Democratic caucuses On January 3, 2012, the
Iowa Democratic Party held statewide
caucuses to select delegates to the county conventions. Incumbent
Barack Obama ran unopposed. Of the 8,152 county convention delegates that were elected by the caucuses, 8,065 (99%) were for Obama and 87 (1%) were uncommitted. In the floor vote taken at the
Democratic National Convention, 62 Iowa state delegates voted for Obama. The other 3 of the state's 65 allocated votes were not announced. received 739 votes (0.61%). In total, 121,501 votes were recorded, this record was broken in the 2016 election by more than 60,000 votes. However, this total was still far less than the all-time Iowa caucus record in the
2008 Democratic Iowa caucuses, in which 239,000 Democrats voted. The 121,501 votes represent 19.8 percent of active registered Republicans in the state and just 5.4 percent of all Iowans eligible to vote. However, the vote totals of eight precincts were never counted, so the vote totals are not really known. The secret polling results at Republican caucus sites were unrelated to the delegate selection process in 2012, although that has been changed for the 2016 election cycle. If the Iowa 2012 Republican caucuses were regarded as the start of the Republican delegate selection process for the
2012 United States presidential election, the real caucus process was the election of Republican delegates to the county conventions, who would eventually determine the delegates at the state convention in June 2012. This would, in turn, determine the Iowa delegates who would attend the
Republican National Convention in August, 2012. This process rewarded campaign organizations that could not only get supporters to the caucus sites, but get supporters who would be willing to serve as delegates to county conventions and beyond. As a result, Ron Paul was ultimately able to win 22 of the 28 delegates to the national convention and Mitt Romney won the other six. The 2012 caucuses also set a new record for political expenditures, with $12 million being spent, two-thirds of it from "
super PACs" which dominated the campaigns by running highly negative
attack ads. In the August 13
Ames Straw Poll, a traditional
straw poll held in Iowa Republican caucuses, Bachmann narrowly defeated Paul, with
Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty trailing in third. Following his disappointing showing, Pawlenty dropped out of the race. Three candidates' debates were held in Iowa over the course the campaign: one on August 11 in Ames ahead of the straw poll; one on December 10, 2011, in
Des Moines, and one on December 15 in
Sioux City. Several other joint candidates' appearances took place during the caucus campaign outside Iowa. The day after her unsatisfactory sixth-place performance in Iowa, Bachmann announced she was dropping out of the presidential race. Following his low fifth-place finish, Perry initially announced he was "reassessing" his campaign "to determine whether there is a path forward," but subsequently stated that he would continue on to New Hampshire and South Carolina. ==General election==