Photographers Blog

By Brian Snyder

Before his campaigns to be the Republican nominee for President of the United States, Mitt Romney challenged Ted Kennedy for the U.S. Senate. While Romney ultimately lost the race against Senator Kennedy, I covered his victory rally in September 20, 1994 when he won the Republican primary.

Some things have changed since then, but much has not. Romney’s parents, who were with him onstage in 1994, have since died, and he now campaigns not only with his children, but also his grand children.

His wife Ann remains at his side, often introducing him at campaign stops.

(Click on the images above for a high resolution version)

By Jessica Rinaldi

Every four years we photographers load our suitcases with layers of warm clothes and head to the Granite State to photograph the political frenzy that is the New Hampshire Primary. New Hampshire and Iowa are considered by many to be retail politics at their best, the states where candidates get on the ground to talk with voters, and local residents have the unique chance to see who the candidates are. It’s an opportunity for the candidates to test out their talking points and fine tune their campaign strategy, to see what floats.

While all of that is well and good in the warm summer months at the beginning of their journey, by the time that chilly spotlight turns from Iowa to New Hampshire they tend to have already become well-seasoned politicians. It is with that knowledge that we head to New Hampshire, where we know that we will be composing other photographers in or out of our shots depending on the story and jostling for position in front of the diner booth, factory worker, rotary club member, or veteran that happens to call to us at one of the many campaign events we shoot throughout the day. At least, that’s what I had figured I would do this time around.

Enter U.S. Presidential candidate and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, the only major candidate I’ve ever seen drive to his own campaign events. Huntsman, who skipped out on the Iowa caucus in favor of focusing all of his efforts on New Hampshire has done over 150 campaign events in this state but curiously only seems to have found his stride just now.

By Joshua Lott

Before leaving my apartment in Phoenix, Arizona and driving 1,500 miles with two other photographers to Des Moines, Iowa to cover the Iowa Caucus, thoughts of frigid temperatures, scraping frost off my windshield and driving along snow covered roads were foreseeable. That is exactly what happened when I covered the caucus for Reuters in 2007. Since arriving in the Hawkeye state on December 18th, Mother Nature has kept Old Man Winter to the north and the weather on the mild side; the low 40s.

I am right back where I was four years ago minus the snow, cold and Democrats; chasing Republican presidential candidates on the stump through the corn fields and dirt roads of Iowa. Before Christmas I spent most of my time in the eastern part of the state following Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Newt Gringrich.

Paul held one of his events at a banquet hall filled with followers in Fort Madison, Iowa.