MARSHALLTOWN, IA — As Iowans gathered across the state to cast their votes for the first-in-the-nation caucus Monday night, many toiled over which candidate to choose. In their eyes, the coverage they saw on TV and in the news all but pushed them in one direction, toward former President Donald Trump.
At a series of candidate events just before the caucuses, Iowans made clear to reporters from Annenberg Media they thought Trump continued to dominate local and national conversations, in person and in the media. So much so that they felt the other candidates were “left out” of coverage, as one Vivek Ramaswamy supporter remarked after a town hall event in Ankeny.
“A lot of people are still stuck in Trump land,” Jacqueline Rinkena told Annenberg Media reporters in an interview after the Ramaswamy event at a pizzeria. She explained that for the candidates trailing Trump in the polls, being “left out” was “a nice way to put it.”
Long before Trump first announced his candidacy in 2015, media and news outlets have been in turmoil over how to cover controversial political candidates and the inflammatory rhetoric that now surrounds some Republican party candidates.
However, former Missouri Rep. Billy Long, a Republican, actually blamed the media and said it attempts to vilify Trump.
“Generally the media is against Trump,” Long told Annenberg Media reporters outside Trump’s packed town hall event at Simpson College in Indianola.
“They want anybody but Trump. They want Haley. They want DeSantis. They want Vivek. They wanted Christie. And so they tried to build a thing against him,” said Long, who gave up his House seat to make an unsuccessful bid for Senate in 2022. “But Trump, I mean how can you draw a crowd like this with people waiting outside in 18 below zero unless you’re pretty popular.”
He was right on that last part, as negative temperatures stretched across most of the midwest, Iowans were still out, braving the cold to hear candidates speak and maybe get to meet them in person.
Trump’s was the largest event Annenberg Media covered in Iowa, with so many people attending his town hall that the local fire marshall barred more people, including credentialed media, from entering the building.
Shawn Stout, who braved the cold with his two 16-year-old sons to listen to Trump’s speech because he “probably never will again,” said he liked Trump’s ideas but was still undecided about which candidate to support. Stout mentioned his sons, who are not yet old enough to vote, also liked Trump’s ideas.
Part of Stout’s concern over which candidate to support came from Trump’s domination of conversations and media coverage. He added he “doesn’t think other candidates have a chance.”
“[Republicans like Trump] spin things,” Stout said. “But the left does too.”
Trump’s relentless bashing of the media as “fake news” has also undermined the press’ role as arbitrators of the truth and all but destroyed mainstream media’s credibility amongst his most loyal supporters.
Heather Beener, a caucus captain for Trump in the Squaw Creek township south of Indianola, fell in line with the former president’s attacks against mainstream media.
“I don’t think we can fix this country until we fix the media,” Beener passionately explained to Annenberg Media reporters. Beener went on to note she was scared that communism could overtake the “country of rights” that is America.
Supporters at Nikki Haley’s town hall in Adel noted that coverage they saw surrounding her campaign was “really good.” Jane Sturtz, who was attending a Haley event for the first time in-person, added that the former governor and United Nations ambassador was “well enough known” by the community.
Sturtz said she liked how Haley “kept speaking” at previous debates and town hall events she had watched on TV and seen online. Trump has not attended a debate with other 2024 Republican presidential hopefuls, instead holding competing live town hall events on Fox News.
According to the Associated Press, the Fox town hall with Trump had 1.7 million more TV viewers than the head-to-head debate between Haley and Ron DeSantis at the same time on Jan. 10, just before the caucuses.
Even still, Sturtz emphasized that Haley “doesn’t throw stones and was not shut out,” during the debates.
On caucus night, as Republican voters poured into school gyms and other community centers to cast their votes for who should be on the ballot in November, some continued to note that they would rather see someone other than Trump on the ballot — even if they did not have hope it would happen.
This year was Tamara Tuttle’s first time caucusing in Iowa. She came with her husband to the Marshalltown High School Roundhouse alongside roughly 600 of her neighbors to cast her ballot.
“It’s my first time at caucus, so I’ve never done it,” Tuttle said. “But I think it’s really, really important this year to make sure I get out and do all my voting.”
“I’d love to see [Ramaswamy] be president someday,” Tuttle continued. “I really do like him. But I think I’ll probably end up going with Trump in the end, simply because I don’t think that Ramaswamy has a chance.”
“I think most of my neighbors feel the same way,” Tuttle added. “To be honest I think that’s why we are all here.”
Asked who he was going to caucus for, Jim Walkup said he hadn’t totally made up his mind.
“I’ve got a favorite, yeah,” Walkup said from the bleachers a few minutes before the caucus meeting was called to order. “But I’ll wait and hear the talks and the speeches, and then I’ll decide for sure.”
Walkup also wasn’t so sure about the money spent on campaigns in Iowa this election cycle.
“I don’t know if it’s good or bad,” Walkup said. “But I think I heard some of them say they spent over $200 million just on the caucus in Iowa. And this is just the first one.”
He added that, in his eyes, there hasn’t been anything wrong with the media coverage of candidates, but that “you’ve got to kind of filter through a lot of it and take it for granted.”
DeSantis’ caucus captain in Marshalltown, David Blom, said he is ready to be done with the former president and move on to a new candidate.
“I wanna be focused on the issues Republicans care about,” Blom told reporters. “Life, the border, securing our country and creating a strong, patriotic America and not be worried about all of the distractions of President Trump.”
Blom’s opinion is that the media has focused too much on Trump and his indictments. “The Democrats already have a playbook and they’re ready to run in November and get President Trump convicted,” Blom said.
This highlights a worry in some Republicans that Trump may not be legally allowed to hold the office of the presidency, even if he wins in the general election in November.
Blom emphasized that America needs “a president that’s focused not on his own personal issues, but on people’s issues.”