I searched on google what it is but the way it explains just isn’t grasping with me.
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Imagine a caucus is like when your class decides something by getting into groups. Let’s say your class wants to pick a movie for movie day. Instead of voting on a piece of paper, everyone who likes the same movie goes and stands together in different parts of the room. Each group tries to convince others to join them, and maybe even some people switch groups. In the end, the movie with the biggest group of kids gets picked. That’s kind of what people do in a caucus to decide which person they want for an important job, like being president! They get together, talk, and stand with the group that supports the person they like.
There are many meanings of caucus, but I will focus first on one of the (several) political meanings, as in “the Iowa caucuses.”
Some states, Iowa most prominent among them, vote for candidates in intra-party candidate selection not through a primary (statewide voting like an election) but through caucuses. Each caucus is, essentially, a meeting of the voters in a precinct to decide which candidates gets the votes from their precinct. The details depend on the state so i won’t focus too much on Iowa, but it can be “we just vote in personal groupings and tally the votes statewide” to “we all meet and argue and then there are runoffs, and the most votes wins the precinct,” etc. Caucuses stand out in US campaigns because Iowa is the first state to vote on candidates, and because one must show up in person to a local event that can last a while, so turnouts are often limited (who has the time?) and personal connections with the candidates and other supporters often matter more. For example, everyone sees how you vote in an Iowa-style caucus, and your ballot is not secret. That leads to different pressures on voters.
A secondary meaning of “caucus” in politics is a subgroup of a larger body. For example, the Black Congressional Caucus is a group of black elected congresspeople who meet together to discuss issues relevant to them as a group, as distinct from their party identity.
A tertiary common meaning of “caucus” in politics is to participate in a party during deliberations. For example, Bernie Sanders is an independent who “caucuses” with the Democrats, meaning that he participates in their meetings, gets assigned committees as if he were one of them, etc.
“Caucus” has entered corporate-speak and even common language as a synonym for “meet,” meaning both “we’ll deliberate internally” and “we’ll meet with a counterparty.”
Language is fun.
It’s a very old fashioned way of doing a presidential primary.
In a “primary” election things run much like a normal election. Show up and vote on the day of the vote, at the end of the day the votes get counted and a winner announced.
In a primary, you show up AT A SPECIFIC TIME AND PLACE. A hands up kind of vote is taken, then everyone leaves. There’s no ballots, there’s no showing up at noon to vote early. It’s very much a “all the people in the room right now, do a show of hands”.
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