Today is opening day for the Iowa State Fair. Over the next 11 days, presidential candidates will do whatever they can to get closer to voters. But why does the fair plays such a key role in the campaign season?
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00:00 Well, today is the opening day for the Iowa State Fair and over the next 11 days, presidential candidates will do whatever they can to get closer to voters.
00:09 Scripps News Congressional Correspondent Stephanie Liebergen explains why the fair plays such a key role in the campaign season.
00:17 From coast to coast, state and county fairs like this one in Howard County, Maryland, are full of animal competitions, carnival rides and fried food.
00:25 But for politicians wanting to live in the White House, there is just one fair that's a must stop.
00:30 The Iowa State Fair has been a staple of Midwest summers for nearly 170 years.
00:36 And for nearly 60 years, it's also been a staple of presidential campaigns.
00:40 First of all, if you want to catch a lot of Iowans at once, you want to do that at the Iowa State Fair.
00:45 Total attendance throughout the 11 day fair can be over 1 million. For candidates, it offers a chance to shake hands with the voters who will be first to cast their ballots in the primaries.
00:55 The Iowa caucuses and Iowa politics are kind of based on that one on one interaction and you still get that at the Iowa State Fair.
01:02 Candidates can't hold their own campaign events at the fair, but they do get involved.
01:06 A longstanding tradition at the Iowa State Fair is the Des Moines Register soapbox, which literally is, you know, some hay bales in front of one of our buildings that candidates can sign up for times to participate.
01:16 I think it's kind of a rite of passage that you sign up for a shift to flip pork chops and grill pork chops at the Iowa Pork Tent.
01:23 And of course, you stop and see the butter cow in the ag building.
01:26 With so many politicians in one place, it can be hard to break out from the pack.
01:29 Sometimes extravagance makes headlines, like when then candidate Donald Trump offered helicopter rides to kids in 2015.
01:36 Other times, it's a misstep at the fair that can hurt a campaign.
01:39 Corporations are people, my friend.
01:41 But as long as the Iowa caucuses stay near the top of the primary calendar, presidential candidates are likely to keep stopping by.
01:48 Stephanie Liebergen, Scripps News.