Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker offered a full-throated case for why his state’s primaries should supplant Iowa’s caucuses as the nation’s first presidential nominating contest
Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker on Friday offered a full-throated case for why his state’s primaries should supplant Iowa’s caucuses as the nation’s first presidential nominating contest, repeatedly emphasizing the importance of electoral diversity in the candidate selection process.
“I do not think Iowa should go first,” Pritzker told POLITICO at the 10th annual State Solutions Conference, conducted on the sidelines of the National Governors Association’s winter meeting in Washington.“We have the most diverse state that you could have for picking a presidential nominee,” he said. “We have tech industry. We have agriculture. … We have rural, ex-urban, urban communities all over the state. We have, you know, every swath of different belief across the state of Illinois.
Pritzker is one of several high-profile Democrats who have called upon their party to reassess the order of nominating states after the Iowa Democratic Party botched the reporting of its caucus results this week. Even before the debacle, many Democrats had expressed frustration with Iowa’s lack of racial diversity, charging that it inhibits the campaigns of candidates of color.
“If you’re looking for a state whose people represent the diversity of America, look no further than Illinois. It’s time for the most representative state in the country to be the first in the nation,” Pritzker tweeted Monday night as the outcome of the caucuses remained delayed. The governor reprised that argument Friday.
“Diversity matters, right? And to have these states with no diversity come first, and somehow that's going to decide who's going to drop out?” Pritzker said, adding that moving Illinois to the front of the primary calendar “is the right way to go, and I think we're going to get it done, too.”
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