The Republican National Committee is keeping the Iowa Republican Party’s Caucuses in the lead-off position for the GOP’s 2028 presidential campaign.
Iowa Republican Party Chairman Jeff Kaufmann spoke to the party’s national leaders before the decision was made late last week. “There was no push back at all on anything that had to do with Iowa being first,” Kaufmann told Radio Iowa, “so it is official now.”
The Caucuses are a party-run event and Kaufmann indicated that means the work to set up the 2028 Iowa Republican Party Caucuses will begin as soon as this November’s election is over. “We have to raise every single dime and not only do that carry off a world-class, transparent election,” Kaufmann said. “And not only that, but fight off all kind of attacks to hack our system that night.”
Kaufmann led the group that recommended the Republican Party’s 2028 presidential campaign calendar starts with the Iowa Caucuses, followed by New Hampshire’s Primary, Caucuses in Nevada and South Carolina’s Primary. Any state that tries to jump ahead of those states will be sactioned and have fewer delegates at the 2028 Republican National Convention. Kaufmann said if party leaders hadn’t put Iowa in the opening spot, he would be planning to host the Iowa Caucuses first anyway even if it meant the loss of convention delegates. “Really, to be honest with you, I could care less because Iowa is going to remain first. That’s my job,” Kaufmann said. “I’m hoping that’s what the Democrats will do and tell their national committee: ‘We’re going to go first.'”
The Iowa Democratic Party’s Caucuses lost the first-in-the-nation position in 2024 and the Democratic National Committee recently picked six other states to start the Democratic Party’s 2028 presidential campaign.