Save the Date
Iowa’s Republican first-in-the-nation presidential precinct caucuses will be a little earlier than usual this time around…thanks to Joe Biden.
No, the GOP isn’t trying to start earlier because of how formidable Biden is…it’s because Biden was in cahoots with the Democratic National Committee to upend the nomination calendar, and it’s been a mess ever since…and not just because Biden punitively shuffled Iowa out of the early mix.
As has always been the case, there are dominoes that fall…one state moves earlier, which leads New Hampshire to move earlier, which leads Iowa to move earlier. That’s why the 2008 caucuses were on January 3…barely into the year of the election.
In Biden’s world, Iowa is out of the mix and New Hampshire is no longer the first primary. Problem with that is that primaries are elections run by each state…and New Hampshire has a state law mandating that its primary be at least seven days before anyone else’s. Caucuses are run by parties, but Iowa has laws requiring that we go the week before New Hampshire.
New Hampshire has made it clear that it’s going to follow its state law, and they’re targeting a primary falling as early as January 23. That’s why Iowa Republicans decided this past Saturday to hold their caucuses the night of January 15.
Some have noted that is a federal holiday, King Day. Not the first time that’s happened, though; the 2004 Democrat and Republican caucuses in Iowa were held on January 19, King Day that year. Howard Dean blamed his poorer-than-expected showing on colleges and universities having the day off, leading to lower turnout among his young voting base.
What Iowa Democrats do now is anyone’s guess, since in their contortions to please the national party, they ruined their 2020 caucus and seemingly don’t want to tell the national party to go jump in a lake and do things their own way, which has worked for more than a half century. The two parties have held their caucuses on the same night since 1976, but this lack of leadership on the Democrat side throws that into jeopardy.
So it’s January 15 for the Iowa GOP, provided New Hampshire doesn’t have to go earlier than January 23. And the national implications of that will be our topic tomorrow.
