Endorsing political candidates is a long-standing tradition in media, and we at The Simpsonian do not take this tradition lightly.

As student journalists in the first caucus state, these last few months have been both a dream and a nightmare. We’ve had the chance to see what the future of our profession holds for us, and it’s both thrilling and intimidating.

The only thing we can do is learn from the best and follow suit when we see good work being done.

With that in mind, the editorial board collaborated on endorsements to best represent the interests of our staff, and, moreover, the Simpson College community as a whole.

The luxury of endorsing candidates for the caucuses is that we can remain unaffiliated with either party.

We mean to represent the interests of all members of our community, regardless of party affiliation.

We discussed the three Democratic candidates and the top five polling Republican candidates, narrowing the Republican field for a more focused discussion.

Our staff is composed of people all across the political spectrum – from staunch Republicans to the most liberal of Democrats – we can guarantee there is no favor shown to one party over the other on our staff.

The Des Moines Register published its endorsements Saturday – which coincidentally are the same candidates The Simpsonian editorial board decided on prior to the announcement.

We are taking it as a sign of good work that the same choices were made by students as by the largest newspaper in the state.

People are going to disagree with these choices. Perhaps you are planning to caucus for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders because his stances better align with yours.

We urge you to do just that.

Don’t take our choices as the definitive decision for yourself.

Each person has his or her own choice to make come caucus day, whether or not they are the same as ours.

We can only emphasize the importance of caucusing and hope our readers utilize some of the information in this editorial to help with that choice.