KNOXVILLE, Iowa — Welcome to the final Democratic debate before the Iowa caucuses. As a reporter for a small-town Iowa radio station, I have the best seat in the house for the caucuses. I’ve seen all the candidates who have come to Iowa, most multiple times, interviewed nearly all of them, some more than once, and attended countless events. The largest, the Polk County Steak Fry in September, had over 12,000 attendees. The smallest was, um, about 10 people about a week or two ago (sorry, Marianne Williamson!).

As you watch the debate on Tuesday night in Des Moines, remember that while Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Tom Steyer and Amy Klobuchar deserve their spots, there are great candidates with lots of support who should be on that stage, too. Minimally, in terms of enthusiasm I see at his events, Andrew Yang should be debating. (The same would have held true for Cory Booker, too — that he and Kamala Harris have dropped out of the race and the two billionaires are still in shows how flawed the Democratic National Committee debate criteria really are.)

What really matters happens on caucus night in about three weeks on Feb. 3. The conventional wisdom is that there are three tickets to the presidential nomination out of Iowa. That’s wrong. In such a big field, there are five or six tickets out of Iowa. To say otherwise does the candidates, our remaining states and, most important, our nation a disservice. It also gives Iowa too much power.

The situation on the ground here is fluid, but polls paint a fairly clear picture: a tight four-way race in Iowa with Mr. Sanders, Mr. Biden or Mr. Buttigieg on top, with Ms. Warren at their heels. (The most recent Des Moines Register poll has Mr. Sanders on top, with Ms. Warren, Mr. Buttigieg and Mr. Biden bunched close behind.) Ms. Klobuchar is slowly climbing. Mr. Booker never quite broke through, and Tulsi Gabbard hasn’t been here since October. Our Iowa winters might be too much for the Hawaii congresswoman, and I can’t blame her.