THE STORY OF THE IOWA CAUCUS BY Gene Stevens

 

On January 15th, 2024. In one brief personal moment, approximately 98 people in Iowa, entered the results of their respective Republican Caucuses into an app on their cell phones, and shook the world. For me it was one of the most powerful experiences in my life.

-Gene Stevens

Was the Iowa 2024 Caucus a miracle? 
I came to Iowa in late 2018. Having resided in Illinois for over 59 years I didn't know a thing about the Caucuses. We did not utilize the caucus system back home. The state of Illinois held primaries, A voting process where a person could walk in and vote and not even identify themselves. So caucus was new to me, but so was the political scene in Iowa. I became involved with local GOP politics after I was approached online by Marvis Landon, who was the wife of the late Iowa State Representative John Landon from Ankeny Iowa. She had apparently noticed some things that I was saying on social media and asked me if I'd like to be on the Polk County Iowa Republican Central Committe. The 2020 election season was heating up, and I knew the importance of upcoming elections, so I jumped in and helped out as one of the precinct chairs for Ankeny Iowa. This was also a very important moment for the Iowa GOP, particularly for the Polk County GOP who at that time, had completely thrown in with President Trump and were fully backing his campaign. As the world knows, Trump won the 2016 election, but what we didn't know is just how much the deep state, the swap and the insiders hated Donald J Trump. The years between 2016 to 2020 were an utter living political hell for the country, not only for Donald Trump, who was clearly the target/victim of the politically powerful and the sublimely evil, but also for his supporters and anyone else who dared ask any questions. The end of Donald Trump's term ended with totally false accusations, coordinated attacks on the American People, arrest and detention of American citizens for protesting what appeared to be an over thrown election, and the country being brought to the brink of world war three. Amazingly, Donald Trump stayed the course and continued the campaign, But juxtaposed to that, was American government that was showing itself to be in an  increasingly unstable state of existence. What we began to see was and unhinged pursuit campaign against Trump, the silencing of all dissenting opinions Five Facts on Twitter Censorship and Targeting of the Right | RealClearPolicy and utterly false and fabricated legal charges based upon political partisanship, that have been leveled against Trump day after day. As of today's date 02/16/2024, that has not changed, Donald Trump is campaigning, and his enemies are taking him to court, day after day after day.  As we approached the 2024 Caucuses, every mailbox and television screen was packed full of ads for Presidential wannabe's, Vivek Ramaswamy, Niki Haly yada yada yada...  And plenty of names that we already forgot. The onslaught of adversarial, and sometimes subversive action wrapped in a blanket of propaganda not only invaded our homes, it also separated many on the inside of the GOP political landscape in Iowa. Shockingly many people that I knew personally and who had met face to face tried to distance themselves from the grassroots Maga movement. Governor Kim Reynolds, State Legislators Jeff Shipley and Sandy Salmon and others within the GOP structure all supported other candidates, while the grassroots in Iowa stood against a stiff wind of resistance from a minority of people who did not see Trump as a viable candidate. This was utterly shocking, considering everything that the nation and been put through by the so called deep state. Perhaps it was fear of the powerful and the violence that they were willing to do to maintain power that motivated them to work against Trump? I think its worth noting the even some conservative news outlets such as Blaze TV which is owned by the one time Fox News Commentator Glenn Beck seemed to single out Trump. One if his commentators Steve Deace, who apparently identifies himself as an Iowan was completely anti-Trump/ Never Trumper. Deace also produced the movie Nefarious. I was unaware of how Deace produced the movie , until I seen him do an interview on his own TV talk show with Bob Vander Plaats who is GOP political activist. The interview revealed that Vander Plaats had financed Nefarious and was Deaces benefactor. Vander Plaats also donated $96,000 dollars to the Desantis Campaign. Which turned out to be a really poor bet.  Both Deace and Vander Plaats had failed to pay attention to the polls. The numbers were always there, but for some reason the people I mentioned here failed to see it. Which I believe did harm to their reputations. I certainly would never take a tip on any horse race from either Vander Plaats or Deace. In 2023 I resigned from the Polk County Central Committee, I had enough of the two faced political scene. But I remained connected to a small core of neighborhood people who stayed focused on what we wanted to see happen. On some days, I know we all felt like David standing before Goliath. That was especially true in Caucus night. When a small continent of neighborhood friends came together with our larger community to choose Trump or candidate.  I was the caucus reporter.  And when we tallied up the votes. And I sent the results to  our headquarters.  The second I touched the submit button. I knew I was a part of a very historic moment.