--- title: Iowa Caucus Tourists Flood in for Final Candidate Events description: "Where are the Iowans?" canonical: https://time.com/4201756/iowa-caucus-tourist-donald-trump-bernie/ author: Jay Newton-Small article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-31T22:29:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:37:14.015Z article:section: Politics og:title: Iowa Caucus Tourists Flood in for Final Candidate Events og:description: "Where are the Iowans?" og:url: https://time.com/4201756/iowa-caucus-tourist-donald-trump-bernie/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55c92ff53da57db6/69887b7fe20a87717aa8f4da/timepol-martin-omalley-jan-31-08.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL Martin O'Malley Nan Horvat og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Iowa Caucus Tourists Flood in for Final Candidate Events twitter:description: "Where are the Iowans?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55c92ff53da57db6/69887b7fe20a87717aa8f4da/timepol-martin-omalley-jan-31-08.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # There's a Tourist Epidemic at the Iowa Caucuses > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Jay Newton-Small / Johnston, Ia.](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/)  ## Jay Newton-Small / Johnston, Ia. Jan 31, 2016 10:29 PM UTC  Nan Horvat attends a campaign rally for Martin O'Malley at a supporter's home in Johnston, Iowa on Jan. 31, 2016. Nan Horvat attends a campaign rally for Martin O'Malley at a supporter's home in Johnston, Iowa on Jan. 31, 2016.Natalie Keyssar for TIME  by [Jay Newton-Small / Johnston, Ia.](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/)  ## Jay Newton-Small / Johnston, Ia. Jan 31, 2016 10:29 PM UTC Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley waded through a crowd in Johnston, Iowa, Sunday, aiming to take selflies with voters and sign some stickers. “Where are you from?” he asked a couple. “Nebraska,” replied the woman. “And you?” he asked a young man next to her. “Colorado,” he replied. “Nebraska, Colorado!” O’Malley exclaimed. “This is like being at the Democratic convention. Where are my Iowans? Iowans? Iowans?” he yelled out, calling for the actual voters who might play a role in pushing him to the presidency Monday night. Indeed, more than half the roughly 35 people gathered on a front lawn in suburban Des Moines Sunday afternoon were not actually from Iowa. There was an AP history class of 13 girls from Cape Cod and their teacher; Anita, who refused to give her last name, from Oklahoma; Ann and Buddy Luce from Southlake, Texas; Rich and Angela Warwick from Kansas City, Missouri—plus the couple from Nebraska and the young man from Colorado. Time was that the Iowa caucuses were hyper local affairs. Candidates who brought in out-of-town staff, as former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean did in 2004, were targets of criticism. But the first-in-the-nation contest has become something of a tourist attraction this cycle, in part thanks to the celebrity of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. At every event, Republican or Democratic, the crowd ranks have swollen with tourists. The crowds have become such a problem for some candidates that events are ticketed and closed to non-Iowans. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, for example, limited access to his canvassing events with supporters on Sunday. They come for the fun, for the spectacle and because they feel left out. “By the time the campaign gets to us, the contest is usually over and we never get to see and hear from the candidates,” says Ann Luce, 63, who first came to Iowa in 2008 to help organize for John Edwards, but brought her husband back this year so they could both experience the caucuses. “Here, it’s amazing. You can see a dozen in a few days.” In the past day, the Luces had seen O’Malley, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Hillary Clinton. **Read More**: [_How Poker Explains Donald Trump’s Campaign_](http://time.com/4201303/donald-trump-poker/) Tom Martinelli, 28, flew to Iowa from Miami just to scope out candidates. “I’m excited to learn about real viable candidates who have a no-nonsense message,” Martinelli said at a Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul rally Friday in Knoxville, Ia. “I want to learn about guys and gals. Aaron Campbell, 41, traveled down from the his hometown of Cable, Wisc., to see Sanders in Waterloo and volunteer for him around the state. “I like to come down this time of the year to the Super Bowl of politics, and canvass for different people,” he said. “This time it’s Bernie.” His devotion to caucus tourism goes back more than a decade. “I was down here for Obama’s first election,” he said. “I was down here during the John Kerry years, I was one of the Howard Dean-orange-knit cap people. Then eventually I did some work for Kerry during the general. It’s very always very exciting to be here in the state at this time.” The biggest draw for tourists, just like regular Iowa voters, has been Trump, whom the Warwicks, both Democrats, saw on Saturday. “It was a trip,” says Rich Warwick, 56\. “I mean we had to go just see it.” And they aren’t the only ones. Many of those in Trumps large, noisy crowds aren’t Iowans. “He tells it like it is. I like him because he’s young. He’s not old like Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton. He’ll be around for both terms,” says Jeremy Dean, 39, a Milan, Ill., resident at a Trump rally on Saturday. Trump is 69 years old, one year older than Clinton and five years younger than Sanders. **Read More**: [_Donald Trump’s Plane Does Fly By To Air Force One Theme Song_](http://time.com/4201264/donald-trump-plane-air-force-one-flyby/) Trump has “been saying what we’re all thinking but can’t say it because it’s not politically correct. He doesn’t need the lobbyists’ money, he doesn’t need anyone’s money,” says Rebecca Kron, a resident of Moline, Ill., who joined the Trump event in Davenport. Though out-of-state supporters can do very little to help Trump at the caucuses, down the road—if he chooses to take that road—they could prove helpful. After all, he’ll need lots of signatures to get on state ballots should he mount a third-party challenge. _–With reporting from Tessa Berenson in Knoxville, Iowa., Sam Frizell in Waterloo, Iowa, and Phil Elliott in Davenport and Dubuque, Iowa._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4201756/iowa-caucus-tourist-donald-trump-bernie/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4201756/iowa-caucus-tourist-donald-trump-bernie/"},"headline":"There's a Tourist Epidemic at the Iowa Caucuses","datePublished":"2016-01-31T22:29:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:37:14.015Z","description":"\"Where are the Iowans?\"","url":"https://time.com/4201756/iowa-caucus-tourist-donald-trump-bernie/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton","Iowa","Bernie Sanders","Martin O'malley"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55c92ff53da57db6/69887b7fe20a87717aa8f4da/timepol-martin-omalley-jan-31-08.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jay Newton-Small / Johnston, Ia."}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55c92ff53da57db6/69887b7fe20a87717aa8f4da/timepol-martin-omalley-jan-31-08.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL Martin O'Malley Nan Horvat","caption":"Nan Horvat attended a Martin O'Malley a canvas launch at a supporter's home in Johnston, Iowa on Sunday afternoon,January 31rst. 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