PHILADELPHIA — The Democratic National Committee on Saturday officially dethroned Iowa and New Hampshire from the status they’ve enjoyed for decades ahead of the presidential primaries, endorsing President Joe Biden’s recommendation for the 2024 calendar.
South Carolina will now give the go-ahead for the Democrats, with Michigan — and possibly Georgia — joining the early states in the biggest shakeup of the presidential primaries in years, while Nevada will finish second.
New Hampshire could go on the same day as Nevada if Republican lawmakers and governor amend a state law. Georgia, too, will need the cooperation of Republican officials to take advantage of the new slot now available to them.
Republicans are sticking to the traditional roles for Iowa and New Hampshire for their 2024 presidential primaries, but Democrats have been seeking more diverse states for years.
“This calendar does what is long overdue,” said DNC President Jaime Harrison. “It puts black voters at the front of the South Carolina process. It keeps Nevada, where Latinos built power… And it adds Michigan, the heart, where unions built this country’s middle class. And Georgia, the vanguard of the new South.”
“The Democratic Party is like America,” Harrison added, “and so is this proposal.”
In the new calendar, South Carolina takes first place on February 3, 2024, followed by New Hampshire and Nevada on February 6, then Georgia on February 13, and Michigan on February 27. when they want.
The party finally exercised the political will to shake up the status quo after Iowa botched their 2020 primary, delaying results for days, and as the state moved further down the Republican column.
However, the calendar is not yet final as it is now up to the states to change their primary dates to comply. South Carolina, Nevada and Michigan have already codified their positions, the others have not.
Democrats of Iowa and New Hampshire objected to the new calendar, warning that opening the calendar to change could cause chaos by inviting other states to try to intrude and hurt Democrats’ electoral prospects in their states. harm.
Iowa Democratic Party chairman Rita Hart said Iowa’s removal will expose the party to accusations that they have “turned their backs on Iowa and rural America.”
The thornier issue, however, is New Hampshire, where a state law requires it to hold its first primaries a week earlier than any other state in the country.
New Hampshire Democrats have asked for more time to come up with a solution, but most Democrats say the writing is on the wall and expect no resolution to the deadlock.
Instead, New Hampshire seems likely to go ahead with an unsanctioned first-in-the-nation Democratic primary, even if it means the party will lose delegates to the Democratic National Convention next year and any candidate who is name on the ballot will face stiff penalties from the DNC, such as being banned from debate stages or losing access to the voter base.
“The DNC intends to punish us despite the fact that we don’t have the ability to unilaterally change state law,” said New Hampshire DNC member Joanne Dowdell. “This will only hurt President Biden in our purple battleground state.”
Democrats may end up with someone like Marianne Williamson, the spiritual author who ran a long-running presidential campaign in 2020, as the most prominent Democrat on the ballot in an unsanctioned New Hampshire primary.
“If President Biden doesn’t file for New Hampshire, it could provide an opening for a rebellious candidate to win the 2024 primary — something no one in this room wants to see,” Dowdell added.
But in a party united behind Biden, there was little sympathy for their plight.
“No state should have a slot to go first,” said Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell, a newly promoted state DNC member.
Those who spoke in favor of the new calendar received much more applause than their Iowa or New Hampshire counterparts.
“All of you, for far too long our party’s nomination calendar has not reflected what this country looks like,” said Georgia Representative Nikema Williams, who is also the chair of the state Democratic Party. “After today, we can proudly say that the voices that have been silenced for far too long have been raised.”