On Monday night, Kidunity went to Bernie Sanders’s celebratory party for the Iowa caucuses. When we walked in, we saw about two hundred excited Bernie Sanders supporters. They were extremely excited about Bernie Sanders being in a virtual tie with Hillary Clinton. This happened for the first time on the Democratic side in Iowa! There was music blasting while we were waiting for Bernie Sanders to show up. Everyone was dancing while we were watching the results of the caucuses on CNN. Then, out of the blue, everyone goes crazy, We all looked up and there he was. Bernie Sanders! Bernie Sanders couldn’t talk for about two minutes because of all the cheering. He gave his celebratory speech with such enthusiasm. When he left, everyone was pouring out of the room full of energy from the party. It was truly a distinguishing moment of our trip to Iowa.

The Iowa Caucuses provided us with profound insights into our democratic process and the importance of civic engagement. Many of us marveled at having front row seats to “democracy in action” and caucus night was heralded as a sacred ritual in which we would celebrate our fellow citizens’ right to vote. But we all also knew the complicated history of voting rights in our nation.

In order to help the students understand the importance and larger context of what they were about to witness – after all, it’s rare to witness actual voting since Americans typically use a secret ballot – we designed a powerful,  interactive exercise on the evolution of voting rights in the United States.  Civil rights historian Daniel McGuire’s lesson emphasized that the right to vote was not a birth right for many groups (non-landowning men, women, African Americans)  and that citizens must cherish and protect this painfully acquired right. Our main point was that both in the context of US history and world history, voting rights, free speech, and a peaceful political process are not the norm and must never be taken for granted. Our students’ strong grasp of the civil rights movement (from their studies in the fifth grade at Carlthorp School), as well as a special and unanticipated encounter that evening, helped underscore this point.

At the Jordan Creek School caucus that KidUnity attended, we watched voters separate themselves in the room based on which candidate they supported. At the conclusion of this sorting and counting process, individuals from the two sides – Clinton and Sanders – were then selected to represent their candidates as delegates at Iowa’s state convention.

One man who stepped forward to be chosen as a delegate had a remarkable story. He introduced himself to his fellow caucus attendees as one of the “lost boys” from Sudan.  He explained that many of his friends had been killed by civil war, disease, and famine, that he had been separated from his family for twenty-three years, and that he had been forced to join an army at the age of thirteen. Now he was a father of a second grader, a student of environmental science, and an American citizen. That night – before our eyes – he became a delegate for Bernie Sanders.

Of all of the remarkable people we encountered on this trip, this man had the most powerful impact on me.

Although Trump did not seem upset after earning a 2nd place finish in Iowa the night of the caucus, he certainly is now. Mr. Trump is calling for another Republican Iowa Caucus. He believes that Cruz unfairly and illegally gained supporters by sending out documents and tweets that stated that Dr. Carson would be dropping out of the race. When the Carson supporters heard of this, they decided to turn to Cruz, because they thought that he was most like Dr. Carson. These new voters seemingly gave Cruz the boost he needed to pull ahead of Trump. If Mr. Trump succeeds in getting another Republican Iowa Caucus, KidUnity will be there!

Recently on February 1st, KidUnity visited Rand Paul’s Headquarters. We met with Cliff Maloney the National Youth Director. We were able to interview him, and he also told us insight information about Rand Paul. Something that was different at Rand Paul’s Headquarters was that they had a front desk and you couldn’t just walk in. They greeted you and it was a lot more organized. Then we got to actually meet with Cliff the National Youth Director. He said that Paul is trying to get 10,000 high-school and college students to vote for him and be on his side. Cliff said that why he sides and likes Rand Paul is because he is authentic, keep his word, and doesn’t change his ideas. Cliff refers to Rand Paul as a Liberty Warrior because he is all about having a small federal government. Rand Paul wants the Government to be so small that you can barely see it. One thing that stood out to us was that he wanted cell phone privacy and not to allow the government to monitor the phones.

Every time someone called a Rand Paul supporter or got someone to support them, they rang a cow bell. In the end we learned a lot about Rand. We even learned a little about Ron Paul, his dad. They are two people that are very interesting and cool to learn about. In the end, we got to see this dog named Daffy. He was the campaign dog. We all were petting him and then he growled at us a bit.

Today we just heard that Rand Paul dropped out his campaign race. This shocked us because he was going for 10,000 college students and high-school students to side with him and vote for him.

On Monday night, February 1, the night of the Caucus, Kid Unity was at Bernie Sanders’ Caucus party along with hundreds of his followers, eagerly awaiting the polls to see if Iowa would “feel the bern!” Finally, Fox posted the polls, which kept fluctuating up and down. Everyone was nervously waiting for the rest of Iowa to vote when suddenly, Fox had received news that Hillary Clinton’s campaign had declared victory and it was showing a live feed of her victory speech. This made everyone at the party mad and the “boos” could be heard miles away. The speech finally ended and it was back to the polls. It was getting late so Kid Unity grudgingly decided it was almost time to go. Before we left, we interviewed a couple of Japanese reporters covering the Caucus, even made it onto Japanese television, and we interviewed some of Sanders’ loyal partisans on what they thought about Sanders and on Clinton’s outrageous victory celebration. 

    When we got back to our hotel, we quickly rushed to the television and were dumbstruck by what we saw. The polls said Clinton was at 672, while Sanders was at 670, and the officials were resorting to coin tosses! Clinton won all 3, pulling her into first and the winner of the Democrat Iowa Caucus. She gained 30 delegates while Sanders gained 21. And, to top it all off, Martin O’Malley dropped out of the race with less than 1%. All-in-all, it probably wasn’t fair that our future president may have been decided by a coin toss, it would have been better if it was a tie. On the Republican side, Ted Cruz gained 1st with 28.7%, Trump barely pulling into 2nd with 25.1%, Marco Rubio snatching 3rd with 21.3%, Ben Carson in 4th with 9.7%, Rand Paul in 5th with 4.5%, and Jeb Bush in 6th with 2.8%. The rest of the Republicans got 2% or below.    

On Monday, half of KidUnity went to Rand Paul’s headquarters and interviewed his Youth Director, Cliff Maloney.  KidUnity also received a tour of Rand Paul’s headquarters and were very welcomed by all of the Rand Paul supporters.  At Ted Cruz’s campaign headquarters, nearly no one welcomed us and everybody was ‘too busy’ to give us a decent tour. 

But, at the Rand Paul headquarters, Cliff Maloney, gave fifteen minutes out of his busy day of the Iowa Caucus to interview a bunch of sixth graders from across the country.  He was very generous and kind.  Cliff Maloney is a teacher of fifth grade in America and also taught in New Zealand.  He left his job as a teacher for three months just to become Rand Paul’s Youth Director.

I asked Mr. Maloney the question, “How often do you meet with Rand Paul and talk to him?”  Cliff answered that he works with Rand every day, whether it is through the phone or in person.  He said that Rand is a very kind man with amazing ideas.

Cliff said that the Youth Director is one of the most important jobs in Rand’s campaign because they were aiming for youths to vote for them and his job is to recruit youths for their campaign.  The reason Rand Paul was recruiting youths is because those are the people who believe in him the most.  The policy that many youths agree with is the policy that phones cannot be monitored by the government.  Rand believes that phones should not be able to be monitored by the government because it breaks the amendment that you have the right to privacy.

I, personally, understand that phones can be monitored by the government if you are a suspected criminal, but otherwise it is not fair.  That is the main reason Cliff supports Rand Paul, that phones should not be monitored.

Sadly, Rand Paul suspended his campaign today because he was at a disappointing 4%.

A funny story in Rand Paul’s headquarters is that a supporter of Rand brought a dog to his headquarters!  All of the KidUnity students were frantically petting the dog, named Daffy.  Daffy got frustrated by all of the hands touching her and growled!  Overall, it was an amazing experience at Rand Paul’s headquarters.

While at Bernie Sander’s Post-Caucus party, KidUnity “feels the bern” as people start clapping and yelling. Everybody was so excited and riled up. The party lasted a couple hours and ended at around 11:00 P.M. (Central Time) Of course when Bernie Sanders made his appearance everybody started cheering, “Feel the Bern!” However, when Senator Sanders announced that he and Hillary Clinton were at a virtual tie, the crowd exploded with cheers.

Although Hillary Clinton eventually won by about four delegates, at the time nobody knew who was going to win. For hours, people watched the news channels, trying to see who wins. It wasn’t determined until early in the morning that Hillary Clinton had won. This tie was probably the most interesting Iowa Caucus ever. Several new channels say that this was the most unique Caucus ever and that this one will be remembered for a long time. However, people are arguing that Bernie Sanders might actually win like how Rick Santorum won Iowa a week after the Caucus ended.

That is all for now!

Two and a half hours until we head off to the caucus! We will be reporting from the Jordan Creek School Caucus in West Des Moines. The race will be close between Sanders and Clinton for the Democratic Party, and Trump and Cruz for the Republican Party. It will be a late night but in the end it will all be worth it. We will get firsthand experience on the front line and hope to meet more political candidates and hear from Iowans about their concerns and hopes. All of our workshops have really prepared us for tonight, THE IOWA CAUCUSES.

Catherine, Shaelee, and Landon

Today, half of KidUnity felt the Bern. At lunch we had two choices that would show us what advocacy and campaign work is like – go to the Bernie Sanders’s headquarters, or the Rand Paul headquarters. The group was almost split in half. The group that went to Bernie’s headquarters was met with campaign badges and amiable volunteers. Our goal, because we had already met Bernie Sanders, was to experience advocacy and help out. The volunteers let us have an opportunity to call people in Iowa, asking them to support Bernie Sanders and his campaign. We called about five people each. However, nobody achieved the goal of persuading two people to vote for Mr. Sanders. The volunteers were extremely interested in our group, and were glad we were supporting Bernie Sanders.

This morning KidUnity had a brief opportunity to visit the bus that Bernie Sanders rides in to all of his campaign events.  We also met his campaign manager – Mr. Weaver – who showed us around the bus.  While we were eating breakfast, a huge red, white, and blue bus pulled up to our hotel and we just had to check it out!  Mr. Sanders’ campaign gave us a short tour of the bus and was very kind. Sen Sanders’ bus has leather seats, an HD TV, a roomy living space, and a coffee machine.  Bernie Sanders is riding in style!