(Alex Tien, Headline USA) Iowa’s proud status as “first in the nation” in presidential nominating contests may be in jeopardy, at least for the Democratic Party’s primary.
On Wednesday, a panel of Democratic National Committee members voted to remove the Hawkeye State’s status—thus eliminating the guarantee that the state will be first in the nomination schedule, the Daily Caller reported.
It also took away similar guarantees for early-voting states New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
This doesn’t mean that Iowa will automatically lose that status, however, as Iowa DNC Chair Ross Wilburn has stated that Iowa will be “absolutely” apply to maintain it’s position as first.
“We will look forward to enthusiastically making our case,” said Wilburn.
Since 1972, the Iowa Caucus has been the first challenge for candidates vying for their party’s nomination for the presidential election.
Historically, Iowa caucuses have been rather decent at predicting which nominee will win their party’s vote, with 55% success rate at predicting which Democrat, and a 43% success rate at predicting which Republican, will go on to win the nomination at their party’s national convention.
Recently, however, Democratic leaders have been making noise about how Iowa is not fit to be the first state to hold their caucus.
“I will say it right now, caucus states are going to be a hard sell for me,” Mo Elleithee, a committee member, said Wednesday. “I will say it right now, states that don’t offer some form of diversity are going to be a hard sell for me.”
The gripes follow a nearly catastrophic episode during the 2020 Iowa caucus, as the app used to record votes crashed, resulting in a lengthy tabulation process. Caucuses tend to be more loosely organized because they follow a meeting format, rather than allowing voters to choose when they wish to vote.
Even before the fiasco, however, some had leveled baseless accusations that the early races elevated candidates like Bernie Sanders, who appealed largely to white audiences, while suppressing those more representative of minority communities like then Sen. Kamala Harris, who was quickly forced out of the primary race.
“The Iowa caucus is essentially the perfect example of systemic racism,” complained MSNBC Zerlina Maxwell at the time, adding that “91% of the voters in Iowa are white.”
Future President Joe Biden also performed notably poorly in the early voting contests, until a grand bargain with black House Majority Whip James Clyburn prior the the South Carolina primary helped him carry momentum into the Super Tuesday contests.
Despite the fact that Biden’s administration has been hijacked by the extreme Left and coerced into radical policy failures, party leaders seem determined to double down.
“The status quo is not an option,” committee member Lee Saunders said at a March meeting. “That status quo is unacceptable.”
The Republican party has not indicated any plans to change Iowa’s status in the RNC voting calendar.
