Iowa has long been first in the nation when it comes to presidential election caucuses, compelling candidates from both sides to flood the state every four years with glad-handing and promises of continued wealth, and lawmakers in the Hawkeye State intend to keep it that way.
Gov. Terry Branstad said this week he’s “comfortable” GOP nominee Donald Trump would help Iowa maintain its coveted status as first-in-the-nation, but he has his doubts about whether Hillary Clinton would do the same.
She “has an Iowa problem,” the Republican governor and Trump supporter said, referring to the former secretary of state’s past performances in the state’s caucuses.
“She has not made it clear that she supports keeping the Iowa caucuses first,” he said. “Iowa has embarrassed her and Iowa has been a problem for her again and again and again. It’s obvious I think that she’s got an Iowa problem.”
Trump said last month he would make sure Iowa stays first if he is elected president, but it is worth noting the GOP nominee was not particularly pleased during the Republican primary when he came in second in the caucuses behind Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
Hillary for America’s Iowa press secretary, Kate Waters, dismissed Branstad’s suggestion that Clinton wouldn’t support Iowa’s goal of maintaining its leading role in election years.
“Hillary Clinton has and will continue to support Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status,” she said.
Ben Foecke, executive director of the Iowa Democratic Party, added elsewhere, “Gov. Branstad’s ridiculous assumptions are pure partisan games — Hillary Clinton continues to support Iowa’s first in the nation status, period. It appears that our governor has decided to join Donald Trump by embracing conspiracy theories that have no basis.”
Former congressman and current chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party’s caucus review commission Dave Nagle said he’d feel a lot better if Clinton came out herself and pledged to protect the Hawkeye State’s status.
“I think it’s important enough to the state that the candidate herself should address it,” the former lawmaker said Monday.
Maintaining Iowa’s coveted position in the caucasus is a bipartisan concern for lawmakers in the state.
“Iowa state parties in the past have sometimes asked presidential candidates to sign a pledge to keep the caucuses first,” the Des Moines Register reported.
“Both of Iowa’s major parties continue to work together to keep the caucuses the first in the nation. The caucuses also have occasionally become a campaign issue when a candidate’s consistent support for maintaining Iowa’s status has come into question,” the report read.
