The Democratic National Committee is expected to make some big decisions in the next few days about the presidential nomination calendar. It seems likely that the party will seek to demote Iowa from its role as the first state to select a presidential nominee.
It’s a big change on the surface. Iowa has had first-in-the-nation caucuses since 1972, and Democrats have been fighting about it for almost that long. Now, after DNC committees have considered the matter, we’ll get the final decision about what the party really wants to do.
Ideally, Democrats will push back the Iowa caucuses and give the early slot to a more demographically diverse — and hopefully more procedurally competent — series of states. But making the switch will have less influence on the nomination than people expect, and it comes with risks to the party and to voters.
