Des Moines (United States) (AFP) - Every four years a political spotlight shines on Iowa as White House hopefuls spend months trudging through its 99 counties, gauging whether they have what it takes to win this all-important battleground.
What makes Iowa special?The Midwestern state, after all, is home to just one percent of the US population, a homogenous and mostly white state in an increasingly diverse nation, and its caucus system is a hot mess.
But it holds the distinction of voting first in the process to select who represents the United States' two major political parties in a presidential election.
This year the crucial campaign test falls on February 3, when the remaining dozen Democratic candidates hope their commitment to this nostalgia-laced heartland will be repaid with a top-three finish.
Amid fierce opposition to Republican President Donald Trump within the Democratic Party, and voters agonizing over which candidate seems most likely to defeat him, Iowa is bracing for what may well be its biggest turnout ever for a single party's vote.
The immensely consequential test features candidates like national frontrunner Joe Biden and senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, along with second-tier candidates like surprise upstart Andrew Yang, who began campaigning in Iowa back in mid-2018.
Debut contest
Iowa is a story of intimate encounters with voters who have grown used to face-to-face chats with candidates in church basements, handshakes and selfies at coffee shops, and campaign pledges made at county fairgrounds.
The state cemented its first-in-the-nation status nearly half a century ago, when the Democratic Party democratized its primary process.
Iowa's organizers, all too aware that their convoluted process needed months to play out, leapfrogged ahead of the small northeastern state of New Hampshire, whose primary had opened the nominating process for decades.
No one took much notice until the 1976 election cycle, when an obscure Georgia governor, Jimmy Carter, barnstormed Iowa and won, catapulting him to the nomination and ultimately to the White House.
Candidates have beaten a path to the state ever since, and a political adage soon emerged about its importance in whittling the field: "There are three tickets out of Iowa," and losers go home.
- Voting with their feet -
Iowa is distinguished by its caucus voting system, a cherished, if convoluted, tradition.
On a wintry night, voters gather in schools, gymnasiums and churches around the state to hear sales pitches of sorts from candidate representatives.There is often debate and handwringing, as caucus-goers commit to the candidate of their choice.
If that candidate fails to reach a predetermined support threshold, usually 15 percent, his or her supporters can re-align with a more viable hopeful.
At the end of the often chaotic affair, and based on the night's final re-alignment, candidates are allocated their proportional share of delegates to the party's national nominating convention in July, where the nominee is finally selected.
Sweeping reforms
February 3 will be slightly different, as the party institutes the most sweeping caucus changes since 1972.
After the bitterly contested 2016 primary race between Senator Bernie Sanders and eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, the party made alterations, including formalizing a paper trail for start-to-finish record-keeping.
Some voters had been turned off by the need to stay for hours amid the horse-trading.Under the new rules, voting is streamlined: those who wish to vote and leave may do so.
Out-of-state Iowa voters meanwhile will be able to attend "satellite caucuses" in places like Washington and Paris for the first time.
Finally, more data will be released than ever before, including the totals from the "first alignment," when voters walk in the door and record their first choice.
