9.13.2019

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An independent student newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890

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09.13.2019 Vol. 220 No. 014

Iowa’s caucuses still influential in nominations

FRIDAY

COURTESY OF BIRTH OF THE CY-HAWK

BY JAKE.WEBSTER @iowastatedaily.com Iowa has maintained a high-degree of influence in presidential politics for decades. Since reforms were implemented to party primaries in time for the 1972 Iowa caucuses, Iowa has given its say first in deciding presidential nominees. The 2020 election features the biggest primary field of all time — with 27 major Democrats declaring their candidacy, seven have pulled out of the race. Only two Democrats have ever won their party’s nomination without winning the Iowa caucuses: former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis in 1988 and former President Bill Clinton in 1992, when the state went uncontested with Iowa favorite son former Sen. Tom Harkin in the race. The record field of candidates have cumulatively visited Iowa more than 1,000 times, though with the size of the field, the influence of the caucuses on deciding the nominee could be diminished. President Donald Trump faces three primary challengers: former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, former Rep. Joe Walsh and former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. Iowa will hold Republican caucuses in 2020 as well, though Trump leads his rivals by massive margins. In the 2016 race, eventual nominee former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton eked out a very narrow win in the caucuses over Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Despite a loss in the next state to vote in the calendar, Clinton’s victory was all but assured following her runaway wins in South Carolina and on Super Tuesday. “As long as Iowa stays first in the nation [to vote] I think there’s a good chance [the caucuses] will remain influential,” said Mack Shelley, Iowa State professor and chair of the political science department. Since former President Jimmy Carter’s victory over the candidates in the 1976 Iowa Democratic caucus, the caucuses have been perceived as the Democratic primary’s “kingmaker.” However, Shelley said Iowa helps the “winnowing” process. A popular saying is there are three tickets out of Iowa, meaning three presidential candidates have a good enough caucus night to move beyond the state in the primary process. That does not seem likely to change currently, with only three candidates above the 15 percent threshold in most public polls. In order to receive delegates, a candidate needs to receive 15 percent of votes from caucusgoers, and only Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and former Vice President Joe Biden clear that threshold. “What originally was the better part of two dozen presidential candidates for the Democrats this year, only one of course winds up getting the brass ring,” Shelley said. “They’re not all still active, but somewhat on the order of 20 of them and Iowa basically is going to be about the business of sorting that out.”

New film shares story of rivalry BY MATT.BELINSON @iowastatedaily.com When Iowa State takes on in-state rival Iowa on Saturday, the reasons for the passion around the rivalry don’t need to be explained. With no professional sports franchises in Iowa, college football reigns supreme above all other sports in the state, making the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk football game the must-watch event of the year in the state.

WE ACCEPT

4 locations in Ames and Story City

However, when the ball is kicked off and the trashtalking ensues in the stands on Saturday, there will be a large majority of Iowans who grew up on both sides of the rivalry for their entire lives, not knowing the game they grew up watching was nearly gone forever and did not have a proper trophy to go with it. The story of the men who saved the Cy-Hawk series and gave the rivalry it’s famous trophy is not

CYHAWK

99

PG12

¢

Blizzard

When you buy one at regular price expires 12/31/19


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