The Iowa caucuses of 2024 could have been different. 

The victory of Donald Trump over in Nikki, Haley and Ron DeSantis was not inevitable.

If DeSantis or Haley had gotten 10% more of the votes in the Iowa caucuses, they might have been able to go on to field, competitive primaries in other states.

The United States might not be facing the return of Donald Trump to the White House in the mood for retribution.

What if it had been revealed at the end of December, that among Donald Trump‘s top supporters was a man known to have been the leader of a terrorist organization?

If there had been enough journalists to investigate the Iowa faith, leader coalition, they would have discovered the identity of David Leach. If Iowans still received their political information from robust local newspapers, the impact could have been enough to change the course of the presidential election.

Of course, we know what actually happened. Donald Trump rolled to an easy victory.

The story was not found. There were not enough journalists to do the job. Strong local newspapers no longer exist. 

Donald Trump‘s ascension has only been possible because there are so few journalists to stand in his way, and few Americans, who still sit down to truly read a newspaper.

The Internet was supposed to be an information superhighway that would lead to an invigorated press, and and enlightened electorate.

Instead, we have newspapers that are hollowed out shells of what they ones were. In their place, we have TikTok and Facebook as the primary sources of news for many Americans.

There has not been a single news article written about the relationship between Donald Trump and David Leach. The information wasn’t hidden. It was in plain sight on a press release. A known terrorist made his way into the campaign of the Republican Party’s presidential front runner, and not one journalist was there to share the story.

Our investigation of the Iowa Faith Leader Coalition uncovered more than just the radicalization of religious activists. It also revealed the consequences of decades of neglect of journalism, the infrastructure of democracy.