Our Chicago: Iowa caucuses, primary process
CHICAGO (WLS) -- The presidential primary season begins Monday with the Iowa caucuses. Since 1972, they've been seen as a testing ground for presidential candidates.
However, a win in Iowa doesn't guarantee success in the primary or in the November presidential election. As ABC News points out, a loss there doesn't mean a candidate won't make it to the White House.
Three candidates who lost the Iowa caucuses became President: Ronald Reagan in 1980, George H.W. Bush in 1988 and Donald Trump in 2016.
The caucuses don't work like the standard, drop a ballot into a box type of voting like many of us may know.
"In Iowa, the caucuses are a gathering of neighbors on the precinct level where people get together and they express their enthusiasm for different candidates," said Craig Sautter, an instructor at DePaul University and author who's written three books on presidential conventions and elections. "The Trump people would go to one corner, the DeSantis people to another and Nikki Haley's people to another. They'd measure how many people are supporting each one."
They also take a secret ballot. The results go to the headquarters.
So are the Iowa caucuses important in another way, than being first?
"Historically, not really," said Dr. Twyla Blackmond Larnell, an associate professor of political science and faculty researcher with the Institute of Racial Justice at Loyola University, "It really just sets the tone for the rest of the campaign. And we get to kind of see who has the most light beneath them at the early parts. And this helps in terms of getting more donors, more sponsors, more endorsements and also bringing along more donors to support you early on which is like a wave, right, the snowball effect. And so, to get more support early on is much, much better than to get it later."
"One thing about these early primaries, people who come in second and third, they're in a sense, they're running for 2028, who's going to be the leader coming out of that," said Sautter.
The first primary will be in New Hampshire on January 23rd. But that's not what Democratic party wanted. They wanted South Carolina to be the first.
"We have seen this happen in the last few primary elections, where both parties have attempted to try and change the schedule of the primaries to gain more traction for their own self," said Larnell, "The Democrats want to move to South Carolina, obviously, because it has a bit more of a diverse population to support the candidates they want to support, the issues they want to support, etcetera."
