Countdown begins to 2020: Date of Iowa Democratic caucuses set for Feb. 3

Brianne Pfannenstiel | The Des Moines Register

Iowa is set once again to lead off the Democratic Party's presidential nominating process with its first-in-the-nation caucuses: The Democratic National Committee on Saturday scheduled that party's caucuses for Feb. 3, 2020.

The DNC also approved new recommendations from a panel known as the Unity Reform Commission that are designed to increase voter participation and bring transparency to the caucus process.

"We feel very good about the rules that were passed today and the goals that the DNC has laid out to implement some changes to the caucuses," said Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price.

Price said the goal is for the Democrats and Republicans each to hold their caucuses on the same night in 2020, as they have done for decades. He said he hopes to have more conversations with his Republican counterparts in the coming weeks.

Among some of the changes the DNC approved Saturday: It called on Iowa and other caucus states to increase participation and inclusion of people who are not able to physically attend caucuses.

That's a major departure from the Iowa Democrats' current system, which requires people to physically stand with other caucus-goers who support the same candidate and then move during a "realignment" period.

"The big thing that we were really working with the DNC on and the Rules and Bylaws Committee and the Unity Reform Commission was to establish the goals that (they) want us to meet, but don't tell us how to do it, because each caucus state is different," Price said. "We just said, 'Make sure you put recommendations forward that will actually allow us to come up with the rules that best fit the culture of the Iowa Democratic Party.' And that's what they did."

Price said the party will hold a series of public and online forums to gather feedback from Democrats across the state about how best to implement the new DNC requirements. The state central committee will vote on the plan and submit it to the DNC in the spring, he said.

The ultimate goal: "We want to preserve the spirit of the Iowa caucuses," Price said.