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Covering the Caucuses

Clay Masters
/
IPR
NPR's Tamara Keith (next to the trash can) during Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton's first Iowa trip after announcing her 2016 presidential bid.

 The Iowa caucuses are only four months away now and with them be ready to hear more from NPR political reporters. NPR's Don Gonyea and Tamara Keith stopped by Iowa Public Radio to discuss covering the Iowa caucuses with IPR's Clay Masters.

"You tend to get a cross-section of parties. You get people haven’t made up their mind up yet and they’re happy to talk to you," Gonyea says. "That’s a treasure trove for a reporter."

Gonyea also notes you get close access to  most of the candidates.

"You have to get here to get the clichés of Iowa and get  them out of your head," Gonyea says. 

This is the first year Keith, who covers the White House, has covered the Iowa caucuses.  

“In this age where candidates can put their speeches up on periscope and tweet beautiful images of people on stage looking presidential, and Facebook millions of times, it’s my job to get outside of that and step away from the stage craft," Keith says. "And look for the story that the campaign isn’t telling."

Clay Masters is the senior politics reporter for MPR News.
Clay Masters is the senior politics reporter for MPR News.