River towns, cornfields, wide-open roads and a battleground for presidential hopefuls. This is Iowa. And in the last few months, all 15 Democratic candidates have traveled here to drum up support. “Here in Iowa —” “I kind of like Amy Klobuchar.” “I like Elizabeth Warren.” “I’m kind of waiting for Biden.” The latest to enter the race is former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke. It’s his first time ever visiting the state, and the frenzied road trip he’s about to embark on will be an early test of his grassroots appeal outside of Texas. As we traveled around the eastern side of the state away from the media circus, some people knew about O’Rourke and some didn’t. “Texas, right?” “Sounds familiar.” “I don’t know enough about him.” O’Rourke’s jam-packed schedule in Iowa mirrors his recent Senate campaign. In 2018, he criss-crossed Texas, drew big crowds, became a media sensation, and then lost the race to incumbent Ted Cruz. “God bless Texas!” Iowa is a key swing state, and voters here will cast the first caucus votes in the nation. So yeah, they’re used to being wooed. “It’s gotten bigger and bigger every year.” “It started early this year.” “You do get some election fatigue.” In his theree days here, he went to coffee shops and gave speeches on countertops. “I don’t think there’s ever been a greater moment.“ He ran a 5K — “We’re setting the pace.” Then there were many meet and greets. “That’s our moment right now. A defining moment of truth for America and we are going to meet it together.” And during a live recording of a podcast he talked about criticism he faced about his privilege and acknowledged some early blunders. “I think the criticism is right on. And so I’m doing my best, imperfectly for sure. But doing my best to be as open as I possibly can.” “He’s gotten fairly good crowds and I that has to do with sort of his mid-level name recognition. And he has that personality as a good speaker. He kind of brings people in.” Tim Hagle has been studying Iowa politics for over 20 years. “We’re at that stage where you have all of these choices. The candidates are here and people will go and see two, three, four, five different candidates, and they have to sort of sort through who they like better.” Near the end of the tour, O’Rourke drew an enthusiastic crowd in Waterloo. Here, like at most events, he focused on one of his core topics: the border. “Those asylum seekers who can find a home here, they will be better for it, but so will this country. Our strength, our success —” But away from the rally at this hair salon, voters were weighing different candidates and issues. “I like Karmala, how she thinks as far as all of us as one.” “Basically, we need to be more unified, pretty much.” “I just love Bernie. He just seems like he’s for everybody.” “Oh yeah, the health care thing has really got me. My mom, all of them, they’ve got to pay so much for health care. And to me, that’s just not right.” Health care came up again and again. “Drug prices.” “Big pharma.” “Health care.” “Health care is really important to me, too.” As did — “Climate change.” “Climate change.” “Climate change.” “As a farmer, we see the climate changes.” He might be popular, but O’Rourke has some challenges ahead. His resumé is light on legislative accomplishments. And Hagle says that O’Rourke is going to need to take his soaring rhetoric and get more specific. “Some of his answers have been relatively vague. He hasn’t really got a good command of the details in terms of some of the plans and things that he wants. And so that’s going to make some Democrats a little concerned.” It’s early days, and many voters are weighing their options. But it’s clear that O’Rourke is going to have to fight to distinguish himself on the ground in Iowa.