Trump? Stay tuned
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themercury.com.au where more than half America will have voted.
The winners of the early states gain traction, and funding, to keep them in competition and Iowa has picked the past five eventual Democratic presidential candidates.
Voters need to be registered with the party in whose primary they are engaging in, and depending on which state it is, they need to do this in advance, or as in Iowa, can do it on polling day.
Iowa’s place at the forefront of the primaries is considered controversial, given it’s 85 per cent white, but of
SUBSCRIPTIONS 1300 696 397 under America’s labyrinthine election laws, this “won’t change anytime soon”, according to political science professor Bill Myer from Northeastern University.
“In lots of ways, it’s not fair. It gives a disproportionate voice to people in non-representative states,” Professor Myer tells News Corp Australia.
Prof Myer has written several books about America’s primary system, and identified a number of issues with the process.
“It takes a long time. If you want to run for president you really have to commit about two years to the process which seems a little ridiculous in some ways,” he says.
“It requires an awful lot of money, the system works so that often times candidates become major contenders even though the people didn’t know much about them until quite recently, and therefore doesn’t really know a heck of a lot about them.
“One thing one can say about the current process is it’s very participatory.”
In 2016, 30 million Democrats voted in the Democratic presidential primary and 31 million Republicans voted in the Republican presidential primaries.
There are lots of Americans who are very committed.
“They would not look favourably on anything that would decrease participation or would restrict their ability to choose their party’s presidential nominee.”
And this close to voting, where Iowans have already spent the past year in campaign mode, there is a palpable sense of excitement that it will be over soon.
“The majority of Iowans are ready for this to be done and for them [the candidates] to all leave and go to New Hampshire and forget about us until nearer November,” says prominent Des Moines radio commentator Simon Conway.
In a student union hall at Iowa State University earlier this month, retired physicist Brian Seymour was waiting for his sixth candidate appearance in former mayor Pete Buttigieg.
“I like to check them all out before I vote,” the lifelong Democratic voter says, echoing the sentiments of several Des Moines residents.
“I’m liking the looks of Biden at this stage, but I find Mayor Pete very interesting.”
Like other voters that night, he didn’t consider the fact that the married Mr Buttigieg would be the first openly gay presidential nominee an issue, but there are concerns more conservative states would not hold the same sentiment if he pushes past the fourth spot he has reliably occupied in polling.
A navy veteran, Mr Buttigieg is the youngest candidate and threatening to split the moderate vote with Mr Biden, who is still holding in front nationally and second in early states despite having spent the final week before Iowa being targeted by Mr Trump’s lawyers at the impeachment trial.
At third place, far Left candidate Elizabeth Warren has plunged in polling, apparently at the expense of Mr Sanders’ rise, and is followed by Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar, who has a strong record of winning against sitting Republicans.
Other candidates include tech titan Andrew Yang, whose unconventional manner, promise of a universal income and focus on the labour impacts of growing automation has garnered a loyal and growing supporter base.
Mr Conway, a veteran conservative commentator, warned there was plenty of opportunity for upsets come Monday night.
“Typically they say there are three to four tickets out of Iowa, so you can certainly expect the Democrat field to thin further,” he said.
“Some [candidates] may wait for New Hampshire before they drop out.
“I think the surprise package could well be Andrew Yang.
“That is purely my gut instinct, not based on anything other than we usually get a surprise.”