Category: Iowa Caucus

The Iowa Democratic Party has released additional information and numbers from the Iowa Caucus held on February 5. While the vast majority of precincts did not break into preference groups for the governor’s race or congressional races, some did, and we now know how some of those turned out. Overall, the party reports that 4,944 delegates were elected on caucus night, 82% of which have had their names entered into the party’s database. Only 109 precincts broke out into preference groups, which account for 6.49% of all precincts. Some of those precincts were larger than others, however, and 582 delegates were […]

A guest post from Mark Masterson (pictured on the right) I would like to introduce myself.  I’m Mark Masterson, and Monday was my first caucus experience as a Democrat. I work as a state employee (a correctional officer) at the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility, and after I saw what the Republicans at the Capitol did to public employees last session, I changed my party affiliation from Republican to Democrat. With that said, I’m new to being involved in politics at any level, but was excited to get the Governor’s race started and wanted to get involved so my voice was […]

It was, for the most part, the Cathy Glasson party last night at the Meredith Middle School caucus location in Des Moines. Although many caucus goers chose not to outwardly show support for a gubernatorial candidate, Glasson’s volunteers were well-organized, nor shy about their support for her. Glasson’s volunteers in each of the three precincts Starting Line attended at this caucus location all elected to join preference groups, seeming well-versed on the guidelines regarding the process. This process, although, wasn’t terribly popular in Des Moines’ Precinct 15. 32 adults and one soon-to-be 18-year-old sat in a small classroom, grouped together […]

You might say that weather conditions for tonight’s Iowa precinct caucuses were less than ideal, but precinct caucus rooms were still packed with enthusiastic Democrats across the state. As of 11:30 p.m., with 80% of their precincts reporting, the Iowa Democratic Party had a “soft report” of 8,599 attendees. They expect that number to top 9,000 once the remaining precinct information is sent into headquarters (Starting Line will update this as more is known). That total already tops the turnout for the off-year caucuses in 2010 (about 5,000 people) and 2014 (about 6,500 people) – and those years didn’t have six […]