Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Resigns in Wake of Caucus Fiasco

Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price resigned Wednesday night, saying in a lengthy letter that his continued “presence in my current role” would only serve as a distraction as the party seeks to move on from the state’s caucus fiasco.

Price’s resignation is effective following the election of an interim chairman on Saturday at a meeting of the State Central Committee.

In a tweet Wednesday night, the state party said its top priority “is bringing this caucus to its completion.”

It went on to say, despite the difficulties arising during the vote count last week, “We have not lost focus. Our eyes are on November.”

In his resignation letter, Price described quitting as “one of the toughest decisions” he’s ever had to make.

“When I took over this party, we were still reeling from a bruising 2016 election cycle. Many people locally and across the country believed that Democrats in Iowa were dead, and that we would never see victories again,” he wrote.

“In the end, we proved the naysayers wrong by flipping seven seats in the Iowa House, winning three statewide seats, and winning three of four congressional seats – sending the first women from Iowa to the House in the process,” he added.

However, the successes of the past did little to ease the distress he felt over the chaos of the past week.

‘There is no doubt that the process of reporting results did not work. It was simply unacceptable,” he wrote.

“It is why I called for an independent review of the decisions and processes that led to this failure. While this process is just beginning, know that the IDP is not the only party to blame for what happened last week. We worked collaboratively with our partners, our vendors, and the DNC in this process, and I am confident the review will be able to determine exactly what went wrong, what went right, and how we can avoid this ever happening again,” he said.

“The fact is that Democrats deserved better than what happened on caucus night. As chair of this party, I am deeply sorry for what happened and bear the responsibility for any failures on behalf of the Iowa Democratic Party,” Price added.

The results from the caucuses were delayed, which the Iowa Democratic Party blamed on an app that was being used by precincts to send results to the state. The party and several news organizations also identified some inconsistencies in precinct reporting, which delayed the results further.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez has said he has no intention of resigning as a result of what happened with the Iowa caucuses, despite calls from some members of the party to do so.

At present, the Iowa results show Buttigieg with a narrow lead over Sanders in the state delegate equivalent count. Both candidates have declared victory, with Sanders arguing he received more total votes than Buttigieg.