President Joe Biden is urging the Democratic National Committee to overhaul the 2024 presidential primary calendar and promote South Carolina, which secured him the 2020 nomination, to be the party’s first-in-the-nation state.
The move would demote Iowa, whose Democratic state party has become mired in controversy since an application it introduced last cycle to help ease the complicated caucus delegate counting process crashed. Democrats have also criticized Iowa’s outsize importance given its lack of demographic diversity.
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In a private dinner Thursday, DNC members were told of Biden’s preference that South Carolina host the first presidential primary election on Feb. 6, 2024, followed by New Hampshire and Nevada on Feb. 13, Georgia on Feb. 20, and Michigan on Feb. 27, according to multiple reports. But in a letter sent to the organization’s Rules and Bylaws Committee that same day, he also supported a reevaluation of the order every four years ahead of the panel meeting on Friday to discuss possible changes.
“Just like my administration, the Democratic Party has worked hard to reflect the diversity of America — but our nominating process does not,” Biden wrote. “For fifty years, the first month of our presidential nominating process has been a treasured part of our democratic process, but it is time to update the process for the 21st century. I am committed to working with the DNC to get this done.”
South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson welcomed Biden’s proposal, praising the president for “not only transforming our country” but also “the way in which we nominate presidents.”
But his New Hampshire counterpart, Ray Buckley, promised to challenge the proposal, contending the DNC “did not give” his state the first-in-the-nation primary and “it is not theirs to take away.”
“This news is obviously disappointing, but we will be holding our primary first,” Buckley wrote. “We have survived past attempts over the decades and we will survive this. Our first-in-the-nation primary has been an integral part of our state’s history for over 100 years, and is enshrined in state law.”
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Biden placed fourth in Iowa in 2020 with six delegates, fifth in New Hampshire with zero delegates, second in Nevada with nine delegates, and first in South Carolina with 39 delegates.
