On Jan. 28, Bob Beatty will give an inside view of the Iowa Caucus, and what it means for the long awaited primaries of the 2016 Presidential Race.

Beatty has been traveling to Iowa since April of 2015 to meet candidates and writing a 19-part series about the candidates that appeared in the Topeka Capitol Journal. Beatty received a grant to study the campaigns and better understand them so he could teach his students the more intricate parts of running a campaign.

“I’ve met every single candidate,” said Beatty. “I received a grant to go to Iowa in the summer, and also to study how they run for president because I taught a class in the fall, ‘The Iowa Caucus.” It’s become this huge project, teaching and writing.”

“So with Iowa, you can go see two or three candidates as they’re campaigning. I started in April, I went about thirteen times, and I’m going on February 1. When the campaign started there were about twenty candidates, now there’s around 12. I’ve probably met seventeen out of the twenty and saw every single one. It’s Iowa, so it’s very easy to speak to candidates, except Trump, although I did briefly get a chance to speak with Trump early on.”

On Thursday, Jan. 28, Beatty will be addressing each candidate still in the race and talk about possible outcomes for each in Iowa on Feb. 1 and for later primaries, like New Hampshire. These primaries are two of the most important and can make or break a candidate.

“It’s very important. Some people complain it shouldn’t be, but it is,” said Beatty. “It’s important because it’s first; it gives the candidates, the media, the voters a chance to assess. Like with Trump, the polls show he’s doing well, but we won’t actually know until Iowa happens. It becomes really important because it shows the practical results rather than a poll. Some candidates will drop out before Iowa because their campaigns are gaining no traction there, and several will drop out right after Iowa because the results aren’t what they want. It tends to eliminate some candidates.”

The 2016 Iowa Caucus “Inside View” lecture, sponsored by Washburn University’s Political Science and History Departments, takes place at 7 p.m. on Thursday in Henderson Learning Center, Room 112 and is open to the public.