They were the first major test of some of the leading contenders for the Democratic Party's nomination as its candidate for the 2004 United States presidential election.

The first to arrive were Dick Gephardt and Howard Dean, who began to make occasional speeches there and started to build an organization.

During 2003, however, Howard Dean began to grow in popularity across the country on a strong anti-war message that appealed to the party base.

On January 10, Howard Dean got a major boost when Iowa's senior Senator Tom Harkin endorsed him.

Dean and Gephardt had been hammering each other with negative advertisements, and both began losing support to revived Edwards and Kerry campaigns.

Shortly before the caucus, Edwards and Kucinich reached an agreement in which they would ask their supporters to back the other camp in any precinct where they lacked the necessary numbers to qualify for delegates.

[3] The deal was widely seen as a blow to the Gephardt campaign, which had expected to pick up the compatibly pro-union Kucinich supporters in such circumstances.

The Iowa caucuses revived the once moribund campaign of Kerry, who proceeded to the New Hampshire primary as one of the front-runners, and ultimately captured the Democratic nomination.