1992 Presidential Primary Calendar

January

January (late): Hawaii Republican precinct caucuses

January - March: North Dakota Republican precinct caucuses

January - May: Virginia Republican local meetings

February

Sunday, February 2:
Nevada Republican caucuses (through February 29)

Monday, February 10:
Iowa caucuses (both parties)

Tuesday, February 18:
New Hampshire primary

Sunday, February 23:
Maine caucuses (both parties)

Tuesday, February 25:
South Dakota primary

March

Monday, March 2:
Alaska Republican caucuses

Tuesday, March 3:
Colorado primary
Georgia primary
Idaho Democratic caucuses
Maryland primary
Minnesota Democratic caucuses 
Utah Democratic caucuses 
Washington Democratic caucuses

Thursday, March 5:
North Dakota Democratic caucuses (through March 19)

Saturday, March 7:
Arizona caucuses (Both parties, but the GOP caucuses had no presidential preference. Those
    delegates selected at those caucuses went to the state convention -- 5/10/1992 -- where national
    convention delegate allocation took place.)
South Carolina primary (party-run)
Wyoming caucuses (Both parties, but Republicans meet through March 11)

Sunday, March 8:
Nevada Democratic caucuses

Tuesday, March 10:
Delaware Democratic caucuses
Florida primary
Hawaii Democratic caucuses
Louisiana primary
Massachusetts primary
Mississippi primary
Missouri Democratic caucuses 
Oklahoma primary
Rhode Island primary
Tennessee primary
Texas primary (& Democratic caucuses)

Tuesday, March 17:
Illinois primary
Michigan primary

Tuesday, March 24:
Connecticut primary

Tuesday, March 31:
Vermont caucuses (both parties)

April

April - May: Hawaii Republican regional caucuses

Thursday, April 2:
Alaska Democratic caucuses
North Dakota Republican convention (through April 5)

Tuesday, April 7:
Kansas primary
Minnesota primary (Republicans only)
New York primary (Republicans had no presidential preference on ballot; just delegates)
Wisconsin primary

Saturday, April 11:
Virginia Democratic caucuses (& April 13)

Tuesday, April 14:
Missouri Republican caucuses

Monday, April 27:
Utah Republican caucuses

Tuesday, April 28:
Pennsylvania primary

May

Tuesday, May 5:
Indiana primary
North Carolina primary
Washington, DC primary

Saturday, May 9:
Delaware Republican convention

Sunday, May 10:
Arizona Republican convention

Tuesday, May 12:
Nebraska primary
West Virginia primary

Tuesday, May 19:
Oregon primary
Washington primary (Republicans only)

Tuesday, May 26:
Arkansas primary
Idaho primary (Republicans only)
Kentucky primary

Friday, May 29:
Virginia Republican convention (through May 30, no formal process for presidential preference)

June

Tuesday, June 2:
Alabama primary
California primary
Montana primary (Democrats only)
New Jersey primary
New Mexico primary
Ohio primary

Tuesday, June 9:
North Dakota primary (beauty contest for both parties)

July

Thursday, July 9:
Montana Republican convention (through July 11, no formal process for presidential preference)

[Primaries in bold; Caucuses in italics]

*States that are split vertically had different dates for different party contests. The shade to the left of that line corresponds with the month in which the Democratic contest took place and the right side represents the Republican contest.

[Source: Congressional Quarterly and news accounts from 1992. The latter was used to double-check the dates or discover missing ones.]

A few notes:
1. This map has been altered slightly from the one that was in the chronological slideshow previously. The reason for this is that I wanted to add in the dates of the Republican primaries and caucuses as well. I touched on this in the calendar post for 1984, but didn't account for the uncompetitive Republican contests that year because the data were harder to come by. For 1992, I was able to track those dates down. The result is a lot of split states.* And though these uncompetitive Republican contests don't factor into my specific research question regarding frontloading, their movement from cycle to cycle could open the door to an alternate set of questions.

2. The frontloading witnessed in 1992 was a product of, similar to the situations in 2004 and 2008, the window being widened to allow for earlier contests. In 2004 that meant February contests, but in 1992, national party rules allowed for contests to take place during the first week in March. Furthermore, Iowa and New Hampshire were joined in 1992 by South Dakota and Maine as states exempted from the Democratic Party's window rule (No contest could be held before the first Tuesday in March unless exempted by the party.).

3. Several states made the transition from caucus to primary in 1992. Though, oddly enough, none of them stuck. Colorado, Kansas and Minnesota all were previously caucus states, were primary states in 1992 and by 2004 were all caucus states again. Those 1992 shifts were countered by the opposite move in a couple of border/Southern states. Both Missouri and Virginia went from being primary states in 1988 -- for the Southern Super Tuesday -- to being caucus states in 1992. South Carolina, on the other hand, moved to a primary in 1992 and in the case of the Republican Party has kept that primary in place ever since.

4. And what about frontloading in 1992? Compared to 1988 there wasn't that much movement forward on the calendar. South Dakota, with its exemption, jumped the most -- from June to February -- but, on the whole, the '92 cycle was marked by backloading more than frontloading. Several Southern states reverted to prior positions (Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, North Carolina). The frontloading that did take place was much less pronounced, movement measured in weeks instead of months (Colorado, Georgia and Maryland). The result is that this calendar is essentially equally as frontloaded as 1988 if not slightly less so.

5. The Republican contests were difficult to nail down in some cases. The map reflects the point at which the earliest step in the process occurred. So though Hawaii, North Dakota and Virginia didn't allocate delegates until their conventions, there were early (and staggered) meetings that took place in January.


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