If not for Sirhan Sirhan would Iowa really matter in the presidential race? 🌽

It’s always interesting how little quarks of history come to define our culture and legal institutions. The assassination of Robert Kennedy made the 1968 presidential election for the democrats particularly contentious when Hubert Humphrey was designated the candidate by the DNC delegates despite not running in a single primary – while Eugene McCarthy ran in most of the primaries and either beat or was a close second to Bobby Kennedy. A quark in state law made the Iowa caucuses first but none of that really matters until the age of the presidential primaries selection of delegates being key to selecting the nominee for president starting with George McGovern in 1972.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Iowa is a good state, with fantastic soils and dedicated farm families that work the land tirelessly to produce the second largest agriculture crop after California. Great deer hunting and trapping opportunities in that state, good laws for rural living with few gun restrictions or laws on open burning, but very expensive dirt that really yields and feeds a lot of cows and hogs for farm families. But still a very odd choice to decide who should be forerunner in the presidential race when so much of our country is urban today.