On Air Now

Monmouth professor and radio host Robin Johnson sounds off on Iowa caucuses

Today is the long awaited Iowa Presidential Caucuses, the first major electoral event in the process of the Democratic and Republican parties selecting their nominees for President.

Robin Johnson is a political science professor at Monmouth College and the host of Talking Politics, a radio show broadcast on KBUR in Burlington, Iowa.

Johnson says the nature of the caucuses where citizens have to show up at an event to declare their support for a candidate tends to attract fewer participants but than a traditional primary but the ones that do turn out are more politically active.

Johnson tells Galesburg Morning News on WGIL that the concentration of candidate focus on the state as the first primary contest is overall a positive.

“There are critics of that certainly, claiming that Iowa isn’t as diverse as other states and perennial calls to move it, but I think it’s serves a pretty good purpose of forcing candidates to come and meet with people face to face instead of just doing TV ads,” Johnson says.

He also says the number of caucus goers will give an indication of who will come out on top.

“It’s going to come down to who comes out to vote. If the larger turnout comes out for both parties, that’s going to improve the odds for Sanders and Trump winning.”

Illinois will hold their primary on Mar. 15, the same day as Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Missouri.

Recommended Posts

Loading...

Share Contact

contact-chris-mcintyre-qr-code