Are the Iowa caucuses coming back to the early Democratic presidential nomination process?
After 2024, Democrats in the Hawkeye state were always going to make a push, but a return to the early window on the calendar is complicated.
Iowa and its Democratic caucuses are back in the news. Alex Thompson at Axios has the latest on the long-telegraphed push those in and around the Democratic Party in the Hawkeye state have been making to return the presidential caucuses to the top of the primary calendar for 2028 after being benched by the national party for 2024.
The long and short of it?
Many in Iowa Democratic circles want to see the early calendar revert to its pre-2024 form, at least the part with Iowa at the front of the queue. In addition, a subset of that group wants to go first regardless of whether the Democratic National Committee (DNC) greenlights such a return.
None of that is exactly news. Iowa Democrats have been signaling that intent since at least 2022 when it became increasingly clear over the course of the year that the state and its caucuses were going to be on the outside looking in when it came to the decisions concerning the early window of the 2024 Democratic presidential primary calendar. But after a 2024 on the sidelines of the early Democratic presidential nomination process, the desire to shift back to the front has not dissipated in Iowa. That is not unimportant.
However, the process to determine the early primary calendar lineup for 2028 remains in its very formative stages. There is not even a full DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) for the cycle yet. Moreover, the bulk of the panel’s deliberations, much less its decisions on the 2028 calendar rules, will not happen until 2026. And notably on the national party side of the equation, the intent seems to be that the RBC will continue for the 2028 cycle with the protocol adopted for 2024. Which is to say that the committee will hear pitches from state parties on why their respective states should be included in the early window rather than just automatically grandfathering in the early states from the previous cycle.
In other words, Iowa Democrats will still have an opportunity to pitch the national party on the virtues of the caucuses being first (or merely early) again. Talk, then, of Iowa Democrats going rogue in the event that the adopted 2028 delegate selection rules block the Iowa caucuses again is a bit premature.
Looking down the road a bit, however, the path back for Iowa is not so black and white as (1) get the first spot back (or not) or (2) go rogue in the event that the caucuses are not granted the first slot (or not). As always with these things, the path ahead is complicated for Iowa Democrats.
How complicated? Let’s hash it out some.