The 2024 Iowa caucuses

Voters in Iowa will head to the caucus locations on Monday, January 15, for the first contest of the Republican presidential primary, kicking off the 2024 presidential election cycle. The political circus is much quieter than in past years, perhaps in part due to President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump’s massive leads in the polls. The caucus results will give one early indication of whether Trump will sail to the nomination, and basically determine whether Ron DeSantis can stay in the race. However, they may not mean all that much for Nikki Haley, who has a better opportunity to break through in the next primary. Monday’s Iowa caucuses includes Republicans only, since Democrats adopted a new primary calendar that no longer puts Iowa first. They’re starting with South Carolina instead for a number of reasons, including the 2020 Iowa vote-counting debacle and concerns that the state isn’t representative of the nation. The caucuses will get started at 7 pm Central. After Iowa, candidates will head into the New Hampshire primary on January 23. Follow here for the latest news, analysis, and explainers, and if you’ve got questions, submit them here. We’ll do our best to answer them in an upcoming story.