https://ghostarchive.org/archive/replay/w/id-d6b589a25342/im_/https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/01/15/multimedia/15iowa-caucuses-living-room-01-vqfp/15iowa-caucuses-living-room-01-vqfp-jumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp Sharon McNutt spent much of Caucus Day on Monday baking fresh cherry-chip cookies, cleaning bathroom sinks and taking her coffee pot out of storage.
No, she was not just keeping busy amid the Iowa cold spell — she was preparing to host at least 35 people in her home on caucus night.
Ms. McNutt, the mayor of Silver City, Iowa — population 245 — and her husband, Gary McNutt, have been hosting caucuses in their home every two years since 2002.
“I consider myself a professional,” Ms. McNutt said.
This year they hosted the state’s last living-room caucus — the only one to occur in someone’s home, out of 1,657 Iowa Republican precinct locations. On Monday, the McNutts set up chairs they had collected over the years from garage sales and dollar stores, and placed them amid recliners and tables lined with knickknacks. Their new Siamese kitten, Stella, slunk between chairs as caucusgoers trickled in and sat down on Monday night.
Ms. McNutt said that in 2016, 50 people showed up to caucus, more than she had expected, so she ran around the house trying to find enough chairs. Someone called her “the chair lady” that night, she remembered.
“You’ve been called worse,” Mr. McNutt said with a laugh.
Ms. McNutt said this was the coldest caucus she had ever hosted.
“It was cold before, but not this cold,” she said. She added that if any voters needed a blanket, she would find one for them, and that she would have the fireplace running all evening. Image
Caususes are a way some state political parties choose to pick out their favorite party candidate for the November election.
In most states they have a primary which is just a normal election by US standards. In a few, including Iowa, they gather in a physical room and move from location to location to physically show who they support.
That means if I’m “caucusing for Bernie” I’d go stand next to the Bernie crowd. This ends when a certain candidate has a majority (I don’t remember the exact amount). So people move from candidate to candidate as they see theirs isn’t winning or as they are persuaded by others there.
Every state has their primary or caucus on a specific day, so yesterday was Iowa’s day, and it’s often very cold this time of year in Iowa. This year it’s pretty brutal, high of 3°F and low of -3°F today (-16C and -19.5C), and it was colder a few days ago.
The more I discover about US election system the more confused I am, lol. This is like some form of centuries old comedy and not like current event real president may come from.