Prior to 1972 the Iowa caucuses were not the presidential testing ground they are today. The caucuses moved to the forefront as a result of legislation passed by the General Assembly which dictated the latest date caucuses could be held (the second Monday in May) but did not limit how early they could be held. In addition to this legislation, the Democratic party of Iowa “added a clause to their party constitution requiring thirty days between party functions,” (Winebrenner 1987). This resulted in January 24 as the latest possible date for the democratic caucuses in 1972, moving Iowa ahead of the New Hampshire primaries.
Iowa’s role in presidential politics is often seen as controversial. The question of why such a small, homogenous state has so much influence is debated every four years. While the caucuses don’t always choose a party’s nominee, they often add momentum to the front runners and weed out the candidates with weaker showings. The democratic party embraced Iowa as an early testing ground with George McGovern’s strong showing in 1972 and Jimmy Carter spending a large amount of time in Iowa to claim an early win in 1976. More recently, Howard Dean’s campaign began to fail after a weak showing in the 2004 caucuses and Barack Obama surprised everyone with an early Iowa win in 2008, which many believe gave him the momentum to win the party’s nomination and eventually the presidency. Republicans were slower use Iowa as an early testing ground, but George Bush surprised future president Ronald Reagan with a strong showing in 1980, and dark horse candidate Mike Huckabee’s win in 2008 substantially extended the life of his campaign.
Results 1972-Present:
1972
Democrat (turnout-20,000) – Percent of Delegates
Uncommitted 36%
Muskie (Ed) 35.5%
McGovern (George) 23%
Republican – Percent of Delegates
No Race
1976
Democrat (turnout-38,500) – Percent of Delegates
Uncommitted 37%
Carter (Jimmy) 28%
Bayh (Birch) 13%
Harris (Fred) 10%
Udall (Mo) 6%
Shriver (Sargent) 3%
Republican – Percent of Delgates
Very few results. Governor Ronal Reagan challenged incumbent Gerald Ford, but neither candidate campaigned heavily in Iowa.
1980
Democrat (turnout-100,000) – Percent of Delegates
Carter (Jimmy) 59%
Kennedy (Edward) 31%
Uncommitted 10%
Republican (turnout-106,051) – Percent of Delegates
Bush (George HW) 32%
Reagan (Ronald) 29.5%
Baker (Howard) 15%
Connally (John) 9%
Crane (Phil) 7%
Anderson (John) 4%
Dole (Bob) 1.5%
1984
Democrat (turnout-75,000) – Percent of Delegates
Hart (Gary) 16.5%
McGovern (George) 10%
Uncommitted 9%
Cranston (Alan) 7%
Glenn (John) 3.5%
Askew (Reubin) 2.5%
Jackson (Jesse) 1.5%
Republican – Percent of Delegates
None-President Reagan ran unopposed.
1988
Democrat (turnout-125,000): – Percent of Delegates
Gephardt (Dick) 31%
Simon (Paul) 27%
Dukakis (Michael) 22%
Jackson (Jesse) 9%
Babbitt (Bruce) 6%
Uncommitted 4.5%
Hart (Gary) .3%
Republican (turnout-108,806) – Percent of Delegates
Dole (Bob) 37%
Robertson (Pat) 25%
Bush (George HW) 19%
Kemp (Jack) 11%
du Pont (Pete) 7%
1992
Democrat (turnout-30,000) – Percent of Delegates
Harkin (Tom) 76%
Uncommitted 12%
Tsongas (Paul) 4%
Clinton (Bill) 3%
Kerrey (Bob) 2%
Brown (Jerry) 2%
Republican – Percent of Delegates
None-President Bush ran unopposed.
1996
Democrat – Percent of Delegates
None-President Clinton ran unopposed
Republican (turnout-96,451) – Percent of Delegates
Dole (Bob) 26%
Buchanan (Pat) 23%
Alexander (Lamar) 18%
Forbes (Steve) 10%
Gramm (Phil) 9%
Keyes (Alan) 7%
Lugar (Dick) 4%
2000
Democrat (turnout-61,000) – Percent of Delegates
Gore (Al) 63%
Bradley (Bill) 35%
Republican (turnout-86,440) – Percent of Delegates
Bush (George W) 41%
Forbes (Steve) 30%
Keyes (Alan) 14%
Bauer (Gary) 9%
McCain (John) 5%
Hatch (Orrin) 1%
2004
Democrat – Percent of Delegates
Kerry (John) 38%
Edwards (John) 32%
Dean (Howard) 18%
Gephardt (Dick) 11%
Kucinich (Dennis) 1.3%
Republican – Percent of Delegates
None-President Bush ran unopposed.
2008
Democrat – Percent of Delegates
Obama (Barack) 38%
Edwards (John) 30%
Clinton (Hillary) 30%
Richardson (Bill) 2%
Biden (Joe) .9%
Uncommitted .1%
Dodd (Chris) .02%
Republican (turnout-118,411) - Percent of Delegates
Huckabee (Mike) 34.4%
Romney (Mitt) 25.2%
Thompson (Fred) 13.4%
McCain (John) 13.1%
Paul (Ron) 10%
Giuliani (Rudy) 3.5%
Hunter (Duncan) .4%
2012
Democrat-Percent of Delegates
None-President Obama ran unopposed.
Republican (turnout-122,255) – Percent of Delegates
Santorum (Rick) 24.6%
Romney (Mitt) 24.6%
Paul (Ron) 21.5%
Gingrich (Newt) 13.3%
Perry (Rick) 10.4%
Bachmann (Michele) 5%
Huntsman (Jon) 0.6%
2016
Democrat – Percent of Delegates
Clinton (Hillary) 49.86%
Sanders (Bernie) 49.57%
O'Malley (Martin) .57%
Republican – Percent of Delegates
Cruz (Ted) 27.65%
Trump (Donald) 24.31%
Rubio (Marco) 23.1%
Sources:
Apple, Charles. “Turnout at the Iowa Caucuses.”
Des Moines Register, February 07, 2000: 8A.
Rudin, Ken. History May Not Help Figure Out Iowa : NPR.
December 12, 2007. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17167964 (accessed February 06, 2009).
Winebrenner, Hugh. The Iowa Precinct Caucuses : the Making of a
Media Event. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1987.
Des Moines Register: Iowa Caucuses. http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com (accessed February 29, 2012).