周六，爱荷华州共和党人一致投票决定于2024年1月15日举行总统预选，这是自2012年以来鹰眼州共和党人最早进行初选投票。
爱荷华州共和党主席杰夫·考夫曼说，在与共和党全国委员会主席罗娜·麦克丹尼尔交谈后，他对该州的全国第一地位“现在感到非常安全”。
“很明显，我问过RNC、RNC律师事务所和罗娜本人，他们任命我为该委员会主席，肯定会让爱荷华州再次成为全国第一，”他说。“所以我现在感到非常非常安全，不会有任何国家试图这样做。”
一位策略专家告诉ABC新闻，在共和党候选人在爱荷华州进行了几个月的激烈竞选活动后，宣布了这一消息比以往任何时候都重要.
“最终是候选人决定了这一点，”考夫曼告诉记者。"当他们去年开始成群结队地来到爱荷华州时，出于各种实际目的，他们把爱荷华州作为全国第一已经是板上钉钉的事了。"
当被问及选择马丁·路德·金日作为党团会议日期时，考夫曼说，对爱荷华州来说，“1月15日是最早、最自然的日期”，但对于它发生在联邦假日提出了“好问题”。
“我认为这是一个联邦假日的事实，我认为作为共和党人，我们认为这是对马丁·路德·金遗产的尊重，在这里举行党团会议，当然这两个优势都是我们谈话的一部分。”
在州民主党人选择打破传统后，爱荷华州2024年民主党总统候选人会议的日期尚未确定。修改其主要日历因此，南卡罗来纳州的民主党人将成为全国第一个为民主党总统候选人投票的人。
Iowa Republicans announce 2024 presidential caucuses date
Iowa Republicans voted unanimously Saturday to hold its presidential caucuses on Jan. 15, 2024, making it the earliest Hawkeye State Republicans will cast their primary votes since 2012.
Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said he “feels very secure right now” about the state’s first-in-the-nation status after conversations with Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
“I obviously checked with the RNC, with RNC legal, with Ronna herself, who certainly set Iowa up to be first in the nation again by naming me chair of that commission,” he said. “And so I feel very, very secure right now, that there will be no states [that] attempt to do that.”
The announcement comes after months of Republican candidates campaigning heavily in Iowa, a strategy experts tell ABC News ismore important than ever.
“Ultimately it’s the candidates that have decided this,” Kaufmann told reporters. “When they started coming to Iowa last year in droves, for all practical purposes, they made Iowa first-in-the-nation a done deal.”
Pressed about the selection of Martin Luther King Jr. Day for the caucus date, Kauffman said, “January 15th was the earliest, most natural date” for Iowa but that “good questions” about its occurrence on a federal holiday were asked.
“I think the fact that it is a federal holiday and I think the fact that as Republicans, we see this as honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King in terms of having a caucus here, certainly both of those advantages were a part of our conversation.”
A date for Iowa's 2024 Democratic presidential caucuses has not yet been set after state Democrats opted to break from tradition,overhauling its primary calendarso that South Carolina Democrats will be the first in the nation to cast their votes for the Democratic presidential nominee.
