I was granted an exclusive look inside Rand Paul's presidential campaign in Iowa from January 26th to February 3rd (the day he dropped out of the race).

This piece is about what it's like to be campaigning in Iowa ahead of the caucus, the work involved, how volunteers hold the utmost faith in achieving the impossible, the actual role of professional campaign staffers, how easy it is to get swept up in the optimism, and what happens after it all falls apart.

Though in the end, Rand Paul only received 4.5% of the vote in Iowa and the campaign was suspended 2 days later. I show exactly what happened when everything unfolded: how some staff immediately started networking for other jobs, how others went into massive debt, and how eventually the Campaign Manager joined Marco Rubio.