U.S. presidential election: what is a "caucus," the first of which takes place in Iowa this Monday?

Romain Rouillard / Photo credit: EUROPEAN UNION / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 17:00 p.m., January 15, 2024

The marathon to the White House officially begins this Monday in the United States. While the country will appoint its new president at the end of 2024, and Joe Biden, the current occupant of the Oval Office, has indicated that he will run again, it is now a question of knowing the identity of his opponent. Among Republicans, former President Donald Trump is the overwhelming favorite to be nominated as the party's nominee.

But before that, several steps, sometimes complex, must be followed. The first one takes place this Monday, January 15 with the Iowa caucus. This meeting consists of organizing meetings between elected officials, members or simple sympathizers of each party. They can take place in gymnasiums, schools, churches or even at the home of one of the participants and always begin with a brief speech by each candidate's representative. A short speech meant to convince undecided participants to join this or that camp.

A vote organised by the local branch of the party

This is followed by a secret ballot on the Republican side, in which participants write the name of their favorite on a simple piece of paper. This procedure differs from the Democrats, where the vote is public. Organized by the local branch of the party (and not by a state, as is the case in a primary), the caucus aims to designate delegates who will participate in the Republican convention in Milwaukee, held next July, where the official candidate of the party will be known.

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Since 1976, the first caucus has been held systematically in Iowa, a small state in the American Midwest. A tradition whose roots date back to 1968. At the time, it was essentially up to the party's senior representatives to nominate the candidate, and the few primaries held here and there did not really weigh in the process. However, that year, the nomination of Hubert Humphrey as the Republican candidate caused discord and major incidents in the country. The latter was in fact the vice-president of Lyndon Johnson, a supporter of the American intervention in Vietnam, at a time when the unpopularity of this conflict among public opinion was beginning to grow seriously.

A first trend

Hence the decision to review the designation system to make it more in line with the wishes of the population. In 1972, Iowa, which opted for a complex caucus to organize, decided to launch the process in January. Four years later, the Democratic Party is aligning itself with this date and it is therefore this state that, every four years, kicks off the race for the White House.

Enough to give it a certain importance in the election. Although it will provide only 40 delegates out of the 2,467 that will make up the Republican convention in Milwaukee, this vote gives an initial trend and takes, for the first time, the temperature of the electorate before the verdict in November. An electorate that is increasingly critical of this voting system, which is sometimes described as archaic and whose votes, which take place without the secrecy of the voting booth, are often singled out. Aside from Iowa, only Wyoming, North Dakota, Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri and Hawaii will hold caucuses this year. Donald Trump, the overwhelming favorite in the polls, called on his voters to mobilize, despite the polar temperatures that have been hitting Iowa for several days.