Iowa Democratic Party chairman Troy Price has resigned in the wake of systemic failures in the Iowa Caucus.
Price will likely be replaced by State Representative Mark Smith, the current minority leader in Iowa’s House of Representatives. Smith will stay on as interim chairman until a more permanent replacement can be found.
“The fact is that Democrats deserved better than what happened on caucus night,” Price wrote to the State Central Committee. “As chair of this party, I am deeply sorry for what happened and bear the responsibility for any failures on behalf of the Iowa Democratic Party. While it is my desire to stay in this role and see this process through to completion, I do believe it is time for the Iowa Democratic Party to begin looking forward, and my presence in my current role makes that more difficult.”
The Iowa Caucus was marred by a faulty app intended to report results from local voting precincts up to state levels within the Democratic Party. The delay in reporting caused the final results of the caucus to be released on Sunday, almost a week after the caucus itself.
On Thursday Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez called for a “recanvass” of the results, meaning that party officials would recheck the worksheets from each precinct to make sure results were tallied accurately.
However, in the wake of Perez’s comments one Democratic U.S. representative called for Perez’s resignation, while State Democratic Party officials expressed dissatisfaction with Perez for his perceived willingness to let Price shoulder the blame for the caucus failure.
“Loads of state party chairs are pissed that [Perez] would treat one of their peers like this,” one official told Politico.