– Iowa delivers –
Iowa cemented its first-in-the-nation status quite by accident.
In 1972 the Democratic Party democratized its primary process. Iowa’s organizers, determining they needed months for their convoluted system to play out, leapfrogged ahead of New Hampshire, which had opened the nominating process for decades.
No one took much notice until the 1976 cycle, when an obscure southern governor, Jimmy Carter, barnstormed Iowa and won, catapulting him to the nomination and ultimately the White House.
Candidates from both parties have beaten a path to Iowa since, and a political adage congealed: “There are three tickets out of Iowa.” The top three advance, losers go home.
Narrowing the current field will be a tall order, especially on the 17-strong Republican side. “It is the most challenging job of winnowing they’ve ever faced,” said Iowa State University professor Steffen Schmidt.
There are three tickets out of Iowa. The top three advance, losers go home.
Iowa is an especially homogenous state in an increasingly diverse nation, and criticism has simmered that it gloms onto national trends – billionaire Donald Trump currently leads in Iowa polling – instead of engaging in sound presidential vetting.
Efforts to oust Iowa from its privileged perch come and go.
“The problem is, nobody is agreed on who will replace it,” said Peverill Squire of the University of Missouri.
The Iowa caucuses, he added, are “one of America’s great civic events.”
The Democratic National Committee agrees, with an official telling AFP it has “no intention to switch things up.”
New Hampshire votes close on Iowa’s heels. South Carolina and Nevada have moved their primaries forward to ensure a broader early spotlight.
But Schmidt has a message for states that want to supplant his state.
“Stop whining,” he chuckled. “If you want to be first, come up with a good reason.”
Schmidt pointed to Iowa’s record of teasing “grassroots honesty” from candidates, whittling down the field and often picking the eventual president, from Carter to George W. Bush to Barack Obama.
“Iowa,” he said, “has delivered.”
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