DNC Approves New Primary Calendar That Bumps Iowa, New Hampshire
Harold Hutchison on February 4, 2023
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) approved a new calendar for the 2024 presidential primaries Saturday that bumps Iowa and New Hampshire from being the first in the nation, CBS News reported.
The calendar gives South Carolina the first presidential primary election on Feb. 3, 2024, followed by New Hampshire and Nevada on Feb. 6, according to CBS News. Georgia and Michigan, swing states carried by President Joe Biden in the 2020 election, also will move up the calendar, while Iowa is completely out of the early primary window.
Iowa and New Hampshire both have laws that require that they hold the first presidential nomination processes of their kind on the books, which could lead to the DNC stripping them of delegates if they defy the primary calendar, CBS reported Friday. Iowa’s and New Hampshire’s members of the DNC voted against the new primary calendar.
Democratic leaders sought to “diversify” the early primary states in the wake of the 2020 election, which had chaotic caucuses in Iowa that prompted the resignation of Troy Price as the chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party.
South Carolina gave Biden a crucial early primary win in 2020, as his campaign reportedly struggled in other early states.
“As a farmer who lives near Wheatland, Iowa, a town of around 800 people, it is vital that small rural states like Iowa have a voice in our Presidential nominating process,” Rita Hart, chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party, told KGAN in Cedar Rapids. “Democrats cannot forget about entire groups of voters in the heart of the Midwest without doing significant damage to the party.”
Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu called out the DNC for the proposed plan, citing the state’s law.
“Joe Biden and the power brokers at the @DNC in Washington think New Hampshire’s time is up, but it’s not in our DNA to take orders from Washington,” Sununu tweeted.
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