Iowa Democrats pledge to ‘reform’ caucuses in effort to remain first

DES MOINES — Iowa Democrats are pledging to reform their famous presidential precinct caucuses in an attempt to keep their first-in-the-nation status — or close to it.

The state party Wednesday announced plans to make the every-four-years caucuses for winnowing the Democratic presidential hopefuls more accessible and simpler, but offered no details.

National Democratic Party leaders are in the process of reorganizing Democrats’ presidential nominating schedule for the 2024 elections. No longer is Iowa Democrats’ prized first-in-the-nation status a given, as all states are being allowed to apply for consideration as one of the early voting states.

The Iowa Republican caucuses, however, are likely to remain first in the nation regardless.

Iowa Democrats sent a letter to national leaders making the case for why Iowa should remain first, or at least among the first few states to cast its choices for president. In that letter, state leaders pledged to make changes to the caucuses in hopes of addressing issues that national party leaders have raised: primarily, that caucuses can be difficult for some people to attend and participate.

“We recognize that changes must be made in order to make the caucuses more straightforward and accessible,” Scott Brennan, the Iowa Democratic Party’s representative on the national rules and bylaws committee that is exploring the changes, said during a news conference Wednesday. “And we indicate in the letter that we are willing to make significant procedural changes, as well as expand ways to participate.”

Neither Brennan nor state party Chair Ross Wilburn offered specific changes that Iowa Democrats will propose. They said the letter sent Wednesday is just the first step in “a robust application process” to remain an early-voting state.

In June, the state party will submit to the national rules and bylaws committee its formal application for consideration as an early-voting state. At some point in late June, the state party will have an opportunity to make its case to national leaders, Brennan said.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do ahead of us in the next few weeks, but I'm going to fight like hell for Iowa,” Wilburn said. “And I’m going to look forward to making our case before the rules and bylaws committee.”

Caucuses are different from primary elections because participants are required to physically attend caucuses at a prescribed time and location, and the events often can last for hours. This has raised concerns that the caucus process can exclude people who are unable to commit to physical attendance.

Critics also contend Iowa’s electorate — the state is 91 percent white, according to census figures — is not representative of the Democratic Party nationally.

In the letter to national party leaders, Iowa Democrats say the state’s caucuses are worthy of a first-in-the-nation status because they require presidential candidates to engage in grassroots campaigning, and that candidates do not need to raise hefty amounts of money to advertise in Iowa’s media markets.

The letter also argues that Iowa and the other current early-voting states — New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada — collectively are representative of national Democratic voters.

Wilburn said the state party plans to engage Iowa stakeholders to “explore substantive changes to the caucuses” that would make them simpler and more accessible.

“It’s important to us to continue to evolve Iowa’s caucuses so that as many people as possible can participate in this proud tradition,” Wilburn said.

Pressure from national political leaders of both major parties to remove Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status has been around for years.

But that pressure increased exponentially after the 2020 Democratic caucuses, when a new results reporting program designed by a private company failed, leaving the state party without official and complete results for weeks — long after the candidates had left for last-minute campaigning for New Hampshire’s primary election.

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