The case for a single-day national primary

Primary season is drawn out and pointless. Let's boil it down to one day, and no more.

A calendar.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Ramziya Abdrakhmanova/iStock, Screenshot/Amazon, omyos/iStock)

I cannot be the only person who has a hard time believing that the Iowa caucus is less than a month away. Not just because we are still in the middle of impeachment proceedings brought against a first-term president running for re-election, but because, with the exception of John Delaney (Google him), none of the candidates seem to be taking Iowa very seriously this year. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, for example, has been in Texas; Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has been in New York (which doesn't hold a primary until the end of April). Former Vice President Joe Biden is busing surrogates around the Hawkeye state. Meanwhile, Michael Bloomberg is simply pretending that Iowa and New Hampshire don't even exist.

This is a significant break from tradition. In past cycles many candidates have spent 100 or more days in Iowa in advance of the nation's first nominating contest. In 2008, then-Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) actually moved with his family to a home in west Des Moines. (In his only official attempt at securing his party's nomination, Dodd polled as high as 2 percent and received no delegates.) Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) made a point of visiting each of the state's 99 counties at least once. A rite of passage for younger journalists is spending the better part of a week at least attending events like the Iowa Pork Congress watching Carly Fiorina tangle with animal rights activists.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.