Last weekend, a drove of Democratic presidential hopefuls descended on Iowa for two days of voter contact. The lure was Sunday night’s Hall of Fame dinner in Cedar Rapids, where each of the 19 candidates was given five minutes to perform a monologue before Iowa’s Democratic Party elite.

With an estimated 200 journalists and 1,500 activists on hand, contenders seized the opportunity to flaunt their Iowa spirit. They careened between marches, meet-and-greets and media interviews. They brought in sign-spinners and food trucks, hosted picnics and held jam sessions. Who knew Mayor Pete played the keyboard?

Iowans insist on personal attention from candidates, and this crop of contenders, some of whom have been working the state for months, understands what’s at stake in the first contest of the presidential nominating season. It is yet another reminder of how special Iowa politics are — and of why it’s past time to end the state’s outsize and unwarranted influence over the nominating process.

Hating on the Iowa caucuses has become a cliché. As the familiar refrain goes: The state is too old, too rural and far too white to wield such clout. This is a cliché because it is true. Demographically speaking, the Iowa electorate looks about as much like the face of America as does the Senate Republican conference. Which says a lot.