John,
While the Iowa caucus is extremely important to the presidential nomination process, it’s… kind of a mess. It’s also inherently less democratic or accessible than a primary. Let me explain.
Right now, we still don’t have clear results from yesterday’s first-in-the-nation caucus due to issues ranging from new rules to errors with a reporting app. But even at its core, the caucusing system is deeply flawed.
The Iowa caucus in particular has an outsized impact on the presidential campaigns, yet it does not fairly represent the nation’s diverse electorate: Iowa is 90% white and the only folks who can caucus are those who have the time and privilege to spend hours standing and pitching their candidate.
As a result, people of color, people with disabilities, or those who are low-income and forced to work two or three jobs to get by cannot realistically participate in the process.
It’s about time the Democratic Party ban caucuses for good: add your name to our petition to the Democratic National Committee to call for a more democratic presidential primary process now >>
It’s 2020: there’s no good reason to continue a nomination process that is inaccessible or not fully representative of our diverse electorate. Let’s make voting as democratic as possible and ensure a mess like this never happens again.
Thanks,
--Charles
Charles Chamberlain, Chair
Democracy for America
