John Adams does not like a standstill. Although 79 years old, the retiree barely misses a day when he does not have at least one appointment: he used to run a magazine, coached basketball teams, worked in the City Council - today he volunteers at the hospice, preaching in a church. For a few months, however, he has been one of the most dedicated campaigners Democrats in Dickinson County have ever known. He was still a dedicated Republican one year ago.
"Those past months have been the best in my life," Adams says on an evening just before the Midterm elections. He stands in a barren conference room in a hotel in Okoboji, northwest of the state of Iowa. Adams wants to use a last meeting to thank his colleagues. And to motivate her again.
More than sixty men and women gathered this evening - for the Dickinson County Democrats, that's an enormous number. At the beginning of the year there were just a handful of party supporters who attended the first meetings. The local association had little money, no campaign material, no structure.
No wonder in an environment like Dickinson County: around 17,000 people live here in the small towns around the idyllic lakes - and although Iowa is a classic swing state, most have voted in favor of the Republicans over the past few decades. (Read more about the campaign in Iowa here.)
Adams also knew everyone in town that he is a Republican. He was involved with the Conservatives and wrote partisan columns in his ad. After the re-election of US President George W. Bush in 2004, he defended in the Republicans, while his daughter - convinced Democrat - in turn criticized the decision of the Americans. As with friends who thought politically differently than he did, Adams agreed with her that they could not agree.
Alternate mood as a foreign word
Anyone who has decided in the US once for one of the two parties, usually changes his voting behavior no longer. This is another reason why it is difficult for Republicans and Democrats to assert themselves in strongholds of the other party. The hope of the Democrats in this election rests therefore on the many independents - and above all on mobilizing the innumerable non-voters.
John Adams naturally assumed that he would remain a Republican all his life. But then his party chose Donald Trump as their presidential candidate. Adams did what he had never done before: he voted for an independent candidate. "Trump's dealings with women, his attitude to gun laws and his Russia policy - I could not identify with any of them," he says.
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With each day of Trump's presidency, he felt more and more out of place: "All those who were against Trump before, have questioned him as president at once or even criticized, that has appalled me."
Then the riot of Parkland with 17 dead and Trump happened and the Republicans reacted in their old manner: only no harsher gun laws. Too much for Adams. When his granddaughter Olivia Dotson asked if they wanted to travel from Iowa to Washington together to become part of the gun-violence protest, he did not hesitate. "I expected an angry mob, but they were very nice people demonstrating there, and I felt comfortable."
"Many think I was old and crazy"
Back in Arnold's Park, he went to the meeting of Democrats. In a county where some do not dare to come out as democrats in the workplace and avoid a lot of talk about politics, that's a giant step. And Adams also wrote about it in an open letter. "I was not nervous, I was highly motivated," he says later.
And he stayed that way. He used his ad experience to promote the Democrats. Together with his new party friends, he organized fundraisers, even an office have the Democrats of Dickinson County moved. Adams closes it daily at 12 o'clock. "Many think I've grown old and gone crazy," Adams says, looking back on the first reactions to his public switch from the Republicans to the Democrats. Some had turned away from him. "But I feel like I'm finally doing the right thing." That sounds pathetic, but Adam takes it off.
And he is not alone. Gradually, more undecided joined the Democrats. Also on this evening Adams is not the only change voter in the room.
The meeting is halfway over, an older man gets up, it's the county supervisor. "I've been a Republican for 60 years," says Paul Johnson. He has just given his voice in the so-called early voting - for the Democrats.