J.J. McCullough: Why the Iowa caucuses matter so much in US elections

 

[VIDEO] I suppose this could go under the tag "Shedd School of Pol. Sci."

This video was first uploaded by J.J. McCullough on YouTube in February 2020. I also want to add at around the same time Mr. Beat who did a video about the Iowa Caucuses also uploaded a video about the Iowa Caucuses. You might have seen that on the blog at that time in February 2020. Mr. Beat also appears in the above video.

McCullough did far more coverage of the Democratic side of the caucuses than the Republican side because President Donald Trump basically had the advantage of the incumbency as he ran unsuccessfully for re-election. Get a load of Joe Biden in early 2020 who would become the 46th POTUS speaking in a school gym presumably campaigning in Iowa.

Anyway this goes a bit further in depth about the Iowa Caucus. McCullough during the course of this 20 min. video actually takes a trip during that period into Iowa to visit various events by Democrat hopefuls as former Vice President Joe Biden or Andrew Yang (who's since left the Democratic Party and formed his own political party). He even speaks with a "delegate-in-waiting" for Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar who discusses the process of becoming a delegate to the Democratic Nat'l Convention.

Just look at this video as a Canadian who's observing a Presidential race and the complexities of that. Each state run their own election especially the primary races which are on different days during the spring. Iowa and New Hampshire kicks of the presidential primaries and then by March other states make their own choices. Usually the Iowa Caucuses, New Hampshire primary are followed by primaries in South Carolina and Nevada. Then in March you get Super Tuesday probably by then those Presidential hopefuls who see they have no opportunity for victory drop out. 

Also Iowa and New Hampshire generally show who in both parties will be the likely nominee. It's not 100% foolproof but it's the general rule of thumb and is why they do get the most attention in a Presidential election year.

At this point we're just about to go on two years before we start this process all over again in 2024. We're more than halfway through the term of President Joe Biden.