Few People Know The Real Reason Iowa Is The First State To Caucus

What would you say are some of the things Iowa is best known for? Corn. Field of Dreams. The Iowa State Fair. And presidential election season.

Yes, all eyes turn to Iowa every four years during presidential candidate nomination season.

Oleksii Liskonih / iStock Collection via Getty Images Plus

Why? Because Iowa is the first - and perhaps most important - state to decide who will earn the privilege of running in the next presidential election.

belterz / E+ Collection via Getty Images

Yet, as public a claim to fame as this is for the Hawkeye State, few people know why Iowa is the first state to vote (or caucus) for a presidential candidate.

Monte Goodyk / Moment Collection via Getty Images

It all started in 1968. That was a turbulent year for America - the Vietnam War was in its 14th year, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, and Hubert Humphrey somehow won the Democratic presidential nomination without winning a single primary.

Jeff R Clow / Moment Collection via Getty Images

This nomination highlighted some major problems with the election process, and a committee was formed to restructure the voting process, giving the people more say in choosing their presidential candidates.

Henryk Sadura / Moment Collection via Getty Images

As a result, states were required to give voters a certain period of notice before holding a caucus, convention, or election.

Thinkstock / Stockbyte Collection via Getty Images

And since Iowa has an extra complicated presidential nomination process (four statewide caucuses plus county, congressional district, and state conventions), the state needed an extra early start to get everything fit in before the actual election day.

Monte Goodyk / Moment Collection via Getty Images And an extra early start is exactly what the state of Iowa got - the earliest start, in fact, of any of the 50 states.

Did you know how and why Iowa got to be at the forefront of the national presidential nomination process? Here are a bunch more random, unique, and even unbelievable things that the state of Iowa is known for. Who knew that we lived in such a one-of-a-kind state?!