The parties conducted their caucuses in slightly different ways. Democrats elect county convention delegates reflecting their presidential preferences, discuss platform issues and elect precinct leaders. Republicans elect precinct leaders, hold a straw poll for president, elect delegates to the county conventions and consider platform issues. After Iowa and New Hampshire, Democrats turn their attention to an unprecedented mountain of primaries from New York to California on March 7. Republicans will compete in several states before March 7, including Delaware on Feb. 8, South Carolina on Feb. 19 and Arizona and Michigan on Feb. 22.
Most candidates see Iowa as a tempting jumping-off point.
Jimmy Carter was a little-known Georgia governor when his 1976 Iowa campaign catapulted him onto the national scene and put the caucuses on the political map. Since then, Iowa has been an important but often unreliable barometer of presidential mettle. For every eventual nominee who has won Iowa Republican Bob Dole in 1996 and Democrat Walter Mondale in 1984 the state has yielded many more surprises. But Bush's momentum dissipated in a high-stakes debate there and Reagan went on to the nomination. All Rights Reserved.