Jefferson, Iowa
About ninety local Republicans squeeze into a small meeting room in the back corner of the Greene County Community Center. Supposedly every chair in the building has been hauled in, and late arrivals have to stand against the wall or in the doorway.

“[Gingrich]’s been a college professor, an author and a politician,” John Meyer, co-chair of the Greene County GOP, says before adding, almost off-handedly: “And he’s the leading candidate for the Republican party’s nomination for president.”