The Iowa GOP sets a January 15 date for the presidential caucuses to take the lead. It was on Martin Luther King Jr Day.
Former President Donald Trump reacts to applause from the crowd during a campaign event on July 1, 2023 in Pickens, South Carolina. The former president faces a growing list of key Republican challengers.
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The Iowa Republican Party has scheduled a caucus to nominate the party’s president for January 15, 2024, putting the first ballots of the next election just over six months away.
The Iowa Republican State Central Committee voted unanimously Saturday to hold the lead races on the third Monday of January — on the federal holiday Martin Luther King Jr.
Although Republican presidential candidates have campaigned in Iowa since last winter, there is still some uncertainty about when the traditional front-runners will be held. That’s partly because the Democratic National Committee changed the election schedule and dropped Iowa as its first run.
The date of the GOP is several weeks earlier than Iowa’s three previous caucuses, though not as early as 2008, when they were held just three days after the new year.
Caucuses, unlike primaries, are contests planned, funded, and conducted by parties, not state election officials. Iowa’s announcement Saturday allows New Hampshire, which has not yet set a primaries date, to defend its first-in-the-nation status enshrined in state law that requires that contest to be held. at least seven days before any other election. elementary school.
Last month, the South Carolina Republican Party approved February 24 as the date for the first traditional Southern primaries, to give Nevada ample time to schedule Republican caucuses without the need to vote. without the crowds of New Hampshire.
Iowa Republican Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said in a statement: “We remain committed to Iowa’s first cherished national caucus and look forward to holding a historic caucus in the coming years.” next month and beat Joe Biden in November 2024.”
Saturday’s decision could have implications for both sides as Iowa Democrats have been waiting for the state’s Republicans to set a caucus date as they try to adapt the DNC’s new rules to the primaries order. president in 2024.
Iowa Democrats have proposed holding a caucus on the same day as the state’s Republicans and allowing participants to vote for the president by mail-in ballot. But the Iowa Democrats said they might not release the results immediately.
That could allow the state’s party to still hold the nation’s first caucus without defying a new primary election schedule endorsed by President Joe Biden and approved by the DNC calling for South Carolina to replace Iowa in leading positions and the start of the voting primaries on February 3.
