Iowa: Making Politics Personal Again

Connie Doebele knew she had made the right choice to join the team at C-SPAN after a phone call came in from Hanover, Kansas — a short drive from her hometown. 

“Brian Lamb (LA’63) was interviewing the publisher of the New York Times, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., and Howell Raines, the editorial page editor,” recalls Doebele. “The call was pretty non-exciting, but it made the connection for me.” 

That moment showed Doebele what is so special about C-SPAN’s mission of connecting the American electorate with the political process in an open, unedited format. Today, Doebele is the managing director of the Center for C-SPAN Scholarship & Engagement (CCSE), housed within the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue.

Established in 2017 between presidential election cycles, the center had its first opportunity to involve students in a presidential campaign in 2020. With relative proximity to campus, Iowa was a natural choice. 

“If we had taken these students to, let’s say, a primary in New York, that wouldn’t have been the same kind of experience,” says Doebele. “There’s something about these small gatherings in Iowa where people get together and make decisions.”

Meet the Purdue Interns

What was the highlight of your time in Iowa? 

For me, the best part of the trip was getting to help the C-SPAN news crews set up for different events and watching how they prepare for them. They were incredible at adjusting on the fly, and it was a great chance to watch how television news production works. —Ray Couture (Junior, Mass Communication)

I loved seeing the political rallies. I am from Mexico, so I have not experienced this sort of political environment — to feel the energy and emotion in the room when a candidate spoke, it was just something incredible to see. —Gerardo Pons de la Garza (LA’20)

Honestly, the people watching. So many interesting and diverse groups of people came to campaign events, and seeing them interact and express their different and similar beliefs was fascinating. —Alyson DeHaai (Sophomore, General Management)

What was election night like on the ground? 

It was incredible to watch voters shuffle around the voting hall (the school cafeteria) to support their candidate. And when certain candidates didn’t achieve viability [15% support amongst caucus attendees], their voters had to decide on a different candidate, so there was significant lobbying going on. —Ray Couture

My group went to a high school in West Des Moines that had about 300 voters. The weird thing about the caucus system — at my location at least — was that there wasn’t a definitive end to the event. There were a few reorganizations where voters switched candidates, but after the final count, people slowly started to trickle out. —Kyle Foley (Junior, Political Science; Public Relations; Strategic Communication)

I was  sent to a smaller caucus where around 50 people voted. It went very fast! It was interesting to see how neighbors and friends argued with each other. There was an instance where we saw a husband and wife arguing, and both had to send their kid to convince each other to vote for the same candidate. —Gerardo Pons de la Garza

How did your experience with C-SPAN in Iowa impact your plans to be involved in the political process moving forward? 

This trip showed me that I like working in a media setting — especially on the production side — writing and working to get things out to the public. It really cemented my desire to do a C-SPAN internship in Washington, DC, next summer. I love their reason for doing what they do. They’ve remained the only nonpartisan voice through the years. —Andie Slomka (Junior, Genetics; Political Science Communication Minor)

C-SPAN changed my whole outlook on how personal national politics can really be. Iowans were not starstruck seeing these national figures. It wasn’t out of the ordinary. This experience helped show that a lot of the divisiveness in politics could go away if people just talked to each other and were actually able to interact with their elected officials. I still believe that politics is done at the grassroots level. —Kyle Foley

What surprised you about your experience?

The most surprising thing was how engaged the voters of Iowa are. I was with the C-SPAN crew at a Tom Steyer event at a microbrewery on Super Bowl Sunday, and the place was packed with people standing outside — all for a candidate that most people knew wouldn’t win. The voters felt comfortable interacting with candidates and people from C-SPAN. You could tell they had done this before. —Kyle Foley

As someone who watches TV and politics a lot, I tend to forget that politicians are people as well. When I attended these rallies, it was surprising to see how short or tall different candidates looked on TV compared to in person. Appearances really are everything. Candidates tended to use a lot of symbolism to convey a different image of themselves on TV from what it was in reality. —Gerardo Pons de la Garza

What surprised me most was the amount of activity and dedication that goes into campaigning. I knew beforehand that a candidate’s schedule is grueling, but seeing it in person emphasized how difficult it really is. —Alyson DeHaai