The leaders of both of Iowa’s major parties are criticizing today’s decision that would see Democratic voters in South Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan and Virginia vote first in the 2028 presidential election.
Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said the decision is “a slap in the face of Midwesterners…We absolutely cannot be the party of coastal elites.”
Former Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Scott Brennan, who joined Hart in an online news conference this afternoon, said winning the presidency requires competing in all regions of the country. “You have to win X number of Electoral votes, that involves winning a whole bunch of states and when you ignore a huge swath of the country, you ignore a whole bunch of states,” Brennan said. “I was a history major, not a math major, but even I can figure that out. Presumably the D.C. folks will someday.”
Hart told reporters Iowa Democrats are focused on this year’s election and they’ll decide after November 3 whether to ignore national party rules and hold their 2028 Caucuses first. “As we saw this decision being made today, it was very messy,” Hart said, “and I’m not convinced this calendar is going to stand.”
Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said “it’s irritating” to see national Democrats “disrespect Iowa,” he said it also shows that Iowa Democrats are considered “irrelevant” nationally. “I no longer have to be creative in my talking points,” Kaufmann said during his own online news conference this afternoon. “The Democrats just proved it all.”
Kaufmann told reporters, though, that the Iowa GOP would work with Iowa Democrats, as they have in the past, if they want to “go rogue” and join Republicans in kicking off the voting in the 2028 presidential campaign.
Kaufmann suggested Iowa Democrats are in this predicament for a number of reasons, partly because they stuck to arcane rules for their Caucuses that required “calculus” to figure out who won. “This is an abrogation of duty on the part of the Iowa Democratic Party,” Kaufmann said. “This thing started at the last Caucuses when they didn’t stand up for themselves.”
Presidential candidates of the past and, perhaps, the future are still making trips to the state. Ted Cruz, who won the 2016 Iowa Republican Party’s Caucuses, is campaigning for Iowa candidates this weekend and Pete Buttigieg, who won the 2020 Iowa Democratic Party’s Caucuses, was here last weekend.