Tell Me Why We’re in Iowa, Again?

by Marvin King

Once again, we’ve arrived at that time when America’s political media fawns over Iowan voters. The problem is that this quadrennial tradition is harmful to American politics for a variety of reasons.

First, demographically, Iowa does not resemble the nation. It grew 4% in population size the last ten years compared to nearly 10% for the country as a whole. Its Black population is 2.9% compared to an official national average of 12.6%. Likewise, its 5% Hispanic population badly trails the 16.3% national average. Iowa is older, Whiter, more rural and poorer than the national average.

Iowa’s population of 3 million is a grand total of 1% of the American population.

Do not misunderstand me. Iowa’s citizens are well-informed, passionate, and high participators. But, the outsized-influence that goes to the winner of the first contest means we should seriously reevaluate exactly who gets to decide the early winners.

Absent the media frenzy and door-to-door campaigning, I have never seen any quantitative evidence that Iowa voters know more about politics than citizens of other states. More importantly, Iowans are not necessarily smarter than anyone else, not that there is a way for any state to prove they are the smartest. But, can anyone prove that Iowans are smarter voters than people in other states? Given their outsized influence, what proof is there that Iowa should go first?

I won’t take tradition as an answer. Just because we have done things the same way is not a good enough reason to try something new. By that logic, we would never achieve any scientific innovations and we should stick to the same drudgery, because, well, it is “tradition.” I’ll settle for Iowa if anyone can demonstrate that Iowa getting to go first leads to demonstrably better results.

A better way to kick off the presidential nominating contests is to rotate the first state among four or five mid-size and demographically diverse states wherein the people are actually representative of the average American. States like Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington and Florida immediately come to mind – they are just more representative than Iowa.

I do not know if another state would do a better job than Iowa, but there is only one way to find out.

Marvin King received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of North Texas and is now an Associate Professor of Political Science with a joint appointment in the African American Studies Program at the University of Mississippi. He conducts research into how political institutions affect African American politics. Marvin is available for public speaking engagements and you can follow him on Twitter @kingpolitics 

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