Primaries: Why Democrats are dumping Iowa

If President Biden and the Democratic National Committee “have their way, a political calendar half a century old will be a thing of the past,” said Jeff Greenfield in Politico. Iowa and New Hampshire will lose their coveted status as the first two contests in the Democratic presidential nominating cycle, after DNC officials last week backed Biden’s proposal to start with South Carolina—the state whose sizeable Black population rescued his candidacy in 2020. Biden’s plan calls for Nevada and New Hampshire to come next, on the same day—diluting the Granite State’s influence—and then on to big swing states Georgia and Michigan. The rationale for this big reshuffling is simple: Despite the long tradition of candidates campaigning at Iowa state fairs and New Hampshire diners, “a party this diverse cannot give such massive over-attention to two nearly all-white states.” Iowa also has a convoluted caucus process, said Laura Belin in CNN .com, and in 2020, there were “massive problems” computing which Democrat won. Why continue to put up with that nonsense?

The demotion of Iowa highlights Democrats’ growing “disregard for the heartland,” said Dave Seminara in The Wall Street Journal. Like many states with a large base of white working-class voters, Iowa has swung to the right since 2016. “In a woke era, no politician will admit to courting white voters,” but they remain 73 percent of the national electorate. Democrats write them off at their own peril. Biden’s reasons for favoring South Carolina are obvious, said W. James Antle III in the Washington Examiner. In 2020, he finished a humiliating fourth in the Iowa caucus and fifth in New Hampshire, then won big in South Carolina “and never looked back.” By changing the primary order, Biden is signaling he plans to run again in 2024.

Starting off with diverse states has another benefit for Biden, said Walter Shapiro in The New Republic. It’s the “anti-Bernie plan.” Black voters in the South are mostly moderate and pragmatic, preferring candidates who can win the general election. They generally don’t swoon for left-wing maverick candidates like Sen. Bernie Sanders and the late Sen. Eugene McCarthy, who have thrilled white progressives in New Hampshire and Iowa. The new primary calendar stamps the Democrats as “a center-left party” for years to come, and proves, “once again, the president’s political instincts have been underestimated.”