What fuels Donald Trump's Iowa supporters?
Des Moines, Iowa - Jim Miller was first in line at his sixth Donald Trump campaign event in three months - and this was no ordinary rally.
"I was planning on going to the debate, but now this whole craziness, it's exciting," said Miller, a 46-year-old small business owner and father of two, referring to Trump's impromptu fundraiser for veterans at Drake University, held on the same night as the final GOP debate before the Iowa caucuses.
Miller had driven almost 200 miles, arriving four hours before the scheduled 8 p.m. event start time. For him, Trump's decision to boycott the Fox News debate was "a lesson in negotiation":
"He's done six debates - if they haven't asked him the tough questions by now, what else?"
Miller has been a volunteer for the Trump campaign since October, when he met Trump in person and spoke at a campaign rally in Sioux City, Iowa's fourth-largest city, where his office is located. Like many Trump supporters in Iowa, the week leading up to the caucus was an important time for Miller to convince others to embrace the 69-year-old real estate magnate's candidacy.
"Personally I don't think there's anything controversial about him," Miller told CBS News. "I think that's one of the things at these rallies, people see other people inspired, and you say "Wait a minute - it's not just me.""
"And I think: 'Wow, I'm inspired.'"
Earlier that week, about an hour's drive away at a rally in Marshalltown, an atmosphere of inspiration was palpable among the crowd.
"To hear the man in person, it just starts a fire in your belly, to hear one-on-one what it is that he's gonna do," said Rachel Nielsen, a 42-year-old working-class mother and campaign volunteer.
Nielsen was among the roughly 300 mostly white, middle-aged Americans - many sporting red caps reading Make America Great Again, and white T-shirts with Trump logos on them - who had gathered to hear Trump discuss his key campaign issues of immigration, overhauling the Department of Veteran Affairs, and helping the American middle-class' "silent majority."
"That's why they're here, why they waited in cold for four, five hours to hear the man speak.," said Matthew Fricke, who attended the rally with Nielsen, all the while holding a "The Silent Majority Stands With Trump" white cardboard sign.
"This country needs a huge change," he added.
For Fricke, as well as for Miller and many others in the Sioux City area, where a U.S. Air Force base is located, Trump's pledge to better support veterans was crucial to their decision to support him.
"The thing that's got me most involved with the campaign has been Projects for Patriots," said Miller. Projects for Patriots is a small community charity that Miller helped launch about six months ago. They're currently rebuilding a house in Sioux City for veteran Todd Landen and his family.
Landen suffered multiple combat injuries during his 22 years of service. The Projects for Patriots renovation comprises changes that will help improve the family's quality of life inside their home, for example, installing an elevator.
Father and daughter Steven Struthers and Breezy Struthers Drake run a remodeling company in Sioux City that's also involved with Projects for Patriots. Over the past few months, they have both also become Trump supporters. While Trump detractors criticize his rhetoric as bombastic and confrontational, the Drakes see his style as a strength.
"I think it's refreshing that he [Trump] just tells it like it is, not like we've seen in the past where it's like 'Oh do I dare say how I really feel?'" said Sruthers Drake, adding how, although there are potential risks to being outspoken, especially in light of Trump's controversial remarks about a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S., that it was nonetheless more important "to find a ground that we can stand on and to stick with it. You cannot waiver and be wishy-washy and if you're always politically correct you're always wishy-washy in my opinion."
"He's a billionaire, he's made his lot in life. He's choosing to do this, to help the American people."
The Projects for Patriots team brought Landen, his wife April, and their 9-year-old daughter Brianna, to the Sioux City rally where Miller spoke. When Landen posed a question to Trump, he in turn stepped off the stage to answer him and pledged to put pressure on the VA "like you wouldn't believe."
"Ever since that night we've been in contact with his campaign folks," said Landen. "I exchange emails with them probably three, four times a week."
At last week's veterans fundraiser, several Trump campaign staffers, as well as Trump family members greeted the Landens, who were in the front row. As the event drew to a close, Trump himself came over, shook their hands and asked several times if "things were good."
"Beautiful, good job you did!" Trump joked with the Landens, admiring their daughter.
"I don't think he's afraid of defending us and I think we need that," said April Landen, back in their hotel room later that night. "I think he's misunderstood a lot, and taken out of context."
"Like with the borders, he's not saying don't let immigrants in, he's saying come in legally, and what's wrong with that? I don't understand the big deal."
Said Todd Landen: "I think a great America under Donald Trump would be one where we train, equip, and use as a last resort our military, a great military. ... If we do have to go to war, let's take care of vets afterwards."
Back at his home in Akron, Iowa, a short drive from Sioux City, Miller echoed a similar idea about Trump's candidacy and his vision of America:
"This is the best opportunity we have to make a difference; to bring our country back to the American pride and the 'Made in America' values that we knew growing up."
"I just believe in the message."