Iowa will send 41 pledged delegates to the National Democratic convention. Today, the process of choosing those delegates begins.
The media seems to think a candidate must win in Iowa to be viable. That is not necessarily true. While Walter Mondale, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton won in Iowa and went on to get the party's nomination, others got the nomination without winning in Iowa -- like George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Michael Dukakis, and Bill Clinton.
Will there be a clear winner in Iowa this year? There is a good chance there won't be. Four candidates are doing fairly well in the state (Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Pete Buttigieg). It is very possible that those four get the most votes and split the 41 delegates between them.
If that happens, the voting will have to move on to other states to find a race favorite -- maybe all the way to Super Tuesday on March 3rd (when 14 states votes).
