events 2008

The Iowa Convention center, which hosted the caucus [AP Images]

U.S. Elections 2008: Iowa Announces the First Victory

January 4, 2008

Iowa hosted the first nominating event of the presidential election on Thursday, January 3. Candidates usually hope that a win in Iowa will propel them to victories in other states.

The Democratic victor in the Iowa caucuses was Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, a first-term Democratic senator trying to become the nation’s first African-American president.

Barack Obama [AP Images]

Obama gained 38 percent of the vote and pushed Hillary Rodham Clinton to third place in the crucial opening test in the race for the 2008 Democratic nomination. A former senator from North Carolina, John Edwards had 29.8 percent of the delegates’ support and came in second.

"We are choosing hope over fear. We're choosing unity over division and sending a powerful message that change is coming to America," Obama said.

Mike Huckabee  [AP Images]

Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee scored highest in the Republican race, finishing with 34 percent ahead of Mitt Romney, who got 25.4 percent of the vote. "A new day is needed in American politics, just like a new day is needed in American government. It starts here, but it doesn't end here," Huckabee said.

The 2008 campaign is the most open presidential race in more than 50 years, with no sitting president or vice president seeking their party's nomination, and the Iowa contest was the most hotly contested in the state's history. 

The next contest will take place in New Hampshire on Tuesday, January 8.

This year’s condensed primary election calendar should see the nominees for the November poll selected by February 5, which has been called 'Super Duper Tuesday' because a grand total of 23 states are voting on that day.