Inside the gym at Johnston Middle School, the bleachers were marked by the teams of the day: Candidates for president.
Voters - some who brought their kids, one who brought some knitting for the wait - sat grouped together by which candidate they supported. Judy Anderson sat in the front row wearing a Booker sticker she says she won’t take off because he was her first choice (she’s caucusing for Elizabeth Warren because he’s no longer in the race).
At a caucus, candidates need to get a certain percentage of the room - usually 15 percent - to be viable to get delegates. That means that supporters of “nonviable” candidates at that particular site can choose to (or be convinced to) join other groups.
Unlike voting in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, campaigning doesn’t stop once you get inside a caucus. At this site, Senator Amy Klobuchar made a personal appearance.
“If we could go to 10 at once, that would be good,” she told NBC 10.
Back in the gym, the caucusgoers raised their hands to be counted in each section.
Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg and Warren reach the threshold to be viable - Joe Biden, Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard do not.
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After the first count - or alignment - Biden representatives try to recruit others to join them.
“Can Amy beat Trump or another Republican?” a woman in a sparkly dress with “Biden” on the back asked another woman sitting in the Klobuchar section.
Ultimately in this precinct (one of almost 1,700 across Iowa) a Biden supporter said those backing the former Vice President ended up splitting up to other campaigns because Biden was not viable there. He went with Pete Buttigieg.
NBC10 Reporter Lauren Mayk is on the ground in Iowa ahead of the state's caucuses. See more of her reports from the ground here:
Candidates Setting Lofty Expectations as Caucuses Near
