In , when Hillary Clinton beat Bernie Sanders by a fraction of a percent in the vote tally the closest margin in Iowa caucus history , it set the stage for a hotly contested Democratic primary. Given the crowded and contentious Democratic field, Iowa and New Hampshire can and will offer up the first significant tests of whose candidacy has appeal to voters.
Several other alternatives have also been posed over the years, including a rotating regional primary system , a national primary , and Ohio and California aka American plans with their own systems. Despite the power of Iowa and New Hampshire, many look to the other early voting states of South Carolina and Nevada for more representative results. In comparison to Iowa and New Hampshire and the national average, South Carolina and Nevada have greater racial diversity and lower percentages of white citizens: In South Carolina, where the Democratic electorate is largely black , the voters can learn which candidates engage the African American base, on which the Democratic Party relies.
For both Obama in and Clinton in , South Carolina victories helped propel their campaigns. In , Nevada became an early state for the first time. Nevada, too, is diverse, with a strong Latinx demographic and a higher percentage of African Americans in its population than Iowa or New Hampshire. Any candidate who can establish a statewide presence will be able to become our nominee. By the end of the primary season, voters across the U.
But voters in Iowa and New Hampshire will still be the first to do so. Caucuses are usually held in a public place, like a high school gymnasium. Voters that show up actually physically stand in an area designated for their chosen candidate. So, you definitely know which candidate your neighbor supports.
During a caucus there is open discussion about the candidates. Supporters openly advocate for their chosen candidate and try to convince undecided voters to join them. Another difference is that state governments run primaries, while caucuses are run by party organizations, like the Democratic or Republican parties.
What both methods have in common is that when finished the candidates collect needed delegates toward winning the nomination. For instance, to secure the Democratic Party nomination, candidates must collect 1, of 3, available delegates. Professor Mazo, who is the author of a new book, The Best Candidate: Presidential Nomination in Polarized Times, points out that in a primary a candidate only needs a plurality of the votes, not a majority.
He also notes that caucuses are more expensive to run because they include several stages. Why does Iowa go first? The state holds precinct caucuses, county conventions and district conventions in the month leading up to the caucus. Beginning in , it was tradition that New Hampshire held the first presidential primary. The law gave New Hampshire officials the power to change the date of its primary if another state elected to hold a primary prior to the date selected by New Hampshire. According to Professor Mazo, the country has Teddy Roosevelt to thank for the modern presidential primary.
He explains that in the former president attempted to make a third presidential run this was before the 22 nd Amendment made that impossible because he was mad at President William Taft, who succeeded former President Roosevelt to the presidency. Being the current president at that time, President Taft controlled the Republican Party, but Roosevelt wanted to show he was more popular, according to Professor Mazo. The only avenue open to him was to win presidential primaries.
In , there were only six primaries scheduled. Roosevelt was able to persuade another seven states to hold primaries, bringing the total to Kathie Obradovich, the Register's opinion editor, speaking for a video about Iowa's caucus history , says that "the old story is that they figured out how long it would take to print all the paperwork on their elderly mimeograph machine.
The question remained: Who cared? In , Gary Hart cared. Obradovich recounts the story: "In the presidential race, Sen. Hart noticed that Iowa was going to be first in the nation and decided to make a bid here as a way to get McGovern a media boost before the New Hampshire primary. It worked. In , Jimmy Carter replicated McGovern's success. The media paid attention paid to his performance in Iowa and it illustrated the caucuses as an important metric of a candidate's strength.
Carter went on to become president. Prompted by Carter's re-election loss in , the national Democratic Party theorized that the drawn-out nomination process was more of a hindrance than a help to their party's nominee.
They rolled out new rules that would restrict how early any state's nomination processes could be held, but still allowed Iowa to caucus first. At that point, it seemed like everyone was happy. Then, Vermont moved up the date of its straw poll. In response, New Hampshire made its primary earlier. In defiance of the national party, Iowa chose to move the caucuses earlier than its nationally assigned date to maintain the buffer between the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
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