DES MOINES — The best political journalism you’ve never heard of is coming from a scrappy start-up in the East Village.

The East Village of Des Moines, that is.

Iowa Starting Line, a no-frills news outlet that started out as a rookie reporter and his Twitter account, is the new must-read of the 2020 campaign. Elite reporters follow it. Candidates care about it. And at a painful time in the local news business, its six-person staff has started to rival The Des Moines Register for scoops and influence in the first-in-the-nation presidential caucus.

“If I want to know what’s happening on the ground in Iowa, I’m clicking on The Register or Iowa Starting Line, and not necessarily in that order,” said Tim Alberta, Politico’s chief political correspondent.

At a recent debate night in Des Moines, Starting Line’s founder and editor, Pat Rynard, an unassuming Missourian in a blazer and checked shirt, was surrounded by network news reporters seeking the latest political gossip. Dave Weigel, a national writer for The Washington Post, told Mr. Rynard he reads the site to stay current. “It’s so the locals don’t think, ‘This East Coast schmuck doesn’t know anything,’” Mr. Weigel quipped.