Former U.S. Senator Tom Harkin says the Iowa Democratic Party’s Caucuses should be the first event of the 2028 presidential campaign.
Iowa lost the lead-off spot in 2024 and, on Friday, party leaders picked South Carolina’s Primary to go first in 2028. “Iowa needs to go first again because we’re a fair state,” Harkin said. “Anybody can make it here.”
Harkin, who ran for president in 1992, says he learned while campaigning in South Carolina that it was a state where an endorsement from a prominent politician largely determines the outcome. “In South Carolina, if Jim Clyburn is for you, you win. If he’s not, you don’t,” Harkin said. “In Iowa, we don’t do that. Everyone has a fair shot here in Iowa and that’s why we’re going to be number one again.”
Harkin, for example, endorsed Howard Dean before the 2004 Iowa Caucuses and Dean finished third.
Josh Turek, the Democrat running for the U-S Senate, said Iowa law requires both major parties to hold their Caucuses ahead of any other presidential contest. “You’ve heard folks like President Obama say…that the moment (during the campaign) that was the most important to him was the Iowa Caucuses,” Turek said. It’s a beautiful, unique process.”
Rob Sand, the Democrat running for governor, told KCCI Iowa Democrats should follow the law that requires the party to cast the first votes in presidential election years, but there could be adjustments in the traditional Caucus process. Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Rita Hart has indicated state party leaders will wait until after the November election to decide how and when their 2028 Caucuses will be conducted.