01/03/2008
History of Iowa Caucuses

With so much attention focused on the Iowa caucuses, does the candidate who takes Iowa, typically get their party's nomination for president?

We take a look back to when Iowa first made it into the political spotlight 35 years ago.

Iowa's been holding caucuses since the 1800s.

But the nation wasn't watching Iowa until George McGovern and Jimmy Carter used the caucuses to grab attention in the first contest of the year.

In 1972, the two main Democratic candidates were McGovern from South Dakota and Senator Edward Muskie.

Muskie won the caucuses, but the media reported it as a loss because he did worse than expected.

McGovern's showing in Iowa is credited with earning him the Democratic presidential nomination.

In 1976, unlikely candidate Jimmy Carter, campaigned heavily in Iowa, ending up with nearly 30 percent of the vote and going on to win the democratic nomination.

In 1980, Carter held Iowa, but Ronald Regan basically ignored the state while George Bush Senior campaigned heavily there, winning the Republican vote.

But the loss in Iowa didn't stop Regan from getting to the White House.

In 1984, former Vice President Water Mondale won the Iowa caucuses and eventually the presidential nomination for the Democrats, but failed to beat Regan in the end.

With no incumbents in 1988, Representative Richard Gephardt of Missouri won the Iowa caucuses, but Michael Dukakis went on to get the Democratic nomination.

This time, Vice President Bush lost Iowa to Senator Bob Dole, but Bush eventually got the Republican nomination.

In 1992, Bush held the incumbent seat and few out-of-state Democrats were willing to compete against native son, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, who took the state in the Democratic caucuses. But Bill Clinton went on to get the nomination.

In 1996, Clinton was the incumbent and Bob Dole won on the Republican side. Clinton went on to beat Dole to serve a second term.

In 2000, Al Gore and George W. Bush won the caucuses for their respective parties and both went on to capture the presidential nominations.

And the last time Iowa held a caucus in 2004; John Kerry won for the democrats, but lost to George Bush in the presidential election.

In the last 9 Iowa Caucuses, just 5 candidates who lost in Iowa were able to go on and get the nomination for president for their party.

Bill Clinton is the only candidate to lose both Iowa and New Hampshire and win the presidency.

For past caucus results click here

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