DES MOINES &#8212 Iowa Republicans on Tuesday moved up the date of their presidential nominating caucuses to Jan. 3.

“With under 80 days to go, this is a huge help to our counties and county chairs to get the ball rolling and start organizing,” Chuck Laudner, executive director of the Iowa GOP, said in a statement.

The announcement came late Tuesday after the state central committee, two national committee members and the party chairman approved the date on a conference call.

Laudner said Republicans will continue to talk with the Iowa Democratic Party, which has yet to fix a date. Democrats are believed to be considering Jan. 3 and Jan. 5 for their caucus. If the Democrats select the latter date, it would mean the first split caucus dates since the 1970s.

The Iowa Democratic Party sent out a statement shortly after the Republicans’ announcement saying the party “is planning for a January caucus that is run professionally and with integrity.”

“We will decide our caucus date based ultimately on what is best for the people of Iowa and the Democratic Party,” the statement said.

The Iowa caucuses had been tentatively scheduled for Jan. 14 for both parties, but to maintain the state’s early status in the face of Michigan and Florida jockeying for January primaries, Iowa leaders have had to do some significant maneuvering.

That’s especially difficult in a state where approximately 200,000 caucus-goers are expected to gather at 1,784 precincts that must be booked and prepped for voting. It also puts more pressure on the candidates and the media, said University of Iowa political science professor David Redlawsk.

“A very early January caucus clearly means that instead of taking a break during the holidays and then having two more weeks to ramp it up, candidates could have no choice, I think, but to be in Iowa Dec. 26 on through,” he said. “I guess we could imagine candidate-based New Year’s Eve parties.”

Laudner said the party still has thousands of volunteers to recruit and “our presidential candidates deserve a set date.”

“This is a definitive year for Iowa, and it is crucial that RPI, the state central committee and our county organizations run a smooth, successful caucus,” he said.

Complicating the presidential primary calendar is that New Hampshire, which is mandated by state law to have the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, has yet to set a date. New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner maintains that he won’t settle on a primary date until other states make their moves.

Gardner has said he wouldn’t hold the New Hampshire primary after Jan. 8, so that’s the timeline the Iowa Republicans worked with, Laudner has said.

Hoping to keep some distance between the two states without going into the holidays, Jan. 3 is the date that appears to work best, and Laudner has said he hopes Democrats will follow suit.