The author Bill Bryson started one of his books with these beautiful sentences: “I’m from Des Moines. Somebody has to be from this town.” In the English original it sounds a bit more laconic: “I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.” Des Moines is in the state of Iowa, and Bryson is very good at explaining in great detail why there really is no reason to ever travel to Iowa.
The fact that the state nevertheless attracted the attention of the entire country every four years was because both Democrats and Republicans traditionally began selecting their presidential candidates there. The Democrats have now announced that they will end this tradition. Iowa will therefore receive even less attention in the future. After all, an album by Bruce Springsteen is named after the neighboring, similarly monotonous Nebraska. But Iowa?
Every four years, politicians flock to the state in droves because since 1972 both parties have started the long election campaign in Iowa. In most states, party members simply vote in so-called primaries on who should stand for them in the elections. In Iowa, on the other hand, there is a caucus, a kind of neighborly gathering where there is extensive discussion. The party people always emphasize that this form is particularly suitable for selecting candidates because it forces the politicians to deal directly with the citizens. Iowa, so the argument of the people there, is particularly suitable as a state in the Midwest because it represents rural America.
The image as a swing state is outdated
The Democrats have long been concerned with the question of how representative the state actually is. Iowa is predominantly white, which doesn’t reflect the diversity of Democratic voters. For a long time it was also a swing state in which one party won and the other won. Meanwhile, Iowa votes unequivocally Republican.
The Democrats have therefore decided to start their nominations in other states. The path to the White House in South Carolina is scheduled to begin in 2024. There will then be elections in Nevada and New Hampshire, followed by Georgia and Michigan. This will change democratic election campaigns significantly, both in terms of content and folklore.
When potential candidates descended on Iowa in the winter before the election, a visit to the agricultural fair was a must. There it was sometimes part of the program to be photographed with a life-size sculpture of a cow made entirely of butter. Eating a “Corn Dog” was also essential. It is a sausage on a stick covered in corn dough and mercilessly fried. The taste takes some getting used to, to say the least, and after consumption, the cholesterol levels are so high that they are beyond measurable.
Historically, Iowa has often been wrong about the outcome
To this day, the myth goes that a preliminary decision can be made in Iowa. A popular example is Jimmy Carter, who ran in 1976 as a largely unknown Democratic senator from Georgia, won in Iowa, and later became president. In truth, Carter didn’t get the most votes. He received more than the competition, yes, but most of the votes went to “not yet decided”.
In 1980 the Republicans won George HW Bush. Ronald Reagan became President, with Bush serving as Vice President. Eight years later, Bush competed again and came third in Iowa. He became president anyway. In 1992, a certain Bill Clinton got just 3 percent of the vote in Iowa. He took the White House by storm a little later.
Incumbent President Joe Biden also failed to win in Iowa. In addition, there were problems with the count in 2020, so that the results were only available a week later, when the whole entourage had already moved on to the primaries in New Hampshire. This is also one of the reasons why the Democrats have decided on a new procedure.
It was always a wild winter week in Iowa. The contestants hired hundreds of helpers and invested tens of millions of dollars in TV commercials. The media swarmed in legion, and it’s hard to imagine any of the state’s 3.2 million residents who weren’t polled at length. For a brief time, they could feel like the center of the world before Iowa sank back into insignificance.
Small consolation: The Republicans will probably continue their selection process in the state. They’re not even unhappy about the Democrats’ decision. Jeff Kaufmann, chief of the state Republicans, said the New York Times According to him, he assumes that his party’s dominance in Iowa is thus cemented. If there was an exciting race for the Republican nomination, Kaufmann said, many eyes would be on Des Moines for a while.
In the book mentioned at the beginning, Bill Bryson writes that a large sign in front of the city reads: “Welcome to Des Moines. This city is like death.” However, he admits, he invented this sign. In fact, it would be an exaggeration to be so harsh on the largely benign capital of Iowa. If only a little.