Welcome to the first of three installments of Ballotpedia’s Learning Journey on presidential primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire.
This Learning Journey guides you through the history of why these states matter and how the results of the early primaries can affect the rest of the presidential election cycle.
Let’s get started!
Why Iowa?
For more than 40 years, Iowa has held the first electoral event of the presidential election cycle.
But it hasn’t always been this way. To understand why Iowa now holds such a crucial role in the primary process, we need to go back to when the political parties had greater control over presidential nominations and not every state held a primary.
In 1968, Vice President Hubert Humphrey entered the Democratic primary after President Lyndon B. Johnson declined to run for re-election. Joining the race too late to effectively compete in any of the 14 state primaries, Humphrey focused on consolidating support from party leaders in non-primary states and favorite son candidates who ran to win delegates rather than the nomination.
Humphrey ultimately won the Democratic presidential nomination without participating in any primary elections. His victory contributed to already heightened tensions in the party, as anti-war protests and violent clashes between demonstrators and police broke out during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Humphrey lost the general election against Republican Richard Nixon. Afterwards, the Democratic Party sought to make its presidential primary process more transparent and democratic.
The McGovern-Fraser Commission was formed. It made several recommendations, including a scheduling requirement that said there must be at least 30 days notice before hosting a primary, caucus, or convention.
By chance, the Iowa State Convention was held earlier than usual in 1972 due to a hotel room shortage during the original dates for the event. Under new Democratic Party rules, the Iowa caucuses also had to be pushed up—ahead of any other state in January—to meet the notice requirement and organize the complex caucus system the state uses.
The Iowa caucus has been first ever since.
What is a caucus?
A caucus is a public meeting where attendees express their preference for a presidential candidate. More than 1,000 caucuses—one for each precinct—take place across Iowa in school gyms, churches, libraries, and other public spaces.
National convention delegates are allocated to candidates based on the results..
Each party operates its caucuses differently:
Democratic caucusgoers physically separate into different groups based on their presidential preferences. There’s even a space for uncommitted voters.
After the first round of voting, any candidate without a minimum of 15 percent support is considered unviable and receives no delegates. That candidate’s supporters re-caucus in the next round and back a different candidate. This process repeats until only viable candidates remain.
This is one of the reasons pollsters are so interested in the second-choice candidate of Iowa caucusgoers.
Republican caucusgoers use a secret ballot.
Representatives from each campaign are allowed to pitch to uncommitted voters before the caucusgoers vote. Some precincts use a printed ballot, while others use scraps of paper.
Local party officials count the votes and send them to the state party, which has the running state tally.
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Why has Iowa remained first?
Democratic and Republican Party leaders in Iowa realized holding the first presidential contest had its benefits, including bringing money, media, and political power to the state.
This was especially true after former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter unexpectedly won the Iowa caucuses in 1976, gaining momentum that propelled him to the Democratic nomination and the presidency.
Carter recognized that the new primary calendar and reduced power of party bosses had changed the presidential election process. His Iowa victory helped him rise above the 17-member Democratic field and cemented the state's importance in the presidential nomination process.
Since 1976, Democrats and Republicans in Iowa have held their caucuses on the same day and state legislators have fought to keep the state’s presidential pole position.
Iowa enacted a law in 1983 requiring its presidential caucuses to occur “at least eight days earlier than the scheduled date for any meeting, caucus, or primary which constitutes the first determining stage of the presidential nominating process in any other state, territory, or any other group which has the authority to select delegates in the presidential nomination.”
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What’s next?
The second installment of this Learning Journey will go into more details about New Hampshire. Join us to find out more.
Review
Check out the following Ballotpedia pages to dive deeper into today’s key concepts:
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