Iowa Democrats to pitch new-look caucuses in bid to go first once more

Iowa Democrats will travel to Washington, D.C., this week to pitch a streamlined caucus plan they hope will convince national party leaders that Iowa deserves another shot to be at the front of the presidential nominating calendar. 

The state is among a dozen that will make in-person appeals to members of the Democratic National Committee’s powerful Rules and Bylaws Committee across three days beginning Wednesday, May 27.  

That committee is tasked with setting the calendar for the 2028 presidential primary — a move that will determine where a wide-open field of expected candidates will dedicate their time, attention and resources in the years ahead.  

Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart has argued repeatedly that the committee should reconsider Iowa as Democrats work to regain ground with rural, working-class voters who have fled the party in droves.  

“In order to do that, we’ve got to have a state like Iowa where any Democratic presidential candidate can compete, where it’s affordable and where the candidates can look forward to getting up close and personal and really understanding the issues that will bring us back to an understanding of working class voters,” Hart told the Des Moines Register.  

The committee plans to choose one state from each of four geographic regions, as well as a potential fifth state.

Members said the final calendar should include a grouping of states that represent the wider electorate. 

The applicants are:   

• East: Delaware and New Hampshire
• Midwest: Illinois, Iowa and Michigan
• South: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia
• West: Nevada and New Mexico

Each of the prospective states made written applications, which the committee reviewed at a January meeting.  

Here’s what Iowa Democrats want their 2028 presidential caucuses to look like 

Late last year, the Iowa Democratic Party released the results of a survey it conducted to gather feedback from rank-and-file Democrats about the future of the presidential nominating caucuses.  

Hart said it was clear through that survey that Iowa Democrats want the caucuses to be more accessible.  

She said Iowa Democrats are proposing opening an absentee window to allow Democrats to indicate their presidential preferences by mail ahead of an in-person caucus. 

“We can no longer hold a caucus on one cold night in January and think that that’s representative of our Democratic Party,” Hart said. “That’s a priority for us that we have more accessibility, and the obvious way to do that is through a mail-in process.” 

Hart said that absentee process will be completed before Caucus Day to allow for an in-person component, which is also important to Iowa Democrats.  

But gone will be the caucus format of years past when Democrats had to physically stand to show their support for a candidate and be counted.  

The complicated math and “state delegate equivalents” also are out.  

Instead, Democrats will express their preferences for their favorite candidate in writing. 

“I think from our party faithful, from our volunteers who were tasked with making that math work, I think that was a lot of pressure on people and just was a headache,” Hart said. “They want a simpler process.”  

She said she believes the new proposed process retains “the character and the flavor of the in-person caucus” but ditches the things that overcomplicated the system.  

The tabulation of results should be simpler, and the party plans to hire a vendor to ensure it can release the full set of results on Caucus Night, she said.  

In the past, any hint of paper ballots has triggered a fight with New Hampshire, which has long argued that it holds the nation’s first primary after Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses. If Iowa’s caucuses starts to look too much like a primary, New Hampshire has pushed back.  

“My major concern is not with New Hampshire,” Hart said. “New Hampshire’s got to do what New Hampshire’s got to do. We’re going to do what’s best for Iowa.” 

At the presentation in Washington, D.C., representatives for Iowa will make the case to the committee that in addition to winning back rural voters, national Democrats need to be able to counter the message Republicans will be spreading in Iowa as they host their first-in-the-nation caucuses in 2028.  

Republicans spent $120 million in ads while competing in Iowa’s 2024 Republican caucuses, they’ll say, far exceeding what was spent in other early states.

Iowa representatives contend that unanswered messaging overwhelmed Democrats in Iowa and nationally at a key moment in the campaign cycle. 

They will also argue that Iowa Democrats are on track to regain ground in the 2026 midterm elections with key battleground seats in the U.S. House, U.S. Senate and the governor’s race.  

How did Iowa Democrats get here? 

The DNC stripped Iowa of its first-in-the-nation caucus spot and reordered the nominating calendar in 2022 following a disastrous 2020 presidential caucus in which Iowa’s results were riddled with delays and errors. 

Then-President Joe Biden recommended that South Carolina replace Iowa at the front of the line in 2024, with New Hampshire, Nevada, Georgia and Michigan to follow. 

In 2024, rather than holding their traditional in-person first-in-the-nation caucuses, Iowa Democrats held a fully absentee mail-in event with the results announced on Super Tuesday in March.

Democrats met in person only to conduct party business the same day Iowa Republicans held their caucuses. 

The DNC reopened the calendar process in 2025, with committee leaders saying they would prioritize states that can create a “rigorous, efficient and fair” nominating contest.  

Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register. She writes about campaigns, elections and the Iowa Caucuses. Reach her at bpfann@dmreg.com or 515-284-8244. Follow her on X at @brianneDMR.