I’m not a caucus naysayer. I’ve gone to caucuses most of my adult life.  I want Iowa to continue to be first in the nation. I think we do a great job. In 2020 the Trumpsters jammed the reporting phone lines delaying the caucus results. The media went wild. It was Iowa’s “Dean scream.”  This didn’t get nearly enough blame or media attention.  Democrats are always afraid to be called sore losers or some other Republican generated insult. Anyway, I was proud of our three representatives who went before the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee to make the case to keep Iowa first.

Chair and state Rep. Ross Willburn, Rep. Jennifer Konfrst, House minority leader, and Scott Brennan, former IDP chair and RBC member, did an outstanding job of making the case for why Iowa should remain first in the nation. Give it a listen if you haven’t yet. Konfrst’s upbeat, determined, high energy style was perfectly suited to the task. Willburn gave an impressive and inspirational closing:

If I could take 30 seconds Mr. Chair, just to say that one of the pictures was a picture of me and the flag in the video of the first Iowa Colored Infantry in the Civil war and that was hand sewn by Black women in Keokuk and Muscatine, Iowa. I’m the great great grandson of a gentleman who fought under that flag and survived a battle in Arkansas, was blinded, came back to the midwest and now his great great grandson is the first Black mayor of Iowa City, the first Black representative in Ames, and now the first Black chair of the Iowa Democratic Party, so I look forward to working with you as we go on (applause).

The Iowa Democrats’ presentation starts at 55:20 and ends at 1:34:20.

The Rules and Bylaws committee will deliberate at their July meeting, then finalize their decision and vote at their August 5th & 6th meeting, with the full DNC voting at the September 8,9, 10 meeting.