MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
While the results in Iowa may have been held up, the candidates and the traveling press corps have moved on to New Hampshire. NPR hosts are changing shifts as well. Morning Edition's David Greene has spent the last several days with a team in Iowa. Our ALL THINGS CONSIDERED co-host Ari Shapiro and his team are about to go to New Hampshire.
ARI SHAPIRO, BYLINE: And so it seemed appropriate for us to pass the baton because the schedule waits for no one, and New Hampshire's primary is one week from today. David, you were at a caucus last night, and you woke up before dawn today to host Morning Edition from the coffee shop that you are still at now. Thank you for sticking around to talk to us on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED before you leave Des Moines.
DAVID GREENE, BYLINE: You bet. Yeah, Smokey Row in Des Moines - they have been so good to us here. We've been doing the show. It's great.
SHAPIRO: You know, I wanted you to be on the show because you've had so many interesting conversations that - as I head up to New Hampshire, I'm curious what you've learned and what you would recommend I keep my eyes open for. So tell me about one of those people you met who's going to stick with you.
GREENE: Well, I actually went back to a voter I met in 2008. Her name is Anita Esterday. She is out of work now. She's on disability. She gets Medicaid assistance. And I was talking to her about why she has gone from supporting Democrats to voting for President Trump, who has talked about potentially cutting a program like Medicaid.
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ANITA ESTERDAY: Yes.
GREENE: I mean, that's a program that could affect...
ESTERDAY: Yes.
GREENE: ...You personally.
ESTERDAY: He wants to cut Medicaid. He wants to cut Social Security. He wants to cut SSI disability. He wants to cut the veterans' programs, and I'm not pleased with that.
GREENE: So take me through your thinking. Like, what makes you want to vote for him even if those kinds of things could make life harder?
ESTERDAY: Because I don't want to vote for a Democrat now. Trump - I do think he's putting America first.
GREENE: Ari, she's so mad at Democrats, saying they've wasted three years attacking this president. She wants to give him a chance.
SHAPIRO: You know, there's been so much debate about whether these early states - Iowa and New Hampshire - reflect America. They're obviously much whiter than other states in the U.S., but you went to an Iowa town that is half-Latino. What did you find there?
GREENE: I did. It's a town in Iowa that has some meatpacking plants, which have drawn in, you know, a pretty big immigrant community to work there. And I was talking to Eric Skoog. He's a restaurant owner. He's lived there for 40 years. I asked this question to him and to Nathan Mahrt, who you're going to hear from first.
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GREENE: Is a more diverse Denison a better Denison?
NATHAN MAHRT: Yeah, by far.
ERIC SKOOG: Yeah. It's been a learning process. Is it a good thing? We'll know in 50 years.
GREENE: He's basically saying this has been an uncomfortable journey at times for the city of Denison, but they have come to a place now where they are a diverse community on a journey. But, you know, Nathan Mahrt, the other guy there, said that President Trump and a lot of his rhetoric over immigration and race has made it more difficult in this community, and so I find it fascinating.
SHAPIRO: Wow. Well, New Hampshire's 94% white, so I'm sure I'm going to encounter similar questions.
GREENE: Yeah. I mean, what are you looking for as you get ready to go?
SHAPIRO: You know, I want to know how people's lived experience affects their view of the big issues that the candidates are debating. Back in December, I went up to New Hampshire, and I did a story about how people's experience with health insurance shapes their view on "Medicare for All." And I met a woman named Marcella Termini, whose husband actually commutes to Massachusetts for work just for the health coverage.
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MARCELLA TERMINI: He could have got a job in New Hampshire and made, you know, fairly decent money, but we still wouldn't have the insurance coverage.
SHAPIRO: And so on this trip, I'm hoping to ask similar questions to voters about student debt and the addiction crisis.
GREENE: Let me ask you this. One thing that's come up, especially this morning as all these results in Iowa have been delayed because of all of these problems, a lot of Iowa voters here are saying they just don't want their state to look bad. They feel like they have earned the right to be first. New Hampshire's sort of the same. I mean, how do you think we address this question of these two states that go first and whether that should happen?
SHAPIRO: You know, our local station, New Hampshire Public Radio, has been doing this amazing podcast called Stranglehold. In their words, it is about how one small state got its hands around picking our presidents and why it won't let go. So the host of that podcast, Lauren Chooljian, is going to be our local guide to that debate.
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LAUREN CHOOLJIAN, BYLINE: We have gotten a lot of flak for even raising the questions about why this thing is first, who benefits and maybe who's missing out because we benefit.
SHAPIRO: And then, of course, David, there are the curveballs, as you're finding out in Iowa today.
GREENE: Yeah. Well, the only thing better than this is we both could be in both states together. But that can't happen this year, so have fun. Enjoy New Hampshire.
SHAPIRO: Thanks for your coverage in Iowa.
GREENE: You bet. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.