket sponsorship, which gives the supporter Twitter verification, a signed postcard and a “personal update on the day from a team member.”
Governor Chris Christie leaves Perkins Restaurant and Bakery in Milford, Iowa, where he bounced from table to table taking pictures, signing autographs, and answering questions. Milford is known for its huge pockets of gravel, first mined for the Milwaukee Railroad in the early 1900s, and today, the town is is surrounded on several sides by used-up gravel pits, some of which have been repurposed into junkyards.
At the John Wayne Birthplace Museum in Winterset, a life-size figure of the star looms behind a lectern before Trump’s arrival. Wayne’s daughter told attendees that the Hollywood legend would be “standing right here” if he were alive. (Wayne’s son later disagreed, saying no one in the family could speak on the deceased film star’s behalf.) The museum celebrated its opening this past spring with a weekend of ribbon-cutting, free museum tours, a firemen’s pancake breakfast and a mounted shooters competition.
A vendor trailing campaigns tailors his products accordingly, touting Bernie Sanders buttons outside one rally last week, and Trump hats outside the John Wayne event.
Ben Carson filled the Waldorf College atrium in Forest City, Iowa, where he told the more than 200 attendees: “I am not a politician. I will never be a politician.” Carson appeared in Forest City at the urging of a Virginia-based volunteer who grew up there and whose parents still live in the town.
Snowmobiling is more than a hobby in Iowa, where drifting snow can temporarily block wind-exposed roads, making driving nearly impossible along the flat lands of the state’s northwest. It is estimated that there are 8,000 miles of snowmobile trails in Iowa, none of which, apparently, is safe from campaign appeals during election years.
A woman tries to stay awake at a Rubio campaign stop in Ottumwa. Temperatures dipped to negative 16 degrees when Marco Rubio began his day in Iowa, but the several hundred in attendance at the Bridge View Center in Ottumwa warmed up the room. Rubio joked that when his plane landed at 3:30 a.m. in Mason City, Iowa, for this trip, he asked his staffers whether the temperature was in Celsius.
A security officer awaits the arrival of Chris Christie at the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor in Le Mars, Iowa, the self-proclaimed ice cream capital of the world. The New Jersey governor joked about his assaults on fitness and ordered a double scoop of chocolate-chip-cookie-dough ice cream, but left it untouched before getting back on the road.
An ad for Marco Rubio plays for an empty room in Le Mars as Chris Christie holds a town hall in a nearby conference room.
Campaigns exert a great deal of control over the optics of their events, but they can’t control everything: protesters and flamboyant supporters always present a potential wild card. Before Marco Rubio's campaign stop in Decorah, his staffers quietly discussed how to deal with an audience member wearing a potentially embarrassing T-shirt, and ultimately decided to let him be.
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