Dems pick South Carolina to lead 2028 primary calendar
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 voted Friday to make the Palmetto State the first contest in the 2028 primary calendar.
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, meaning Iowa will not be an early state in 2028 after leading the calendar for decades through 2020. New Hampshire, which has gone second on the nominating calendar in most past cycles, finished a distant third in voting to be Democrats’ first primary state.
Michigan, Nevada and New Hampshire were approved to be the next three states on the voting calendar, though DNC officials did not immediately determine their order.
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.
South Carolina, which President Joe Biden elevated to the top spot in 2024, surged to the fore again as Democrats looked for ways to amplify the voices of a voting bloc that’s long been one of their core constituencies after the Supreme Court’s Callais ruling.
Some Democrats pointed to South Carolina’s role in propelling 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 Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party. “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.
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.