Iowa. Call it the “Hawkeye State.” Or the “Soybean State.” Or the “Silo State.” Or even the “Caucus State.” But, alas, we have to call it the first state to vote during primary season. That, along with the obsolete electoral college, has to change. The road to the White House shouldn’t be jumpstarted in the “Caucasian State.”
It’s simply not appropriate that a small, largely rural, demographically-skewed state with a quirky process that results in low turnout can have so much influence and impact on something so important as the U.S. presidency. The results of the Feb. 3 caucus will provide outsized momentum for the winner and could undermine candidacies that play better amid more diverse electorates, which is virtually all of them.