Iowa is the state where the first shot for the election year is fired. In this state, the two major political parties traditionally hold caucus meetings early on to representatives for the upcoming elections. However, this year, only the Iowa Republican Party will hold a caucus on January 15th. The Democratic Party will their candidates through a mail ballot and plan to announce the results on March 3rd.
Caucuses differ from primaries since voters need to attend in person, declare their candidate choice publicly, and listen to candidate representatives speak before voting. The Iowa Republican Party will hold the caucus at around 1,700 locations across the state. Only voters over 18 and registered Republicans can participate.
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| Mr. Trump bought pizza for Iowa firefighters, January 14, 2024. Photo: AFP |
Voting results at each location will be sent to the Iowa Republican Committee. Final results are announced after the counting process is completed, usually within a few hours. With the caucuses format, voters will not be allowed to vote remotely. This has drawn criticism because it could exclude voters who cannot attend because of work commitments or disabilities.
The Iowa Republican Party will have 40 delegates to the Republican National Convention Center, where candidates will be elected to represent the party.
Each candidate in the party's nomination race will receive a certain percentage of these delegates based on their respective vote share.
The Republican nomination race currently has four main candidates including former president Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
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| Former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley campaigned in Iowa, January 13. Photo: Reuters |
Mr. Trump currently dominates the Republican race and his campaign claims that they are aiming for an overwhelming victory in the caucuses.His main opponents in Iowa are Mr. DeSantis, who seeks to appeal to voters on cultural issues, and Ms. Haley, who focuses on abortion and foreign policy.
Although the number of delegates in Iowa only accounts for about 1% of the total number of delegates attending the Republican National Convention in July, the caucus in this state is still highly valued by candidates.
The Iowa caucuses are viewed as the first test for a candidate's campaign message and appeal. Candidates with poor results may decide to withdraw from the race. Nonetheless, previous elections have shown that the winning candidates in the Iowa caucus are not always the ones who ultimately win the party's nomination.
Mr. Trump is an example. In 2016, he was second place behind Senator Ted Cruz in Iowa, but in the end, he still became the official candidate of the Republican Party. His two predecessors who won the Republican nomination did not win in this state.