Book contents
- The Best Candidate
- The Best Candidate
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Presidential Selection: Historical, Institutional, and Democratic Perspectives
- 2 The Historical Development of the U.S. Presidential Nomination Process
- 3 Constitutional Law and the Presidential Nomination Process
- 4 Winnowing and Endorsing: Separating the Two Distinct Functions of Party Primaries
- 5 Simplifying Presidential Primaries
- 6 The Case for Standardizing Primary Voter Eligibility Rules
- 7 Primary Day: Why Presidential Nominees Should Be Chosen on a Single Day
- 8 A Eulogy for Caucuses
- 9 Floor Fight: Protecting the National Party Conventions from Manipulation
- 10 A Better Financing System? The Death and Possible Rebirth of the Presidential Nomination Public Financing Program
- 11 Campaign Finance Deregulation and the Hyperpolarization of Presidential Nominations in the Super PAC Era
- 12 Democratizing the Presidential Debates
- 13 The Influence of Technology on Presidential Primary Campaigns
- 14 Women and the Presidency
- 15 The Nomination of Presidential Candidates by Minor Political Parties
- 16 Reforming the Presidential Nominating Process: A Curmudgeon’s View
- Index
8 - A Eulogy for Caucuses
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 September 2020
- The Best Candidate
- The Best Candidate
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Presidential Selection: Historical, Institutional, and Democratic Perspectives
- 2 The Historical Development of the U.S. Presidential Nomination Process
- 3 Constitutional Law and the Presidential Nomination Process
- 4 Winnowing and Endorsing: Separating the Two Distinct Functions of Party Primaries
- 5 Simplifying Presidential Primaries
- 6 The Case for Standardizing Primary Voter Eligibility Rules
- 7 Primary Day: Why Presidential Nominees Should Be Chosen on a Single Day
- 8 A Eulogy for Caucuses
- 9 Floor Fight: Protecting the National Party Conventions from Manipulation
- 10 A Better Financing System? The Death and Possible Rebirth of the Presidential Nomination Public Financing Program
- 11 Campaign Finance Deregulation and the Hyperpolarization of Presidential Nominations in the Super PAC Era
- 12 Democratizing the Presidential Debates
- 13 The Influence of Technology on Presidential Primary Campaigns
- 14 Women and the Presidency
- 15 The Nomination of Presidential Candidates by Minor Political Parties
- 16 Reforming the Presidential Nominating Process: A Curmudgeon’s View
- Index
Summary
In 1976, the Iowa caucuses launched a Georgia governor and peanut farmer into the White House. In 2008, Barack Obama ran up delegate scores across the country during the Democratic nomination contest in caucus states characterized by high-intensity voting. The presidential caucuses have long been a staple of American democracy. In 2020, however, only three states—Iowa, Nevada, and Wyoming—hosted a presidential caucus. Overnight, the caucuses suddenly became obsolete. This chapter explains how and why this happened.
The major parties have repeatedly tinkered with the presidential nomination process over the past two hundred years. Since the 1968 Democratic National Convention, when rioting over an exclusionary nomination process led to a series of important reforms (primarily to the detriment of caucuses), the major parties have sought to balance ways to include ordinary individual voters in the nomination process while not necessarily excluding the party establishment.
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- The Best CandidatePresidential Nomination in Polarized Times, pp. 174 - 202Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020