DAVENPORT, Iowa –The Iowa Caucus is still almost a year away, but the relationship-building is in full swing here in the first state on the presidential nominating calendar.

Running in Iowa is about having many, many one-on-one conversations with voters, because Iowans expect to have a personal relationship with their candidates. That’s why 2020 contenders Sens. Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Amy Klobuchar were here recently, each hosting a smaller event that drew smallish crowds. And each took a lot of questions.

So, what do Iowans want? VICE News talked to attendees at the events to find out how they’re going about “shopping” for candidates (as one man put it), why they asked particular questions about things like reproductive rights, pot decriminalization, and immigration, and who they like so far (the name Biden came up quite a few times).

“Last time I started out very idealistic, and this year my strategy is going to be different,” one voter told VICE News, noting she’d gone to several campaign events within a few days. “We are going to, I believe, support the candidate that has the best chance of winning on a national scale.”

This segment originally aired March 20, 2019, on VICE News Tonight on HBO.