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Iowa Dems aim to reinstate caucus as 2028 contenders line up visits

Democrats in Iowa are looking to bring back the state’s status as the first-in-the-nation for the presidential primary cycle.

In 2024, the Democratic National Committee moved the first primary to South Carolina, typically the second primary state in the election cycle. Former President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign turned around in South Carolina after poor results in Iowa and New Hampshire, which typically holds the first official primary after the Iowa caucus. 

The Iowa Caucus has typically been the first competition and has propelled Democratic candidates’ visibility and campaigns in years past. Now, the state’s Democratic leaders are pushing for the Iowa Caucus to be first again, even if the DNC does not schedule it that way, according to an Axios report.

Democratic state Rep. J. D. Scholten told the outlet he is pushing for restoring Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status.

“The beauty of the Iowa caucus is it allows anybody with the right messaging and a good and strong team to win,” Scholten said. “As a party, we need to be expanding the map, and if you look at the Midwest states, we aren’t doing better in places like Iowa.”

Rep. Brian Meyer, the Democratic leader of the Iowa State Assembly, told a local PBS station that “we need to bring back the caucuses.”

“Iowa is the best place to sort out the wheat from the chaff and get us back to where we need to be as a party on the national level,” he said. “We on the national level are missing the Midwest common sense that Iowa has brought to those caucuses.”

Republicans are additionally set to hold their Iowa caucuses as the first race. Iowa Democrats said they do not want to give away too much attention to the Republican Party by not holding them first. 

Iowa, however, has slowly been losing its power with the DNC. Iowa lost its single seat on the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee, which oversees the presidential nominating calendar. New Hampshire and South Carolina gained a seat, and Nevada, which is also early on in the primary process, received a second seat.

And not all Iowa Democrats are necessarily looking to bring the first-in-the-nation status back.

“National Democrats are pulling away from Iowa,” Democratic state Sen. Tony Bisignano previously told the Washington Examiner. “Rightfully so, looking back at our turn to the far right as a politically voting state. Iowa peaked with [former President Barack] Obama, and it’s been a disaster ever since.”

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Still, some potential 2028 Democratic candidates have already visited or announced visits to the state in recent weeks, although no one has announced a run. 

Freshman Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) will visit the Iowa State Fair next month, among other stops there. In May, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg held a town hall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

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