DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Democratic Party released their caucus survey results where they asked Iowa Democrats how they would like the state party to move forward with the Iowa caucuses.
“The results of this survey are not surprising and they reflect what I’ve been hearing from my fellow Democrats all across the state,” Rita Hart the Chair of the Iowa Democratic Party said.
750 democrats across Iowa responded to the survey with roughly 65% of them saying Iowa should either be first or part of the early presidential nominating calendar in 2028.
“The bottom line is that Iowans must have an early role in the 2028 Democratic presidential nominating process and our party run process needs to be more accessible and inclusive,” Hart said.
Roughly 74% are in favor of an inclusive caucus with half still wanting some tradition like an in-the-room caucus night.
However, Democrats are divided on going against the Democratic National Committee (DNC) if it chooses to once again exclude Iowa from being one of the early states.
“2028 will really be the test and if we don’t have Democrats having a presidential caucus of some sort, whether they’re going to go rogue or somehow manage to get in to the first group, which I doubt is going to happen,” Tim Hagle a political science professor at the University of Iowa said. “It’s probably going to hurt the Democrats and I think that’s kinda the big takeaway here and I’m getting the impression that some Democrats are starting to understand that now. That normally the caucuses are an incredibly good party building mechanism.”
Iowa Democrats said they are again applying for a waiver to participate in the 2028 early window. After they lost their first-in-the-nation caucuses in 2024.
Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann has criticized Iowa Democrats for not pushing back on the DNC harder.
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“It didn’t take a survey to prove what Iowa Democrats already showed the country,” Kaufmann said. “Rita Hart and her party gave up Iowa’s First-in-the-Nation so they could rig the nominating calendar for Joe Biden and the DNC. Surrendering is easy. Fighting for Iowa is the hard part. I hope this cycle they finally choose Iowa over Washington.”
