DNC leader calls for ending presidential caucuses like Iowa’s

The head of the Democratic National Committee says 2020 should be the last time that caucuses are part of the presidential nominating process.

Tom Perez made the comments during an interview with the Associated Press on Monday, but he did not directly mention Iowa’s Caucuses, which have been the lead-off contest in presidential campaigns for decades.

Iowa Democratic Party chairman Mark Smith said Iowans will “fight like hell” to retain their Caucuses. Smith also has suggested that while Joe Biden lost Iowa’s Caucuses in 2008 and 2020, Biden will be “an ally” of Iowa’s Caucuses if he wins the presidency.

“He was on a ticket that carried this state twice with President Obama,” Smith said during a recent appearance on “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS.

According to Smith. there will be no vote this week during the Democratic National Convention on how the 2024 presidential contest should be scheduled.

Iowa Republican chairman Jeff Kaufmann said on “Iowa Press” that there’s “no internal agitation” about the first-in-the-nation status of the Iowa GOP’s Caucuses and he doesn’t expect the issue to be raised during next week’s Republican National Convention either.

“There will be no errant rules or resolutions or brainstorms on the part of any state that will try or attempt to supplant Iowa,” Kaufmann said. “…President Trump has stated absolutely there’s no wiggle room, that if he’s re-elected Iowa will be first in 2024.”

On July 24, Smith said indicated the party’s review of what went wrong with the smart phone app for reporting February’s Iowa Caucus results will be released “in the coming weeks,” but offered no other time frame.

— Radio Iowa

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