Democrats voted to make South Carolina their first presidential primary state for 2028 — a significant shift from past election cycles, and one that prioritizes a state with a significant Black voting bloc.
The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee on Friday scheduled the Palmetto State’s primary for Jan. 22 and tentatively set the rest of its early-voting calendar in a surprisingly tense voting session. It will be followed by Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan and Virginia.
The decision to choose South Carolina over Nevada, another historic early state in contention for first place, came down in part to concerns about Nevada’s ability to process election results quickly. Democrats said they were also looking to strengthen Black voting power in the South after the Supreme Court significantly restricted the Voting Rights Act earlier this year, which triggered redistricting efforts.
Michigan bested Iowa in the vote to be the Midwest’s early state — a notable departure, as Iowa led the calendar for decades through 2020. New Hampshire, which has gone second on the nominating calendar in most past cycles, got bumped back to third place.
Then, things got tense.
The committee voted to add Virginia and New Mexico to host early-state primaries for the first time. But Democrats also proposed having New Mexico vote on Feb. 15, before Michigan, because Democrats there can’t move their primary unilaterally.
That’s a major departure from a monthslong, widely agreed upon plan from the DNC members to give one of the first four early states to the South, Northeast, West and Midwest. The adopted calendar leaves the Midwest, a crucial region for Democrats’ path to victory in 2028, represented fifth, and sparked frustration from a number of Midwestern members of the DNC.
“We had four regions for a reason, and we should be respecting that,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said during the meeting. “For too long, Democrats flew over the Midwest.”
The proposed calendar will be voted on by the full DNC at its August meeting in Austin.
The slate of early nominating states — and their specific order — will significantly shape the path to victory for the field of Democrats eyeing the 2028 presidential nomination. It elevates the South and Southwest, which boasts large populations of Black and Latino voters, and weakens the voices of Democrats from the Northeast and Midwest.
And it happened partly by accident.
Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said the mid-September deadline to move a state’s primary date caught her and other members by surprise – and ultimately ended up costing Michigan an even more prominent placement.
“The rule was passed last year. A lot of us, because we deal with a lot of things, just forgot about it,” Kleeb said. “We all thought we had until Jan. 15, which would have given more time to do it.”
Dennis Speight, a DNC member from Texas who supported New Mexico getting moved into the early round of states, argued it would have gotten lost if it had been stuck between two larger states.
“We wanted to do mostly smaller states first, and did not want New Mexico, which we spent a lot of time adding to the mix to get to that sixth state, to get lost in that shock,” Speight said after the vote. “If we had sandwiched New Mexico in between Michigan and Virginia, given their number of delegates, New Mexico might have gotten lost.”
DNC chair Ken Martin, who previously led the Minnesota Democratic Party, said he believes Michigan will still play a big role in selecting the next nominee.
“As a proud Midwesterner, I want to make sure that Michigan does not get overlooked,” Martin said after the meeting. “When you think of all the other states and the number of delegates that will come out of Michigan and Virginia compared to the other states, there’s no way they’re going to be overlooked in that process.”
And Dingell said after the vote that Michigan’s role as the first large state on the calendar would prevent it from being overshadowed, adding that presidential candidates “are going to be there, they’re going to have to talk about the issues.”
Friday’s vote was the culmination of months of intense lobbying by some of the top politicians and operatives across the nation’s battlegrounds, a furious effort that played out in public letters and over private drinks and included handwritten notes from New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and literal sweeteners in swag bags of local goods.
South Carolina and Nevada, which in recent years had been third and fourth in the process, emerged as frontrunners as Democrats who’ve long bemoaned the lack of diversity in Iowa and New Hampshire looked for ways to make increased overtures to Black and Latino voters. That desire only grew in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Callais ruling — and prompted Virginia to elevate a second southern state into the early window.
Some Democrats additionally pointed to South Carolina’s role in propelling former President Joe Biden to the nomination in 2020. Biden won the state resoundingly, boosting his then-floundering campaign after underwhelming performances in Iowa and New Hampshire, before racking up huge victories across the Black-heavy South on Super Tuesday that launched him to victory.
“They saved our entire country from Donald Trump,” said Kleeb. “They didn’t just do it in 2020. They’ve done it over and over and over again.”
“Our party must acknowledge this now with actions,” she continued.
A number of potential 2028ers have already visited South Carolina well in advance of the DNC’s meetings. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), and former ambassador Rahm Emanuel have all traveled to the state this year. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) visited the state last summer.
Nevada, a union-heavy battleground state with a diverse electorate and large Latino population, argued it was better positioned for the leadoff spot than reliably red South Carolina — a push backed by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Xavier Becerra, who is running to be the first Latino governor of neighboring California. But some RBC members worried Nevada’s grace period for counting late-arriving mail ballots could delay results and inject chaos into the nominating process from the jump if it was the first state.
New Hampshire and Iowa Democrats decried the proposed calendar, which overturns their premium positions from past cycles.
“The Democratic National Committee’s decision today is wrong for Democrats, wrong for New Hampshire, and wrong for the country,” said New Hampshire Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, and Reps. Chris Pappas and Maggie Goodlander in a statement.
“This is just another example that National Democrats are truly out of touch with voters. Iowa is the center of the political universe right now,” Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart said.
The DNC unsuccessfully attempted to add Georgia to its early window in 2024. Peach State Democrats were candid that their ability to fill a top slot would hinge on whether they were able to flip the governor’s and secretary of state’s offices in November — a gamble RBC members seemed unwilling to make. North Carolina also faced logistical hurdles.
Politics
