National Democrats strip Iowa caucuses of first-in-the nation status

The national Democratic Party approved changes Saturday to its presidential primary calendar for 2024, knocking the Iowa party off its envied first-in-the-nation perch as the starting gun for the presidential election.

Iowa’s caucuses have led the pack in presidential preference contests since 1972, drawing national media attention and millions of dollars in campaigning from presidential hopefuls.

Democratic National Committee members, meeting in Philadelphia, by a voice vote granted waivers to South Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Georgia and Michigan to hold their presidential primaries ahead of the rest of the country — stripping Iowa Democrats of their first-in-the-nation status and moving the contest out of the early window entirely in favor of more diverse battleground states.

South Carolina will go first in 2024, holding its primary on Feb. 3, followed by New Hampshire and Nevada on Feb. 6, Georgia on Feb. 13 and Michigan on Feb. 27.

"This calendar does what is long overdue. It expands the number of voices in the window and it elevates diverse communities that are at the core of the Democratic Party,“ said DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, who is from South Carolina. ”It puts Black voters at the front of the process in South Carolina."

Harrison, too, said the calendar allows "campaigns of all sizes to compete and build more momentum" before moving to bigger battleground states in Georgia and Michigan, and "elevates the backbone of our party" and voices of labor and Latino voters.

“And it adds Michigan, the heartland where unions built the middle class of this nation,” Harrison said. “This calendar reflects the best of who we are as a nation and sends a powerful message all across the county."

Iowa DNC member and former state party chair Scott Brennan of West Des Moines, however, noted New Hampshire and Georgia cannot comply with the condition of the party waiver.

“I would be remiss if I did not say we were creating a situation of continued uncertainty that will drag on throughout 2023,” he said.

New Hampshire and Georgia were granted conditional waivers. The national party’s rule-making arm last month granted both states an extension until June 3 to implement changes to when and how they hold Democratic presidential primaries. New Hampshire must also expand access to early voting.

The additional time, though, is unlikely to sway Republican leaders in those states, who remain opposed to the changes.

DNC member Joanne Dowdell of New Hampshire said the primary calendar puts that state’s Democrats in a “no-win position.”

Georgia’s primary date is set by Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whose office has said it will neither hold two separate primaries nor hold the primary at a time that could cost one party delegates or violate the rules of either party. Moving the state’s primary to Feb. 13 would run afoul of GOP rules.

"We can vote on this calendar … but we will leave here with absolutely nothing settled,“ Brennan said. "There is a limited amount of calendar real estate, conflicting state laws and a GOP calendar that no longer bears any resemblance to ours. If the past is prologue," states will spend the coming year maneuvering for their preferred position.

Republicans already have agreed to keep the early-voting order of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada for the 2024 presidential cycle — and several Republicans already have been to Iowa to weigh the possibility of presidential runs.

Iowa and New Hampshire have state laws requiring them to hold contests before other states. Party officials in both states have rebuked the decision, saying they still intend to hold caucuses and primaries as prescribed by state law.

If the states opt to hold their nominating contests outside that window without the waiver, they could face repercussions from the national party, including a prohibition on Democratic presidential candidates campaigning in the state and the state losing half its delegates at the convention.

“Iowa does not have the luxury of conducting a state-run primary, nor are Iowa Republicans likely to support legislation that would establish one,” newly-elected Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said in a statement following the vote.

Iowa law requires the state party to hold precinct caucuses before the last Tuesday in February, and before any other contest in other states.

“When we submit our delegate selection plan to the Rules and Bylaws Committee, we will continue to do what is best for Iowa, adhere to any state legal requirements and utilize the vote-by-mail process outlined in our application for an early-state waiver,” Hart said.

National Democrats soured on Iowa following a chaotic 2020 caucus night for Iowa Democrats when a smartphone app — meant to make reporting results easier — failed. As a result, the official Democratic caucus results were not reported for several weeks.

The debacle compounded existing concerns about Iowa's lack of racial diversity and barriers to participation, requiring in-person participation at the caucuses.

Democratic President Joe Biden, who in 2020 didn’t win a contest until South Carolina, requested the shift in the party’s presidential nomination process to amplify diverse voices earlier in the presidential selection process.

Biden, in a letter last month to DNC rules committee members, also said the party should scrap “restrictive” caucuses — as opposed to state-run primaries — because their rules on in-person participation can sometimes exclude working-class and other voters.

Biden in his presidential campaigns has never done well in the Iowa caucuses — coming in fourth in 2020.

In its bid to remain in the early nominating window, the Iowa Democratic Party proposed an overhaul of the caucuses that would allow Democrats to express their preference for president by mail ahead of the precinct caucuses.

On the night of the caucuses, Democrats would announce the results of the early vote and conduct the regular party-organizing business of the caucuses.

State party officials argued the changes would increase participation and accessibility, making the process more inclusive, “straightforward” and “understandable.”

"Our proposed reforms went above and beyond anything suggested by previous reform commissions. We unfortunately were given no credit for our commitment to ending the caucuses as they have been conducted for the past 50 years,“ said Iowa DNC member Jan Bauer from Ames.

Hart, addressing DNC members, said it is “vital that small, rural states like Iowa do not lose our voice in the presidential nominating process.” The new calendar includes no early states in the central and mountain time zones.

“Democrats cannot forget about entire groups of voters in the heart of the Midwest without doing significant damage to the party,” Hart said. "Let me tell you, Republicans in Iowa have already seized the opportunity to double down on their caucuses and on their commitment to Iowa as an early state. At the same time, they feed the narrative that Democrats have turned their backs on Iowa and on rural America. In the coming weeks, our state will be flooded with Republican hopefuls spreading this damaging message to every corner of our state.”

Hart said she nonetheless “vigorously supports” Biden and the principles that guide the calendar review process.

“But I cannot support a proposal that further erodes Democratic Party support in my state and the entire middle part of the country,” she said. “Iowans value common sense, and it just doesn’t make sense to entirely remove representation from rural, Midwestern states in the pre-window.”

Iowa’s Republican U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst echoed those concerns.

“Joe Biden and the Democrats have officially ditched #Iowa,” Ernst tweeted. “They’re giving middle America the middle finger.”

Grassley tweeted the DNC “pulled rug out (from) Iowa Democrats by revoking first in the nation status.”

“The Iowa caucuses were a decades long tradition of BIPARTISANSHIP it’s sad Dems don’t value the voice of rural America,” Grassley posted. “Fortunately republicans will continue 2carry 1st in the nation mantle.”

Brennan, speaking to The Gazette by phone after the vote, said Iowa Democrats “will put our head down and keep working,” noting the DNC will likely revisit the issue June 3, the deadline for New Hampshire and Georgia to comply with the requirements.

“By June 3 we’re going to see a calendar that is still a mess,” he said.

Brennan said the revamped nominating lineup could largely be moot for 2024 if Biden runs effectively unopposed for the Democratic nomination. But it may lay the groundwork to remake Democratic presidential cycles after that. The DNC plans to revisit the nominating calendar before 2028.

Iowa Democrats have expressed concern the loss of the first-in-the-nation caucuses will make it more difficult to raise money, as national donors direct their focus to other states, and will be a blow to Iowa Democrats’ organizing capacity in future presidential election years, especially with Republicans retaining their first-in-the-nation status.

Others say they’re more concerned with rebuilding the state party and hope it refocuses on year-round grassroots organizing after years of election losses.

“The Iowa Democratic Party is way more than just the Iowa caucuses,” Brennan said. “The Iowa Democratic Party exists to elect Democrats up and down the ticket, and on that Chair Hart is laser focused on … getting Democrats elected.”

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