Based off of early entrance polls, the percentage of first-time caucusgoers on the Democratic side is lower than the blockbuster numbers that came out for the first time to caucus for then-senator Barack Obama in 2008 and catapulted him to victory.
In the weeks leading into the Iowa caucus, Bernie Sanders’ rise has often been compared to Obama’s in 2008, and political observers have predicted that higher turnout in the Democratic caucus would generally favor Sanders.
Obama owed his victory to the large share of first-time caucus goers. It is not clear so far that Sanders has attracted that same momentum.
CNN reported Monday that entrance polls so far showed that just 41 percent of the Democratic caucusgoers were coming out for the first time. The number is much lower than the 57 percent of caucus goers who were first timers in 2008 when Obama won in a landslide against Hillary Clinton, according to CNN.
