When Brian Kennedy’s family business was first asked to make the now-famous Donald Trump trucker hats, he knew he would need to address his workers, many of whom are Latino and speak Spanish.

“I said to them, ‘We’re not political. We’re here to work,’” Kennedy told The Times from the second floor of the factory, the steady whir of sewing machines below him. “And I haven’t gotten any negative comments.”

Dozens of employees, almost all of them Latino, continue to work, sweeping scraps of fabric from the floor, peering over glasses as their deft hands assemble one hat after another. All around them sit stacks of freshly minted camouflage-print trucker caps, with the real estate mogul and 2016 presidential hopeful's familiar “Make America Great Again” slogan emblazoned on the front in orange.

The Times' Mark Z. Barabak groups the Republicans into three categories: outsiders, evangelicals and social conservatives, and establishment. His full breakdown:

Ted Cruz discussed the pain of his parents’ divorce. Ben Carson recalled losing a young patient in surgery. Mike Huckabee described the anguish of administering the death penalty.

“If that doesn’t sober you up to reality,” the former Arkansas governor said to pin-drop silence from a crowd of hundreds of Christian conservatives, “nothing will.”

It’s hard to imagine such a raw, confessional conversation taking place almost anywhere but Iowa, where every four years White House hopefuls descend to bare their ambitions, present their visions and reveal a bit of their souls in pursuit of the nation’s highest office.

They come and endure the relentless scrutiny, even though Iowans have — at best — a middling record when it comes to picking presidents, especially on the Republican side.

Since 1980, when Iowa held its first seriously competitive GOP caucuses, the first-place finisher has gone on to win the party’s nomination less than half the time. There has been only one time, in 2000, when Republicans sent forth a winner to the White House, George W. Bush.