Iowa Democrats plan presidential caucuses in January

DES MOINES, Iowa (CN) — As they face losing their first place in line for the 2024 presidential primary cycle, based on the national party’s new calendar, Iowa Democrats may have a way to salvage their precinct party caucuses in January without running afoul of national Democratic leadership.

State party officials on Friday unveiled a plan to hold traditional Democratic precinct caucuses to conduct party business on Jan. 15 — the same day as Iowa Republicans — but without the presidential delegate selection process. That would be done separately, by mail-in ballot, with results announced on Super Tuesday in March.

Iowa Democrats’ plan still needs approval from the national party. And it will need the blessing of New Hampshire, which zealously guards its place as the first-in-the-nation presidential primary by vowing to move back its primary if any other state holds a primary (as opposed to a party caucus) earlier in the presidential election cycle.

It appeared Friday that both hurdles could be cleared.

“We believe this delegate selection plan is a compromise and meets the requirements set forth by this committee, complies with Iowa law, and most importantly sets Iowa Democrats up to win in 2024,” Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said in a letter to the national party’s committee on rules and bylaws.

On Friday, the committee found Iowa’s plan to be in “conditional compliance,” and New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan told the Des Moines Register he considers Iowa’s plan “a positive development in protecting the traditional positions of the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.”

“I’ll be reviewing this, and we’ll see how the DNC reacts to it, and then at the appropriate time I’ll set the date for the New Hampshire primary,” Scanlan told the Register. “But I think this certainly goes a long way to protecting the traditional positions of the early nominating events of the Iowa caucuses followed by the New Hampshire primary.”

Under the proposal, Iowa Democrats can begin registering next month for the mail-in presidential preference cards. Cards will be mailed out in January, and the results announced March 5, 2024.

Iowa Democrats had to change caucus dates after the national party knocked Iowa from its No. 1 spot.

The Democratic National Committee in February voted to shuffle the order of primary voting beginning with the 2024 presidential primary, removing Iowa from its nearly half-century first-in-the-nation position in the Democratic primary process.

Under the revised calendar, the presidential primary process would kick off in South Carolina, followed by Nevada and New Hampshire, then Georgia and Michigan.

Iowa’s Democratic caucuses got a black eye in 2020 when the results of that year’s precinct caucuses were delayed for weeks due in part to technical glitches, and in the meantime the primary campaigns had moved on to other states.

Moreover, the Democratic Party nationally may have soured on Iowa after the state experienced a Republican red wave when the governor, both houses of the legislature, all four members of Congress and all but one statewide office went to the GOP in the 2022 midterm election.

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