Steffen Schmidt

The triple-header victory by Rick Santorum on Tuesday was a huge rush for the candidate, but also raises much larger questions about the 2012 GOP field.

You’d think that Republican voters would be concerned about Gingrich’s connections to the sinful Las Vegas gambling industry. Or Mitt Romney's endorsement from the guy who's catch phr...

While we get excited about the caucuses and primaries, harvesting delegates is actually a backbreaking and difficult job.

All four candidates had a good night. They each got in memorable lines or quips. Gingrich did not blow away the debate as he did in South Carolina. Romney exceeded expectations and seemed more confident again (as he was when he was the sure winner in about October or November ...

South Carolina is the beating heart of the real South, and there is a long sociology of many South Carolinians disliking slick, rich Yankees. Newt played to that as a neighbor from Georgia.

Friday South Carolina will hold the "First in the South" primary. Since 1980 the victor of the South Carolina primary has gone on to win the presidential nomination. But the Palmetto State is sharing the limelight this morning with the Hawkeye State as the miscount in Iowa has skewed the results of the first GOP caucus. Rick Santorum is now declared the winner of the Iowa Caucus by a small margin of 34 votes. But in the end does it really matter?

The probability that Rick Santorum won and not Mitt Romney made no real difference because Romney was the untouchable front runner in New Hampshire already. Santorum would not have wo...

A tracking poll shows Romney sliding. Is this the Iowa roller coaster all over again?

New Hampshire poses a much bigger threat to the Republican Party's struggle to designate a Presidential nominee than we thought.

In Iowa if you “can’t make it here you probably can’t make it anywhere” is the general principle. Think it’s going to be easier running a campaign in 11 Super Tuesday states?

The caucuses start at 7 pm across the state in school classrooms and public libraries - almost 1800 different locations throughout the state will see neighborsshow up to do their poli...

Where else could Barack Obama have gotten his start except by winning the Iowa Caucuses and where else could Pat Robertson been given a chance to even try for the toughest job in the nation? Nowhere, I say!

The Iowa Republican Party is increasing security of the electronic systems it will use next week to count the votes from presidential caucusegoers. Law enforcement and cyber security geeks are also on high alert following a threat from a group of hackers delivered via video. 

"The video claims to be ...

Less than a week from Iowa caucuses, we've got a barnburner of a race shaping up. Mitt Romney, long trailing behind Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, appears to have vaulted into second place and climbing, while Newt has dropped from 27 percent in early December into third place with just under 15 percent of respondents.

Politics is a professional sport here, and nothing is more important than the presidential caucuses. We have saved the rest of you Americans the horrible job of winnowing the field of GOP Presidential candidates.

Andrew Smith, professor of politcal science at the University of New Hampshire and director of its Survey Center, and Steffen Schmidt, professor at Iowa State University, discuss how Iowa is gearing up for the GOP caucus. 

Ron Paul has drawn huge and passionate crowds, which the media could not report because Paul was not one of the “viable” front-runners who could get the nomination.

A GOP candidate will have to win roughly 1,143 delegates in 2012 to clinch the nomination, and the new RNC rules have also allowed states to allocate primary and caucus delegates prop...

Ron Paul was clearly a loser in this debate. He got into an unnecessary argument over U.S. foreign policy towards Iran, nuclear weapons, and reinforced his support for a neo-isolationist foreign policy.

GOP Drake University Debate Results – Steffen Schmidt Saturday night's GOP debate in Des Moines, Iowa consolidated Newt Gingrich’s front-runner status. Although targeted by all the contenders and directly attacked by Rick Perry, who lectured the audience that "if you cheat on your wife, you will cheat on your business ...