New Hampshire Democrats Vow To Fight for Primacy After DNC Kicks Granite State to Third Place in Presidential Nominating Calendar

The Democratic National Committee, seeking to give more racially diverse states in the presidential primary nominating process, have pushed South Carolina and Nevada to the head of the pack, leaving New Hampshire Democrats deciding whether to hold an unsanctioned primary or find another way to the front of the line. The DNC kicked the Granite State to third place in the presidential nominating calendar during its weekend meeting over the 2028 calendar. The party will now hold primaries in South Carolina and Nevada before its New Hampshire primary, which had typically always gone first. The Iowa caucuses have been scrapped from the early window altogether, after the Iowa Democratic Party failed to report the results on the night of the caucuses in 2020, leading to days of speculation about who had actually won the contest. New Mexico, Michigan, and Virginia have been added to the early primary window, holding their primaries in the month of February. The new early calendar schedule was approved by a voice vote at the summer DNC meeting in Texas on Saturday. “The DNC has delivered a 2028 nominating calendar that truly represents our party and our values, and will help us retake the White House in 2028,” DNC Chairman Ken Martin said in a statement after the new calendar was ratified. The party says that the new map will increase the number of black, Hispanic, non-college-educated, and union voters who will participate in the early voting window, which will take place between January 22 and February 29 of 2028. Super Tuesday — the day that a vast number of DNC delegates will be awarded across more than a dozen states — will take place in early March. Despite all of the excitement among ambitious Democratic politicians and activists about the calendar change, the New Hampshire Democratic Party is clearly displeased. For decades, the Granite State has held the first-in-the-nation primary for both Democrats and Republicans, with numerous historic primary performances by candidates who would go on to become their party’s nominee, and in some cases, president. In a statement, the longtime chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, Ray Buckley, said he and his colleagues would continue to fight to ensure that New Hampshire voters would get an early say in the nominating process — the implication being that he may still push to leapfrog South Carolina and hold an unsanctioned primary in mid-January 2028. “The DNC’s decision to change the presidential primary process is disappointing, but our case for New Hampshire remains as strong as ever. There is no other state that better meets the efficiency, rigorousness, and fairness criteria that the Rules and Bylaws Committee established to ensure Democrats elect the strongest presidential nominee,” Mr. Buckley said. “Time and again, New Hampshire has proven we are uniquely suited to battle-test candidates. Our small, purple state gives candidates a level playing field with the opportunity to meet voters face-to-face, answer tough questions, and earn support one conversation at a time,” he continued. “We will continue making the case to ensure that Granite Staters have a meaningful voice in choosing the next Democratic nominee for president.”If it chooses to do so, the state’s Democratic Party has the power to hold its own primary without the national party’s permission, though Granite State Democrats will be on the hook for the bill, which could cost well over $300,000. In July, when the DNC gave preliminary approval to the new calendar, Mr. Buckley said that his state party would adhere to New Hampshire state law, which declares that the state will hold the first presidential primary in the nation, regardless of what the national Democratic or Republican parties do. In 2024, New Hampshire Democrats held their primary as the first-in-the-nation contest, though Mr. Biden did not appear on the ballot because, his campaign said at the time, the Granite State was holding an illegitimate primary beyond the rules of the DNC. Mr. Biden won that primary anyway after supporters launched a write-in campaign, though no delegates were officially allocated at the time. In April of that year, the DNC voted to retroactively allocate New Hampshire’s delegates for the 2024 convention. A similar situation took place in 2008, when the Democratic parties of both Florida and Michigan saw their voting power cut in half to 184 delegate seats between the two states, down from 366 delegate seats after both parties held unsanctioned primaries. Progressive Democrats have long worried about the prospect of putting a state like South Carolina first in the nomination process. Back in 2022 when Mr. Biden first pitched South Carolina as Democrats’ new first-in-the-nation primary, a senior advisor to Bernie Sanders and voting member of the DNC, Faiz Shakir, warned in the New York Times that a state like South Carolina, with incredibly low union membership rates, could hamper a progressive’s ability to break through. According to the most recent polling, Vice President Kamala Harris is still favored to be the 2028 nominee, based on national polling. Poll aggregators report that she leads by low double-digits, around 10 to 12 percent. By moving South Carolina up, however, she is likely to get a major boost in the nominating conversation.The Harvard Harris poll, which many consider to be a gold-standard product, recently found that the former vice president is dominating her competitors among black voters nationally. Black voters make up more than half of the primary electorate in South Carolina. The Harvard Harris poll found Ms. Harris winning 55 percent of the black vote, while Governor Gavin Newsom falls into second place with only 17 percent of the black vote. Many other potential candidates are also jockeying for potential legroom in the horse race. The former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez all fall into the single digits among black voters, according to the poll.

New Hampshire Democrats Vow To Fight for Primacy After DNC Kicks Granite State to Third Place in Presidential Nominating Calendar

New Hampshire Democrats Vow To Fight for Primacy After DNC Kicks Granite State to Third Place in Presidential Nominating Calendar

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