Ok, I think I got it.
Primaries are held in all US states but not at the same time. Iowa is just the first state by historical accident.
Those primaries are more grass-roots democratic compared to the old system where each party held a convention to decide on the nominee for President.
Sounds resonable to me.
So as I understand it, if you as a candidate „drop out“ in Iowa, it is just a bad start and you still can go on until your money runs out or until you realise by the results of other primaries that you lack sufficent support from the party base and give up.
The early Iowa vote then as such has an effect like an election poll, it mobilises voters in the other primaries who feel the Iowa vote went terribly wrong because their candidate did not have good results.
Thank you, Sailor Steve.
__________________
|