Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy was waiting for us on a simple chair, sitting sideways with an arm slung over the top while he pecked at his phone with the other hand. When I and a couple of local reporters walked in, he yawned, popped a Listerine strip into his mouth, and ambled up to the cameras.

We were in his hometown of Bakersfield, California, but his spiel sounded just like every one I’d heard him give on Capitol Hill. We asked a few questions, and then the press guy said, “That’s all the time we’ve got, guys.” 

And then something changed.

It was like the play had ended, and the actor came out to say hi. He asked me whom I’d interviewed, and explained why people here are wary of reporters who fly in. 

“They already have a preconceived notion about us, right?” said Speaker McCarthy, who added that those preconceptions always end up baked into the story, no matter how long his friends spend with a reporter. “They feel burned time and time again. ... because it’s almost like people already have the story written.” 

Indeed, Washington’s centripetal forces affect journalists as much as politicians, creating narratives that are hard to break out of. So I find it always helps to visit a lawmaker’s turf. 

I went out to the oil fields of Mr. McCarthy’s district, drove around with a farmer as a crop-duster buzzed her pickup truck, and hung out by the tables in the back of the Bakersfield Republican Women’s luncheon, where there were gift bags for new members, buttons like “Don’t let me vote Democrat when I die,” and a woman named Penny collecting donations to address human trafficking in the city. 

In this week’s cover story, you can hear from people who have known Mr. McCarthy for decades and worked closely with him – and decide for yourself what kind of leader he is.