Opinion: What’s the Matter with Iowa? Mucho!

*I’ve been asking the same question. Iowa is overwhelmingly white, where mostly evangelicals vote, it’s rural and it’s first to have primary in presidential election years. The point is that Iowa is unlike the res of th country, so why does it have such importance? VL

By Victoria de Francesco Soto, NBC News

AUSTIN, TX — First things first: I have nothing against Iowans. The couple of Iowans I have met have all been lovely. It’s the role of Iowa in national politics that infuriates me. By holding the first electoral contest, Iowa distorts our democratic system and squashes the voice of minority electorates.

The first thing that is the matter with Iowa is its lack of racial and ethnic representation that reflects the nation. Saying that Iowa is no microcosm of the United States is an overstatement.

Iowa is one of the whitest states in the nation at 92 percent compared to the national white non-Hispanic population of 77 percent. Overall the U.S. Latino population accounts for 17 percent but in Iowa they make up less than a third, at 5 percent. African Americans and Asian Americans who nationally make up 13 percent and 5 percent of the population are only 3 percent and 2 percent of the state’s residents.

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