Iowa Republicans announce 2024 convention schedule

The Republican Party of Iowa announced the dates for its 2024 county, district and state conventions Thursday, laying out the timeline between the January caucuses and the Republican National Convention.

The party’s county conventions will be held Feb. 17, district conventions will be held April 6 and the state convention will be held May 4. The Republican National Convention, where the national party will formally nominate its candidate for president, is set to begin July 15 in Milwaukee.

The Iowa GOP previously scheduled its presidential precinct caucuses for Jan. 15, which falls on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Iowa's Republican caucuses will be the first presidential nominating contest in the nation, kicking off the 2024 primary process. Republican presidential candidates have been campaigning heavily in Iowa to win the support of the state's Republican voters.

Delegates to county conventions will be elected at the caucuses based on the proportion of votes for each presidential candidate. Throughout the convention process, the party will select delegates to the national convention who will cast their votes based on the results of the caucuses.

"The Republican Party of Iowa remains steadfastly committed to preserving our half-century-old first-in-the-nation caucus and building on our traditions of grassroots democracy in action across all 99 counties,” Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann said in a statement. "We are excited for the Republican presidential primary process to play out, and look forward to rallying behind our eventual nominee to put an end to the nightmare that is the Biden presidency come November 2024."

According to its proposed delegate selection plan, the Iowa Democratic Party's county conventions will be held March 23, the district conventions will be held May 4, and the state convention will be held June 15. The Democratic National Convention will begin Aug. 19 in Chicago.

Iowa Democrats have not yet settled on holding their caucuses on the same date as Republicans.

Legislative Republicans passed a law in May aimed at preventing Democrats’ plan to hold a mail-in presidential selection process. Republicans argued the process would be too similar to a primary and risk Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status.

Then in June, the Democratic National Committee found the state party’s delegate selection plan non-compliant because it did not include the dates the party would hold its caucus or end its mail-in presidential preference window.

“I'm not going to commit today,” Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said about the caucus date on Iowa PBS’ “Iowa Press” in August. “I think that is a consensus kind of decision. But, we're certainly having those conversations and hoping that — we've said from the very beginning that we would have the caucuses on the same day as the Republicans. I certainly would like to see that we are able to do that."